Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion

The biennial Global Fashioning Assembly (GFA), with a first edition in 2022, is a unique online gathering of local fashion communities from all over the world to decenter and decolonise knowledge creation and sharing of body fashioning practices and heritages.

Rather than the event hosting participants, the participants pass on the hosting of the event to ensure self-representation, -determination and governance. Its main aim is to disrupt western-centric international fashion gatherings that often operate as gatekeepers to justify and perpetuate excluding and discriminating logics and validate English-centred knowledge.

Sparked by the grassroots-to-global possibilities of the digital, it goes beyond the limitation of one singular physical presentation, by bringing together a diversity of experiences, knowledges and cultural heritages by a diversity of institutes and communities that self-represent and self-narrate their cultural heritage. The decentralised format is inspired by around-the-world assemblies through which communities share in their own pathways to a politics of wholeness based on the principle that ’we can’t solve our crises using the same way of thinking that created them’ (Grassroots2Global).

Underpinning the GFA are collective ideation, decision-making and execution. Preparations take two years with the hosting communities meeting (bi)monthly to formulate the overall conceptual framework, thematic scopes, hosting communities, planning, budgeting and funding. Tasks are divided organically with smaller groups taking on different responsibilities (planning, budgeting, communication & production) according to the principle ‘by the communities, for the communities.’ Simultaneously, each hosting community decides on their own programme, content(s), format(s), language(s), aesthetics and participants according to its specific experiences and needs.

It is a uniquely innovative and impactful approach about living cultures, craft heritages and fashion knowledges that welcomes a wide diversity of voices and formats. Each hosting community welcomes local stakeholders, communities and audiences, on and offline, in a combination of local languages and English. By using a shared language of ‘fashioning’, the GFA aims to:

• create a hosting environment that is decentred, inclusive and co-created;
• debunk the myth that the contemporary design and art is global, inclusive and for everyone;
• demonstrate pluriversal craft heritages and living fashioning systems beyond the western paradigm;
• bring attention to creative ecosystems that consider planet and people over profit;
• raise awareness of the violence of the contemporary collections & the creative economy;
• promote a just transition to ethical, regenerative and fair creative practices; and
• foster counter-strategies against polarisation through art, design, fashion and culture.

For the GFA24, 20 communities in 26 countries, across 6 continents, are hosting between 1-20 October 2024, for a total of 40 hours of local programming and 20 hours of Sharing Councils at different times to accommodate their local time zones. Programmes address practical approaches to decoloniality in everyday life, exploring the tensions and challenges that arise when design and craft intersect in their local contexts. How to use creative resistance to challenge capitalist, colonial, Euro-centric, anthropocentric, and patriarchal systems of design and education through sustainable, ethical, slow, ecofeminist, decolonial, and circular approaches to fashion?

PROGRAMME

ABYA YALA Coalition (Latin America)

Tuesday 1 October, 2:30pm UTC+2

‘Imagining a decentralised footwear industry’ by Cobbled Goods (Canada)

Friday 4 October, 10:00am UTC+2

Reclaiming Community Practices: From Fashion Industry To Fashion Commons by Fashion Act Now (UK)

Saturday 5 October, 10:00am UTC+2

‘Kazakh Fashion & Arts: Identity Sandwich’ (Kazakhstan)

Wednesday 9 October, 2:00pm UTC+2

UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa Season 2 – by African Fashion Research Institute (South-Africa)

Thursday 10 October, 1:00pm UTC+2

‘Fighting Fascism Through Fashion, Hacking White Supremacy’ by the Austrian Center for Fashion Research (Austria)

Friday 11 October, 11:00am UTC+2

‘What Does Decoloniality Mean in a Dutch Context?’ by the Lowlands Decolonial Fashion Network (Netherlands)

Friday 11 October, 3:00pm UTC+2

DRESS AND BECOME (Chile)

Saturday 12 October, 6:00pm UTC+2

SEWING A GREENER FUTURE FOR GHANA by GiFt (Ghana)

Sunday 13 October, 4:00pm UTC+2

‘Evolution of Ancestral Jewelry’ by OwnYourCulture (Kenya)

Tuesday 15 October, 2:00pm UTC+2

‘Design Magic Through Craft: Textile Alchemy’ by Witches of the East Collective(Turkey)

Wednesday 16 October, 4:00pm UTC+2

Mendit Research Lab (Russia)

Thursday 17 October, 11:00am UTC+2

Hui Auaha o Aotearoa – Open Day at the New Zealand Fashion Museum (Aotearoa)

Saturday 19 October, 8:00am UTC+2

Decolonial Fashion and Design: A Global South in Portuguese-speaking (Brasil)

Saturday 19 October, 5:00pm UTC+2

Stitching Stories – Kheta In The Classroom (India)

Sunday 20 October, 12:00pm UTC+2

‘Not in Vogue: Decentering Fashion Narratives in Flanders’ by Losse Draadjes Collective (Belgium)

Monday 21 October, 1:00pm UTC+2

‘Needle and Thread – A Soft Discourse’ by Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing (Croatia)

Tuesday 22 October, 7:00pm UTC+2

Apnaiyat Pakistan Collective (Pakistan)

Friday 25 October, 3:00pm UTC+2

‘An Angolan Decolonial Performance’ by Fashion + Urban Art (Angola)

Saturday 26 October, 8:00pm UTC+2

“Our OLLA is not YOUR OLLA” by Fashion Liberation Collective North Africa

Monday 28 October, 3:00pm UTC+1