AKUT #5 ... CARE & REPAIR

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AKUT is an umbrella title for a series of exhibitions at the design museum that address “topics where design and designers are at the center of major societal dilemmas and challenges.”

In the past, textiles and clothing were expensive and were carefully stored and, when necessary, were repaired.

In the homes of the middle classes and the wealthy, clothes and bed linens were kept carefully in presses (large cupboards) or in a chest or a chest of drawers and seamstresses and tailors could re-hem or alter clothes if they were handed down or had to be “let out” as a child grew.

Both my grandmothers and my mother knitted and sewed and I remember through my childhood, that expensive Christmas cakes and fancy chocolates often came in tins and these were repurposed so all three women had tins with phenomenal collections of threads and yarns, patches of fabric and every sort and size of button to repair and alter our clothes. All three made their own curtains and cushion covers and no one in the family considered these tasks exceptional but as necessary skills that were common in most households.

One of the information panels in the exhibition suggests that “historically, the task of maintaining household textiles has fallen mainly to women” but my grandfather - my mother’s father - reupholstered chairs, made rag rugs, had a hefty iron cobbler’s tree on his work bench so that he could put new heals on our shoes and he had a leather hole punch so he could adjust or alter belts and straps. He was also a passable knitter as he had grown up on the east coast where men in his family - North Sea fishermen - knitted.

In the 1950s and through the 1960s and 1970s, most department stores had large haberdasheries and most towns had wool shops (for knitters) and fabric shops for dress makers and for curtains and upholstery.

Today, does anyone replace a zip or darn a sock or sew a leather patch on the arm of a jacket or a jumper? Surely now we have to repair and recycle for environmental reasons and this exhibition is a timely reminder that looks at techniques used to repair and reuse textiles.

AKUT #5 CARE & REPAIR / AKUT #5 CARE & REPAIR
Designmuseum Danmark / Design Museum Danmark
Bredgade 68, 1260 København K

from 3 November 2023 through to 8 September 2024

 
 

detail of a Danish “sampler” where a young girl practiced her skills in darning and needlework

Stolt / Proud .... modern folk costumes designed by Nicholas Nybro

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Twenty-one “modern folk costumes” by the Danish designer Nicholas Nybro were inspired by cities and regions across Denmark to explore our relationship to clothing that “transcends geographical local disparities” to “reveal a pride in our origins and a sense of belonging.”

Stolt / Proud
Designmuseum Danmark / Design Museum Danmark
Bredgade 68, 1260 København K

from 5 October 2023 to 26 May 2024

① Stolt / Proud
② Sonderborg, Nørrebro and Aalborg
③ Christiania
④ Strynø
⑤ Tisvilde
⑥ Fanø

 

new design & architecture - graduate projects at the Royal Academy

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Shown here are more than 250 projects by new graduates from Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - the Royal Academy of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Set out through three tightly-packed spaces, the exhibition is arranged around the framework of the many and specific study programmes for architecture and design at the academy.

Since 2016, the UN Sustainable Development Goals have been a focal point for research and events at the royal academy and in their teaching programme and it’s graduation projects.

NEW DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
23 June - 17 August 2023
note: closed 10-30 July

Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi
Skoler for Arkitektur, Design og Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøe Allé
1435 København K

Thea Dam Søby at Muji

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Until Sunday 10th April, Thea Dam Søby is showing her textiles and demonstrating sewing and repair techniques at the Danish flagship store of MUJI on the 4th floor of the Illum department store in Østergade in Copenhagen. Given how much she has been inspired by Japanese techniques for working with textiles it has been an appropriate venue.

Many of the works shown - both clothing and high-quality household textiles - have been given a second life by using various techniques of tie dye and resist die and by beautiful repairs that become part of the story of the piece.

Thea has demonstrated some of the sewing and patching methods for classes held in the store and for that work she sells amazing Japanese needles - the best in the world - and kits with sewing needles and thread.

We talked about this for some time. My mother and both my grandmothers sewed and knitted. They made curtains - not out of necessity but to get exactly what they wanted - and both grandmothers repaired and darned. All three - my mother and both grandmothers - had drawers or boxes or large bags full of thread and offcuts of material and buttons and patches. Anything and everything was kept in case it could be useful because that was what most women of their age did.

Now, Thea cannot assume that women who come to her classes have needles at home or even a grasp of basic skills.

On Thea's Instagram site there are photographs of a re-dyed white-denim jacket she produced for a fashion journalist ... and I then realised that I had completely forgotten that there was a period when people wore white or faded denim .... jacket, trousers and shirts ... the whole works.

I'm not convinced that I could get away with wearing one of Thea's kimono-style jackets but the household textiles are amazing. The strong colours - mostly deep blue but also some mauve - are striking and where they are applied to antique linens the textures and the patterns of the weaving are incredible and they have a feel and a quality that is rarely matched by modern textiles.


Theas Handmade Textiles
Thea Dam Søby on Instagram

 
 

‘TAKE THE JUMP AND LET'S DO THIS TOGETHER’

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Yesterday, there was an interesting article in The Guardian about a new movement that has just been launched in Britain to encourage people to make key changes in the way that they live to help combat climate change.

"From using smartphones for longer to ending car ownership, research shows 'less stuff and more joy' is the way forward."

TAKE THE JUMP suggests six changes we can all make to the way we live - or what they call six ‘shifts’ - to protect our earth.

These are to:

  •  keep products, particularly electrical goods, for seven years or more

  • get rid of personal motor vehicles

  • eat a mostly plant-based diet and reduce food waste

  • buy only three new items of clothing each year and buy second hand and to repair rather than discard clothes

  • fly only once every three years or once every eight years if it's a long haul flight

  • move to green investments and pensions to force institutions to change "the system"

There is also the recommendation that families should move to green energy and insulate homes to help energy efficiency. Curiously, this is not one of the six shifts although, surely, this is crucial in every country in Europe if we are to meet a target to reduce energy consumption by two thirds by 2030.

The article highlights obvious problems with our current attitudes to consumption or, rather, our addiction to over consumption, in a society that replaces rather than repairs.

For an iPhone, 13% of emissions are from when it is used and 86% from production, transport and end of life processing.

Clothing and textile industries together produce more greenhouse gas than international aviation.

Transport is responsible for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions and two-thirds of that is from the engines of road vehicles but the article also makes the important point that:

“…. although there is a lot of emphasis on the role of electric vehicles (EVs) in tackling climate change, a bigger effort needs to go towards reducing the number of cars on the road overall as a significant source of emissions is in the manufacture of vehicles – even EVs.”

The Jump campaign was co-founded by Tom Bailey and it's conclusions are based on extensive research from Leeds University, research by the C40 group of world cities and research undertaken by ARUP under Ben Smith, their director of climate change.

But, curiously, TAKE THE JUMP only goes as far as to suggest that people, for now, try these changes for a month or possibly for three months or 6 months although it concludes that everyone has to make these changes in the next ten years.

Big changes can start with small steps. 

Six promises you can make to help carbon emissions
by Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, 7 March 2022

TAKE THE JUMP

 
 
 

“Changing our behaviours around food is the most impactful of all the shifts. And it’s not just about climate change; if you look at biodiversity loss, land use change, fertilisers in the ocean creating dead zones and the massive extinction and loss of insects due to pesticides, these problems are all driven by food.”

Tom Bailey

 

70% LESS CO2 - Conversion to a Viable Age

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An important exhibition has just opened at the Royal Academy schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation.

Students and teaching departments were asked to submit their projects for inclusion and 31 were chosen for the exhibition to illustrate how new ideas, new materials and new methods of construction or manufacturing will help to reduce global emissions of CO2 by at least 70%.

Significant levels of CO2 are produced by the fashion industries from the production of the raw materials through manufacturing and through high levels of waste and around 10% of the global emissions of CO2 are from the ubiquitous use of concrete in all forms of construction so several projects here suggest major changes to what we make and build and how we use materials.

But there are also projects on using new materials from algae, lichen and mycelium and even one project that uses pine needles for insulation.

There are short assessments of all the projects on the academy site.

70% LESS CO2
Det Kongelige Akademi
Arketektur Design Konservering
Danneskiold-Samsøes Allé 53, København K
7 October 2021 - 14 January 2022

Censuum … a new design store on Nørre Farimagsgade

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A new design store has opened on Nørre Farimagsgade - close to Israels Plads and the food halls of Torvehallerne but a block away towards the lakes.

It is an interesting space in what looks, from the outside, like a relatively familiar style of large Copenhagen apartment building from the late 19th century. It looks as if it will have relatively low spaces in a half basement just down from the street level that would have been either for commercial use or simply services and store rooms for the apartments above. In fact the interior is much more interesting and much more dramatic because the space that runs across the whole of the half basement was previously a printing house with large areas that were double height.

There are relatively small windows along the street frontage that are at pavement level with an entrance door, at one end of the front, with steps down into a low space that is now an area for a coffee and a food outlet but then there are steps that go on down to the rest of the space along the front that has high ceilings so there is good natural light and interesting spaces.

Here, within the retail area of about 500 square metres, there are products from 40 small independent companies who are generally at that intermediate stage between selling on line or at design fairs and markets but before they expand to open a dedicated shop of their own.

Here you can find a good range of clothing, beauty products, jewellery, linens and items for the home. In terms of style, the range of products here reminds me of what can be found in the FindersKeepers design markets. Note …. that’s praise and not veiled criticism - the FindersKeepers markets are great but are only held once or twice a year.

Censuum describe themselves as a new form of department store because they focus on products that are responsible, sustainable, and climate friendly and they work with brands who can show that they are socially conscientious.

The cafe is good, serving coffee from the specialist roaster Prolog - now in the Meatpacking District - as well as craft beers and bread from the Andersen Bakery so they are setting their level high. There are tables and chairs inside and small tables and chairs set up along the pavement. 

Censuum, Nørre Farimagsgade 47, 1364 København

 

Absent Bodies at Designmuseum Danmark

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Amina Saada

Ishara Jayathilake

A new exhibition has opened on the entrance courtyard of Designmuseum Danmark with works selected by Designers' Nest and Designmuseum Danmark.

The museum remains closed for extensive work to the building due to be completed in 2022 but there is access to the courtyard.

the works:

the love scene & the balancing act
Courtney Makins
sugarcoated cotton houndstooth, wool tartan and ripstop

the red bride
Amina Saada
polyester satin and foam

follow4follow
Oliver Opperman
recycled polyester and dead-stock neoprene

people go to work
Fredrik Stålhandske
cardboard and polyester

east meets west
Ishara Jayathilake
screen-printed cotton canvas

 
 
 
 

Courtney Makins

 Absent Bodies continues on the entrance courtyard of
Designmuseum Danmark, Bredgade ,Copenhagen
until 22 November 2020

 

Arne on the lino

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If I come across a curious image of a building or an interesting interior then it goes into a scrapbook folder.

This struck me as a period piece and a good example of how classic designs actually can’t stay the same and even when, looking back, designers and stylists ‘mine’ a period for inspiration then it never looks the same. Any revival has to pay lip service to the fact that time and taste have moved on.

I’m not sure of the date of this British advert but I would guess sometime around 1970. The Ant Chair, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1952, and the Super-Elliptical table, by Piet Hein, Arne Jacobsen and Bruno Mathsson, from 1968 are still in production but what a peculiar mash-up of ceramics and cutlery and table decorations. It looks as if there is a special dish or tray for the French stick and that the wine is to be served in tumblers or larger glasses. Was that ever a fashion? And this is from Liberty - the London design store.

I tend to think that stylists on photo shoots go too far but this shows just how far most have come.

Thelma seems an oddly cozy name for a trade association and when the copywriter says “exciting new things are always happening in linoleum”, the model hardly looks convinced.

Night Fever

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A major new exhibition has opened at Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen to explore the design of nightclubs and discotheques described as "hotbeds of contemporary culture."

This is about interiors and furniture; about graphics, for posters and record covers; about the development of all the technology needed for sound systems and lighting in these venues and, of course, fashion with contemporary photographs and some outfits and with separate sections on key places through the decades since the early 1960s including Studio 54 in New York; the Hacienda in Manchester and Ministry of Sound in London along with clubs and discotheques in Italy and Berlin.

There are videos - including a long clip from Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta that was released in 1977 - and even a dance floor with music (through headphones) with play lists from early pop disco through house to techno.

The exhibition has been designed and curated by Vitra Design Museum and ADAM - Brussels Design Museum.

NIGHT FEVER. Designing Club Culture 1960-today
continues at Designmuseum Danmark until 27 September 2020

 

 
 

COP25 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid

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cotton-4649804.jpg

The 25th UN Climate Change Conference and the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties - COP25 climate talks - opened in Madrid on Monday 2 December and continues for two weeks. This is the summit that was scheduled to be held in Brazil but was then moved to Chile and, with the political unrest in Santiago, the venue was moved again to Madrid.

A report on the world's "carbon budget" revealed that governments are far from meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement - greenhouse gas emissions are still rising though by smaller amounts that in previous years - and there are still problems over carbon markets and disputes over carbon credits.

Serious work begins this week with the arrival of senior politicians including environment ministers and finance ministers and the EU is due to reveal its new green deal to halve Europe's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and set a legally binding target to reach net-zero carbon by 2050 although that appears to be overshadowed by the retention of what is called the Energy Charter Treaty - or ECT that still allows fossil fuel companies to take governments to court about any green policies that they feel threaten their business or, more important, their profits.

One interesting development was the release yesterday (9 December) of a communique from the fashion industry inviting governments to collaborate on Climate Action. It can only be hoped that this is rather more than green washing and any developments to control waste and monitor sustainability and recycling in the fashion industry should be tracked and echoed by the broader industries in design and in construction.

In more general news about climate change, it was announced yesterday that Denmark has risen up the rankings of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) from the New Climate Institute in Germany and, of the 57 countries assessed, Denmark is now second with Sweden ranked first. This is significant because the rankings were made before the new Danish Climate Act that was voted through on Friday so actually too late to be taken into consideration.

 
COP25Madrid.jpg