Workshop
Tue 20 Nov 2018

Masterclass Lates - Method for the Mystics

Tue 20 Nov 2018
18.00 - 21.00
£15.00
Somerset House
South Wing

Demystify process and develop a specialist skill at designer led evening activities & gallery lates. Have an exclusive after hours view of Athi-Patra Ruga’s exhibition and learn to make with purpose with pioneering designer Bethany Williams.

Bethany believes that social and environmental issues go hand in hand and through exploring the connection between these issues we may find innovative design solutions to sustainability. Fashion and textiles encompasses all industries – from agriculture to communication – and has a huge impact on the planet as a global force with incredible influence.

During this masterclass participants are introduced to thinking about how contemporary design can be used to create change in our world and society through treating the industry as an entire system, having a 360- degree approach, rather than as one aspect of our lives. Inviting us to step up from discussions representing political and social issues, to appreciate our capacity for growth and change by actually “doing things” in the world.

We’ll combine slow processes of hand weaving, collage and embroidered text using book waste from Hachette publishers, airing ideas on fast production, lifecycles and our own timely talking points. Taking to the loom to collectively weave our statements for change to document and take away, we re-purpose the publications to publish our own ideas to act on.

Biography

Bethany Williams is a pioneering British menswear designer committed to exploring social and environmental change within her work and working with marginalised parts of society to bring about positive change and social enterprise. At a time in which socio-politics are at the forefront of many designer’s minds, this pioneering designer isn’t just protesting but rather offering solutions and call-to-actions. After collaborating with a Vauxhall Food Bank and a supermarket giant to explore solutions to the UK's hidden hunger problem in her previous collection, Breadline, Bethany Williams, a London-based sustainable fashion designer, focuses our attentions onto women’s rehabilitation for spring/summer 18. In Women for Change, she has worked closely with female prisoners and the San Patrignano drug dependency program. In an interesting twist on the ongoing discourse around gender when a man buys a piece from the “Women of Change” collection, the proceeds go to supporting some of society’s most vulnerable women. All materials sourced are 100% organic or recycled.