Salisbury Museum

Fashioning Our World

Unpicking the past to thread together the future

Fashioning Our World worked with young people (aged 11-25) to discover hidden stories of sustainability told by clothes and accessories from the past. The project worked in a collaborative way to share these powerful stories with the community, change attitudes to fashion in the future and help fight the climate crisis.

Fashion is having a devastating effect on our planet and many of the people who produce our clothes. It causes pollution and contributes to climate change. The story of fashion in the past is complex but many people had a different relationship with their clothes because they were worn for longer and better looked after. The young people taking part in Fashioning Our World explored the stories of some of these clothes and accessories and the ways they were repurposed, mended and loved.

Items included a child’s coat made from her father’s military uniform and a man’s waistcoat from the 1700s which was made into a woman’s bodice front about 100 years later. A dressing gown, made during the second world war, was pieced together from scraps of curtains and old clothes. It included pieces of silk from the parachute of a German fighter pilot who jumped from his burning aircraft and landed in the farm belonging to the owner’s father.

Young people decided how to use these stories to inspire people in the community to make more sustainable fashion choices and chose to include a sustainable fashion show and an exhibition. They made all their own outfits for the fashion show by repurposing second-hand items and using recycled materials and natural dyes. The show was featured on BBC South.

The exhibition

Young people co-curated the Fashioning Our World exhibition at the Salisbury Museum. They worked on every aspect, from shaping the themes to designing the information panels. They came up with the strapline for the project and exhibition: ‘unpicking the past to thread together the future’.

They also collaborated to make a dress, featured in the exhibition, which aimed to communicate their thoughts and ideas about sustainable fashion. Through the exhibition they asked whether the stories from the past could inspire us to think differently about fashion in the future.

Students from Arts University Bournemouth created full-size garments, accessories and a series of miniature mannequin outfits for the exhibition. The mini mannequins themselves were handmade for the project by one of the Fashioning Our World team using recycled materials and industrial offcuts. Each tiny fashion piece aimed to inspire a positive thought or action about fashion sustainability.

Famous fashion designers and sustainable fashion campaigners also created miniature mannequin outfits. These included Orsola de Castro, author of ‘Loved Clothes Last’, the bestselling call to action for sustainable fashion. Orsola created a zero-waste kaftan style dress from her grandmother’s napkins, which was a miniature replica of a full-size version made from her grandmother’s tablecloths. It aimed to show how imagination and love can add value to something unused.

BBC Sewing Bee’s presenter Patrick Grant officially opened the exhibition with an inspiring and motivating speech on sustainability in the clothing industry.

The exhibition was designed to be as sustainable as possible. Object captions were made using grey board and eco glue so they could be recycled, the plinths for the fashion items were designed to be easily stored and reusable, and the main panels will be made into tote bags.

Working in partnership

Partnerships were an important part of Fashioning Our World. The project worked alongside Sustainable Fashion Week, Foxtrot Vintage (a local vintage clothes shop), and The Swish, a social enterprise working to inspire young people to get involved with sustainable fashion.

Fashioning Our World created a model of working with fashion collections and young people to explore sustainability that can be used by other museums and heritage organisations. The project team worked in partnership with Dorset Museum to trial this approach, and Dorset ran a successful series of workshops with young people exploring the stories of sustainability told by their own fashion collection.

The Fashioning Our World project was made possible by a grant of £87,828 awarded from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, delivered by the Museums Association. It was also supported by Wessex Museums.

Katy England is project manager for Fashioning Our World. You can find out more about the project on its website and via Instagram.

Main image: Students who participated in the curation and mounting of Fashioning Our World in the exhibition at Salisbury Museum, 9 May 2024