Repair with Flair: Sustainable Fashion and Upcycling Workshop

Is this the world’s most sustainable dress? The Tarkhan Dress (Petrie Museum Collection) is the worlds oldest woven garment. 

Explore the environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry, by joining our series of lighting talks featuring research that explores the relationship between fashion and climate change. 

Following our lightning talks event, stay for a workshop (space limited) and put your ideas into practice, by learning to upcycle your clothes! Join this textile embroidery workshop led by sustainable fashion and climate activist Ophelia Dos Santos. No experience necessary, all materials will be provided, but feel free to bring an item to upcycle.

Lunctime Lightning Talk Guest Speakers:

Lucille Junkere is an artist, educator and textile researcher specialising in botanical and ochre pigments, recycling and embroidery. Her research focuses on the legacy of colonisation in African Caribbean textile history, through which she explores themes of loss, grief and cultural reconnection. 

With a single strand of yarn, Peju Obasa hand-crafts imaginative womenswear and accessories that elevates your everyday look. The eponymous London-based knitwear expert mines her Nigerian heritage to create one-of-a-kind pieces that redefine knitwear, embraces individuality and celebrates tradition. Whether a crocheted bag in biodegradable raffia or a clever refresh of Tom Dixon’s famed S Chair in chunky silver Econyl. Peju Obasa was founded in 2019 and has been featured in the likes of Surface mag, Marie Claire & Elle to name a few. The namesake label aims to design and create with a conscious attitude, sustainability is woven into the core off the brand by using eco-friendly materials and encouraging followers of brand to treasure their handmade pieces.

Dr. Onya McCausland is an artist and Lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art where she leads a visual reading group Environment, Ecology, Sustainability. Her work examines the materiality within painting and and how paint itself can be a social tool for making visible distinct ideas that point toward the interdependencies between humans and the environment. Current exhibitions are running at Karsten Schubert London is 51°43 33.56 N  3°07 58.63 W  until 16th October 2021;  Embrace at Norrtälje Konsthall, Sweden; and Landed a current public commission for Fermynwoods located at Rockingham Castle, 2021. She is Co-Director of TurningLandscape CIC, a small paint making facility located in South Wales.   

Solmaz Farhang is a visual artist-researcher based in London. She is a graduate of the Art and Science Master programme at University of Applied Arts Vienna. In her interdisciplinary approaches she investigates the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche along with the interrelations between individuals and societies. She strives to desacralize ignorant beliefs and question society’s prejudices. 

Free. Places for both the talks and workshop are limited, book in advance online. (Talks at 1pm, followed by workshop at 2pm)

To book only the 1-hour lunchtime lighting talks book here.

If you require BSL interpretation or have any special access requirements, please let us know so that we can ensure we meet them as fully as possible. Contact ticketing@ucl.ac.uk when you book. 

This event is part of UCL’s climate campaign ‘Generation One’.  Together we are the new generation taking responsibility for climate action and turning science into actionable ideas. 

 Join our new era of climate action at ucl.ac.uk/generation-one