Assembly for a Fashion Commons Edition 1: Fashion Commoners, what do you need to flourish?

Join us for a People's Assembly hosted by Our Common Market. In an ongoing series of events, we'll listen to experts and deliberate on what collective action should be taken to support community-based non-extractive clothing systems. Our first assembly will listen to speakers from the fashion commons talk about their motivation, vision, needs and challenges. We'll then discuss how we,  those hosting and attending, can help these types of initiatives thrive. We will draw on the knowledge and experiences of all participants to draw conclusions.  

Fashion Act Now are building Our Common Market (OCM): a place to find clothing culture through community participation not purchase. The purpose of OCM is to nurture a clothing commons where clothing culture exists not to serve the market, but to serve the customs, culture and needs of ordinary people.

As a commons, participatory decision making is integral to OCM and People's Assemblies are how we do it. We meet to grapple with some of the big questions related to fashion commoning. Our intention is to collectively come up with decisions on how to bring about a pluriverse of ethical and fair clothing systems. We invite any curious minds and people involved in community-based and ethical fashion systems from every culture, anywhere in the world, to join us.

The Speakers 

Nadia Bunyan, Growing ARC, Montreal, CA

Nadia Bunyan is a fashion designer who is proud to be constantly learning. She co-founded Growing ARC, a nonprofit that explores activities grounded in the farm-to-closet process, including agriculture for textiles and natural dyes. Growing ARC creates spaces and PLAYDATEs for people to activate and cultivate reciprocal relationships with all beings. With a focus on material culture and bioregional design, the project reinforces connections to the local environment and expands the understanding of biodiversity to include the diversity and perspectives of marginalised folks.

“Growing ARC is a practice and a constant exchange. [...] I open space to ask questions, actively look for answers, and sometimes fail. I acknowledge and respect that these acts of learning mean that I participate in reciprocal relationships and I cannot rush things or ask for more than any being is willing to give.”

Alice Holloway, London Urban Textile Commons, London, UK

Alice Holloway’s practice is firmly rooted in ethical sourcing and draws on female led expressions of sensuality and empowerment. Alice co-founded London Urban Textiles Commons with the ambition of creating a common pool of resources of machinery available to grassroots practitioners to enable textile practices outside of the capitalist marketplace.

“My practice reimagines a fashion economy outside of mass production. Everything I have learnt, by being active in sustainability [...] or by facilitating knowledge sharing and education - reinforces back to me that mass production of clothing is incompatible with a human society reconnecting to nature.”

Dorine van den Beukel - Nieuw Nijver (New Industrious) / Pleed, NL

The last decade Dorine has been actively involved in community building on diverse themes: textiles, sourcing of transition materials, mobility and local food connections. Working on her book about the need for knowledge of long gone local materials, as well as the production and use of those materials, she has created new craft networks such as Pleed — promoting the production and use of local wool in The Netherlands. Nieuw Nijver is in search of what defines a local shop and what can be used to create a sustainable, community-based and future-proof shop.

“All sustainable transitions — whether they are food, energy or social transitions — benefit from good things close by. Good things close by are the basis of the new economy. Our new economy starts here.”

What is a commons?

“Commons certainly include physical and intangible resources of all sorts, but they are more accurately defined as paradigms that combine a distinct community with a set of social practices, values and norms that are used to manage a resource. Put another way, commons is a resource + a community + a set of social protocols. The three are an integrated, interdependent whole.” (Bollier Think Like a Commoner (2014: 15))

In other words, commons refers to a social practice for co-creating and co-managing collective wealth (or resource). It is often said, there is ‘no commons without commoning’. A commons is shared wealth, a community stewarding it and a code of conduct to care for the community and its shared wealth.

What is a People's Assembly?

People's Assemblies are a format for inclusive meetings in which everyone's voice is heard with the aim to come to collective conclusions and decisions.

We'll be following a 3 part structure:

1. Information: Attendees will listen to speakers put forward the key information and perspectives on the topic at hand (Speakers are yet to be announced)
2. Deliberation: In small groups, attendees will discuss the topic with a facilitator, ensuring everyone’s voices is heard
3. Integration: The group will come back together and one representative from each sub-group will summarise their discussion. The whole group will discuss together and try to come up with decisions, actions and ideas to take forward. We encourage all attending to get involved in taking action following the assembly.

The assembly space aims to be:

• An inclusive space where everyone’s voices is heard
• A space of trust so we feel comfortable to speak up whatever our opinion
• A place of active listening