The Linen Project
- Partner(s): Crafts Council
- Started in: January 2021
Our current fashion market is focused on economic growth and financial profit. It is a market that is producing at increasingly cheaper rates, in poor quality, under exploitative working conditions, and with a draining impact on our ecosystem. Consumers, on the other hand, are disconnected from the production process, making it harder to develop a critical understanding of the origin of the products we use daily and with which we surround ourselves.
With The Linen Project, the Dutch Crafts Council and the Master Fashion Design (Practice Held in Common) propose a focus on the local, small-scale productions that are traceable and sustainable. A countermovement is emerging that is worthy of encouragement: the growing interest in and the search for connection with the production process of the products we use and consume daily. With the Linen Project, an example is given of the possibilities for making better fashion from beginning to end as a joined effort.
With The Linen Project, the production of flax, linen, and (linen) products is studied to propose ways to revive these resources sustainably. The Linen Project activates ‘old’ knowledge, skills, and the different meanings associated with flax and linen production, combined with new technologies and possibilities. In a broader framework, The Linen Project proposes a new cultural logic for our current fashion system. By no longer defining design as just a product, but situating it as one of the processes in a more extensive set of complementary and reinforcing activities for which we need to take responsibility. Together, we explore research and activate the economic viability of small-scale linen production in the Netherlands and other localities. Only by committing to the challenge of trying out different ways of making than we are used to, we imagine a meaningful fashion in the future.
