Centre for Circular Design and Mai Bine partners were present at this year’s RCW in Iasi

A few weeks ago, the Romanian Creative Week took place in Iasi, the self-proclaimed cultural capital of Romania. An event that connects most of the creative industries (architecture, performing arts, music, film, fashion, visual arts, advertising, new media, design, etc.). The main purpose of the event is to facilitate meetings between young creatives and professionals in the fields addressed in a joint effort to promote, develop and strengthen the creative industries.

Laetitia Forst from Centre for Circular Design together with Elvys Sandu and Andreea Sofronea from Mai bine presented the project and the HEREWEAR Material Library and organized two workshops, one on Bio-based Materials and one on Garment Scenarios.

The presentation of the project and that of the HW Material Library was held by Laetitia Forst, and took place at the Palace of Culture as part of the RCW Forum, a series of conferences that highlighted various aspects of the creative industries, with a focus on consistency, relevance, and emotion.

Right in front of the conference room was the exhibition From Waste to Experimental Couture, a pop-up mini gallery with Romanian brands that use waste (be it agricultural or textile) as their main fabric and a HW closet where fabrics from the Material Library and newly developed ones, such as the HighPerCell and the PLA, where shown to the wide public.

The workshops took place the next day, at the Visual Arts and Design Faculty of Iasi and they were aimed at the local community stakeholders: fashion designers, brands, and fashion and textile students.

The first workshop was about biomaterials and our experiences with common biobased materials and the HW Material Library (physically present at the workshop) that is still being update.

The second workshop was aimed at imagining the future of fashion: do we design differently when using biobased materials? What changes when we use local resources to make clothes? How do we adapt circular design principles to new materials?

Sounds complicated and challenging? It actually was. But the results were worth it. All participants left with a smile and loads of information that they will later use in their related activities.

Both workshops were led by Laetitia Forst, a textile design researcher at the University of the Arts London. She works at the Centre for Circular Design in the HEREWEAR project to explore design guidelines for the development and use of new bio-based materials in circular and locally adapted systems.