May 31, 20222 min read

Taslima K at Never Fade Factory

Taslima K decided step off the conventional runway for London Fashion Week and produce her latest collection 'Addict' as a live studio installation. She brought together a team of students, which I was grateful to be part of, from all across London to create a collection in just 5 days, at the Never Fade Factory, a creative space for a range of artists in Soho, London.

The collection “Addict” was crafted to deliver a solution to the global issue of fast fashion and waste. Taslima used off-cuts from her previous collections and recycled garments, to tackle the mission of zero waste and prevent the cycle of fashion dump impacting on climate change.

The first day of fashion week, Taslima and the team created a vision board, as seen below, and a collection of designs illustrated by the students. The inspiration was hip-hop culture, especially from the 90s and 80s. Additionally, a bold contrasting colour scheme displayed an array of mix and match fabrics. This was clearly highlighted in the vision board and designs. The designs were later narrowed down by Taslima by creating a collection based on the designs drawn by the students merging with her own vision for the collection.

The next few days, the students and Taslima started to pattern make the design and slowly turn these designs into reality. I had the pleasure of creating the trouser and skirt, which firstly involved creating panels for the skirt and then sewing these together to create textiles for the skirt. Once the trousers were made from scratch, I attached the skirt to the waistline. A brand-new product was created thus solely from old cut-offs, preventing any waste in the process.

Several pieces like this were created by the rest of the team, as seen below. All of these items, though made in five days, required time and hard work to design and create. The entire collection raises awareness about the global climate crisis, while also demonstrating how to solve this through zero waste and an eco-conscious attitude when buying pieces of clothing.

The fast paced andchaotic environment of the Never Fade Factory promoted and stimulated people who visited the shop to stop and question what we were doing. This in itself helped the cause, as it spread the message this collection was trying to convey further.

The cherry on top was the fashion show on the 6th day, where some of the interns were able to model their own creations and showcase theirs and Taslima’s hard work for the past five days. Taslima even decided to extend the runway to the streets of Soho, where some models held up signs promoting zero-waste and sustainable fashion, in the style of a protest.

This immersive experience of creating a collection was an utterly unique way of experiencing London Fashion Week. Hats off to Taslima, her team and the Never Fade Factory for creating and hosting a collection that embodies such a strong message about a serious global issue.