Local Wisdom is a unique fashion project recording the clothes-based ingenuity of our communities. It is a philosophy that good ideas happen everywhere and often involve creative acts with the things we have around us, like our clothes. These creative actions and ideas are rarely acknowledged and never make it onto catwalks or business agendas, yet we think they have potential to help solve some of the problems we face as a global community.

The Local Wisdom Project gathered some of these actions and ideas at two locations in the UK in the summer of 2009. This website documents some of the ‘local wisdom’ to emerge. Local Wisdom was co-ordinated by Dr Kate Fletcher, Reader in Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion and author of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys.

The Local Wisdom project seeks to recognize and honour sustainability activities in fashion that exist at the level of the user. Many of these acts challenge contemporary fashion norms and typically need little money or materials to make them happen, instead they tap into an abundance of experience, ingenuity and freethinking. Here an individual’s interests meet with those of society and nature and create conditions for a more satisfying use of resources. This project captures and celebrates some of this ‘local wisdom’, giving it a platform to flourish and inspire.

The Local Wisdom process involved setting up a fashion shoot and then putting out an open call to the public to participate. Two provincial UK towns were selected: Bollington (Cheshire) and Totnes (Devon). The shoot was publicized in local press, news agents’ windows, community notice boards and within established local textile networks. Volunteers were asked to bring along something that:
- are shared between people
- have never been washed – and aren’t leather!
- have the character of a particular place in them
- link you with the natural world
- catch your attention each time you wear them
- tell the story of how they’ve been used
- are made up of separate pieces that can be interchanged
- make you feel part of a community (but not a uniform)
-are enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
Each volunteer gave oral testimony about their piece and was photographed.

The images and stories document micro-scale social innovation in fashion. They give expression to differences in power relations, ways of behaving, material status and emotional connection and give us small, specific working prototypes of grassroots change.

"My mum made this shawl to keep me warm because I get really really cold and I always wear about a million layers. So she took it upon herself to make it for me and I think she really enjoyed making it and telling me about the different colours graduating through it. And then she just did it for me and gave it me and now she checks up to see if I’ve been wearing it. And I do… as soon as it gets cold I have it downstairs in the living room so from autumn through to the end of the spring every evening I have a duvet over my legs and this wrapped around me and it’s so unbelievably warm. I don’t wear it out at all – it’s totally home comfort. But because she made it and it just feels like she’s with me... a little bit of love and comfort… and so to have this from my Mum is just gorgeous."

"My mum made this shawl to keep me warm because I get really really cold and I always wear about a million layers. So she took it upon herself to make it for me and I think she really enjoyed making it and telling me about the different colours graduating through it. And then she just did it for me and gave it me and now she checks up to see if I’ve been wearing it. And I do… as soon as it gets cold I have it downstairs in the living room so from autumn through to the end of the spring every evening I have a duvet over my legs and this wrapped around me and it’s so unbelievably warm. I don’t wear it out at all – it’s totally home comfort. But because she made it and it just feels like she’s with me... a little bit of love and comfort… and so to have this from my Mum is just gorgeous."

The site is really lovely, and has several examples of individuals who bought along their items and shared their story. I think it’s a brilliant idea, and something that I would really like to get involved in, or start the same initiative in Brisbane. This whole projects mimics my philosophy as a designer, a collector and lover of clothing- that every item has a story, a meaning and some sort of value regardless of it’s actual material worth. It’s worth making yourself a pot of tea, opening up the web-page and getting lost in the stories and memories of peoples items- from girlfriends sharing their wedding dresses to a man making a jacket out of bits of old clothing donated to him by his friends.. awwww. I had a a few tears in my eyes by the end of them all, and them went up, went through my wardrobe and smiled at all the good times, memories and untold stories embedded in their seams.

For more information; check out their website: http://www.localwisdom.info/

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