Fashion weeks can be veritable tours de force around the world, from one trendy and established capital to emerging fashion destinations. Taking part as a spectator, influencer or critic in such events can be a privilege, but the downside is that, at times and in the long run, it may not be worth the while as what we see on the runways nowadays seems temporary, destined to last only for a few months or, even worse, for a few weeks (the excitement you may feel for a collection seen at the beginning of the fashion month in New York gets often immediately erased from your mind once you hit Paris at the end of the fashion month).
Yet there are people looking for global yet alternative fashion-related events that, in the long-run, may bring more permanent rewards. Fascinated by the possibility of interpreting traditional crafts in a contemporary way, in 2018 Alina Şerban and Nadja Zerunian founded for example co/rizom (other members of the team include social business developer Andrei Georgescu, Gabor Nagy and Lisa Pock).
Co/rizom is not a fashion week-like event, but a Vienna-based organisation with one main aim – creating a tool to empower traditional artisans based in different parts of the world and producing clothes, accessories and interior design pieces.
In the fashion industry there are companies nurturing the skills of time-honoured ateliers: Chanel's "Metiers d'Art" collections are for example ways to celebrate the 26 maisons acquired by the fashion house through its Paraffection subsidiary and producing a variety of pieces including, among the others, gloves, millinery, cashmere, pleating, feather and flower adornments and embroidery.
Yet at the same time, the modern history of fashion features endless chapters on cultural appropriations (and misappropriations...) with fashion houses often stealing traditional styles and techniques developed by independent artisans, but also of stories of craftspeople based all over the world who end up closing down their shops and ateliers as they struggle to compete with the global markets.
Staying true to one's heritage, pushing forward the legacy of an ancient craft and training younger generations in such disciplines, are the hardest challenges many artisans face, together with the lack of visibility.
The team of advisors behind co/rizom wants to help artisans forming small social enterprises and becoming suppliers to retailers, ensuring in this way their long-term sustainability.
So far co/rizom has reached out to artisans who own small family companies based in different countries, including Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, Hungary, Romania and Uzbekistan to give them visibility, and highlight how artisans making authentic, sustainable and high quality products should be acknowledged and paid a fair amount for their pieces (another point that should be highlighted is the fact that most companies working with artisans want them to meet their own standardized production and quality demands, while quite often it should be the other way round).
On the co/rizom site there are photographic essays showing several workshops and features about some of the artisans involved in the project.
Readers can meet craftspeople from a small family business making kilim carpets (a style that originated from the nomadic peoples in Northern Africa, Anatolia, Persia, Caucasus, the Balkan Peninsula, Afghanistan and Central Asia) in Zogaj, Albania. Here Nebije Qotaj started her own company in a three-storey building with a view over lake Shkodra. She mainly employs women and also tries to train young girls when they are off school.
After coats and waistcoats made with sheepskin and covered in Romanian style embroideries reappeared in Dior's Pre-Fall 2017 collection (the coat was sold at €30,000 and the connection with its origins was never mentioned in the fashion coverage about the collection...) locals in the region of Bihor in Romania (even the names Dior/Biohor seem to have a strange phonetic connection...) were first enraged, then they stopped and realised that the styles they had forgotten about were becoming popular again and revived folk designs.
One feature on the co/rizom site mentions the Dior/Biohor incident, but then reshifts the attention on the artisans in Romania who create these styles, from the lace blouses and floral scarves to embroidered vests and skirts. This journey into the past helped them creating a new awareness and rediscovering traditional techniques, patterns and shapes they had largely forgotten.
But there's more to discover on co/rizom's site also for people who are not into textiles and fashion and who prefer interior design pieces.
There's a wood carving workshop for example in Tserovani, Georgia, where a woodcarver named Zaza creates objects covered in archaic symbols that connect him to his roots and who teaches young men (and sometimes young women willing to learn this art as well) the craft's history plus construction, composition and the meaning of different ornaments and symbols.
In Bukhara, Uzbekistan a traditional ceramicist produces instead a coarser and earthier type of pottery strongly influenced by the colours of the desert and with a special glaze enriched with saltwort (Salsola soda, a woody shrub that grows in the desert and contains both salt and potassium) resin.
One platform such as co/rizom may not change the ways of the entire world, but can inspire others to introduce changes: one of the team members behind co/rizom, Andrei Georgescu, managed for example to help groups of traditional artisans to become suppliers for Ikea.
So the model behind co/rizom could be studied to foster new connections between artisans and fashion houses that could re-value local knowledge, invite consumers to opt for sustainability through products made using natural resources and promote slower rhythms of life. And while this may not sound that trendy, it is definitely more human.
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