Doha: Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) will be conducting the third and fourth workshops in the university’s Eco Luxury Laboratory (Eco Lux Lab) series, which focuses on sustainable fashion.
The third online Eco Lux Lab session – titled ‘Fashion Illustration’ – will be held today and presented by Richard Haines, a renowned fashion illustrator based in Brooklyn. The fourth workshop would be held on December 3, and artist Helen Kirkum would fashion sneakers out of recycled material from her London studio.
Both workshops are open to industry practitioners and members of the public keen to hone their know-how of sustainable practices in the fashion industry.
In response to the huge carbon footprint produced by fashion photoshoots, leading names in fashion have consciously shifted to more sustainable operational processes, one of them being fashion illustration. The Italian edition of the Vogue magazine recently reintroduced fashion illustration in its publications, for the first time since it started using photographs in the early 20th century.
Richard Haines
Haines – an alumnus of VCUarts, Richmond – is one of the top fashion illustrators internationally and has collaborated with J Crewe, Prada, Calvin Klein. In the third workshop, participants will pay a virtual visit to his Brooklyn studios to have a closer look at his creative process and listen to his experiences spanning his career.
The fourth workshop – titled ‘Recycled Sneakers’ – features Kirkum, an artist and designer who has worked with adidas, Reebok, Timberland, and Nike. She caught the eye of artists and the public alike for her work involving discarded and recycled sneakers; through her craftsmanship, she emphasizes the possibilities of creating couture-level accessories from discarded material.
Eco Lux Lab is a pioneering initiative launched by the Fashion Design department at VCUarts Qatar – a Qatar Foundation partner university – in response to the growing realization that current and future generations of designers need to be taught the importance of sustainable fashion.
The workshops aim to make participants aware that luxury can be sustainable and beautiful without sacrificing the former for the latter. Both workshops will be held from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, on the specified dates.
