https://amytwiggerholroyd.com Amy Twigger Holroyd Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:53:21 +0000 https://amytwiggerholroyd.com en https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Home Mon, 23 Apr 2018 20:20:35 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Home I am Professor of Alternative Fashion Systems at Nottingham School of Art &amp; Design. Through design-led participatory research, I explore plural possibilities for post-growth fashion systems: alternative ways of living with our clothes that meet our fundamental human needs and respect ecological limits.&nbsp; I was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Visual &amp; Performing Arts in 2024.Contact – amy-twigger.holroyd@ntu.ac.uk https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Publications Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:39:24 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Publications PUBLICATIONS Authored and co-authored books Twigger Holroyd, A. (2025). Fashion Fictions: Imagining Sustainable Worlds. London: Bloomsbury. [open access] Twigger Holroyd, A., Gordon, J. F. &amp; Hill, C. (2023). Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change (second edition). London: Bloomsbury. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes. London: I.B.Tauris. [more information] Edited books Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Hill, H. (eds) (2019). Fashion Knitwear Design. Marlborough: Crowood Press. [more information] Walker, S., Evans, M., Cassidy, T., Jung, J. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (eds) (2018). Design Roots: Culturally Significant Designs, Products, and Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic. [more information] Other edited publications Twigger Holroyd, A., Dawney, L, Daker, E. and Figueiredo, D. (eds) (2022). We Are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning [exhibition catalogue]. Birmingham: Craftspace. [more information] Shercliff, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2020). Stitching Together Special Issue: Part 2). Journal of Arts &amp; Communities 11(1-2), pp.3-11. Shercliff, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2020). Stitching Together Special Issue: Part 1). Journal of Arts &amp; Communities 10(1-2), pp.5–18. Journal articlesPlease contact me if you cannot access articles protected by a paywall. Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Pollen, A. (2024).&nbsp;Long views and acts of translation: finding usable pasts for sustainable fashion. Fashion Studies 3(1). [access online] Aspinall, M. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024). Fashion fictions: student experiences of designing sustainable fashion worlds. International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2022). Crafting and Commoning. Resurgence &amp; Ecologist 331, pp.40–1. [access online] Shercliff, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2020). Stitching Together: Ethical dimensions and innovative approaches to participatory textile making.&nbsp;Journal of Arts &amp; Communities 11(1-2), pp.3-11. [access online - subscription required] Shercliff, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2020). Stitching Together: Participatory textile making as an emerging methodological approach to research.&nbsp;Journal of Arts &amp; Communities 10(1-2), pp.5–18. [access online - subscription required] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2018).&nbsp; Reknit revolution: knitwear design for the domestic circular economy. Journal of Textile Design Research &amp; Practice 6(1), pp.89–111. [access online - subscription required / free post-print version] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2018). Finding distinctiveness in the dustbin: engendering a sense of place through waste. The Journal of Resourcefulness 1, pp.70–9. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A., Cassidy, T., Evans, M. &amp; Walker, S. (2017). Wrestling with tradition: revitalising the Orkney chair and other culturally significant crafts. Design &amp; Culture 9(3), pp.283–99.&nbsp;[access online - subscription required / free post-print version] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Express yourself. Crafts September/October 2017, p.32. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). From stitch to society: a multi-level and participatory approach to design research. Design Issues 33(3), pp.11-24. [access online - subscription required / free post-print version] Sakalyte, V., Cassidy, T. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Designing an educational tool to revitalise woven textile mending. Research Journal of Textile and Apparel 21(4), pp.242–62. [access online - subscription required] Shercliff, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2016). Making with others: working with textile craft groups as a means of research. Studies in Material Thinking 14. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2015). Perceptions and practices of dress-related leisure: shopping, sorting, making and mending. Annals of Leisure Research 19(3), pp.275–93. [access online - subscription required] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2015). Striking a balance: openness in research through design (Open Peer Commentary). Constructivist Foundations 11(1), pp.36-7. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2015). Re-knitting: the emotional experience of opening knitted garments. The Journal of Design Strategies 7(1), pp.112-9. [access online] Gauntlett, D. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014). On making, sustainability and the importance of small steps: a conversation. Conjunctions: Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation 1(1). [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014) Unravelling the power of knitting. In: O. von Busch (ed) In the making: the 'Power to the People' workshop track at Crafting the Future. The Design Journal 17(3), pp.379-401. [access online - subscription required] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014). Why it's important to be open. Crafts May/June 2014, p.27. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014). Not the end of the journey: exploring re-knitting as a 'craft of use'. Making Futures 3. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2011). Fashion Diggers: transgressive making for personal benefit. Making Futures 2. [access online] Book chapters Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024). Finding solidarity in Fashion Fictions. In:&nbsp;D. Bruggeman (ed.),&nbsp;Practising Solidarity: Critical Fashion and Agency that Matters. Arnhem: ArtEZ Press. [more information]Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023). Fashion Fictions. In: L. Gardner and D. Mohajer va Pesaran (eds), Radical Fashion Exercises: A Workbook of Modes and Methods. Amsterdam: Valiz. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024). Writing sustainable fashion worlds. In: A. Schramme &amp; N. Verboven (eds), Sustainability and the Fashion Industry: Can Fashion Save the World? Abingdon: Routledge. [more information]Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024).&nbsp;Do it yourself, with me: Workshops as a site of interaction between professional and amateur makers. In: S. Luckman &amp; N. Thomas (eds), Craft Communities. London: Bloomsbury. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023). Designing the commons. In: W. Jennings (ed.),&nbsp;Design for Planet 2022 zine. London: Design Council, p.15. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2022). Crafting and commoning: points of connection. In: We Are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning [exhibition catalogue]. Birmingham: Craftspace, pp.41–2. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2018). Forging new futures: cultural significance, revitalization, and authenticity. In: S. Walker, M. Evans, T. Cassidy, J. Jung &amp; A. Twigger Holroyd (eds) Design Roots: Culturally Significant Designs, Products, and Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp.25-37. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2018). Digital transformations, amateur making, and the revitalization of traditional textile crafts. In: S. Walker, M. Evans, T. Cassidy, J. Jung &amp; A. Twigger Holroyd (eds) Design Roots: Culturally Significant Designs, Products, and Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp.291-303. [more information] Evans, M., Twigger Holroyd, A., Cassidy, T., Walker, S. &amp; Jung, J. (2018) Strategies for revitalization of culturally significant designs, products, and practices. In: S. Walker, M. Evans, T. Cassidy, J. Jung &amp; A. Twigger Holroyd (eds) Design Roots: Culturally Significant Designs, Products, and Practices. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp.341-359. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Reknitting workshops / Garment led interviews. In: K. Fletcher &amp; I.G. Klepp (eds) Opening Up the Wardrobe: A Methods Book. Oslo:&nbsp;Novus. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Making it mine: personalising clothes at home. In: I. Kuksa &amp; T. Fisher (eds) Design for Personalisation. Farnham: Gower. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014). Openness. In: K. Fletcher &amp; M. Tham (eds) Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. London: Routledge, pp.253-61. [more information] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014). Identity construction and the multiple meanings of homemade clothes in contemporary British culture. In: P. Hunt-Hurst &amp; S. Ramsamy-Iranah (eds) Fashion and its Multi-Cultural Facets. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, pp.295-309. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2010). Keep &amp; Share (visual essay with accompanying text). In: J. Hemmings (ed.) In the Loop: knitting now. London: Black Dog Publishing, pp.132-9. [more information] Reports and guidesTwigger Holroyd, A. and Shercliff, E. (2020). Stitching Together Good Practice Guidelines: Advice for facilitators of participatory textile making workshops and projects (Bournemouth: Stitching Together). [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014).&nbsp;Keep &amp; Share: the first ten years. Self-published pamphlet. [access online] Data archives Twigger Holroyd, A. and Aspinall, M. (2025). Fashion Fictions stage 2 and stage 3 data. [Dataset] [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024). Fashion Fictions Worlds 1-120 analysis. [Dataset] [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. and Aspinall, M. (2022). Fashion Fictions education projects research 2022. [Dataset]&nbsp;[access online] Theses Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Folk Fashion: amateur re-knitting as a strategy for sustainability. Unpublished PhD thesis, Birmingham City University. [access online] Twigger, A. (2003) Reconciling Fashion with Sustainability. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Southampton. Reviews Twigger Holroyd, A. (2016) Amateur Craft: History and Theory by Stephen Knott [book review]. The Journal of Modern Craft 9(3), pp.367–9. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2014) Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism, edited by Betsy Greer [book review]. Crafts, November/December 2014, p.56. Conference contributions Twigger Holroyd, A., Strange, E., Hobbs, R., Wickenden, R., Marroncelli, R., Eken, B. and Lewis, M. (2025). Creative Climate Action: Nottingham School of Art &amp; Design’s education for sustainabliity framework [workshop]. Where Art School Leads: 2025 GLAD Symposium, Nottingham, 5 September 2025. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2025).&nbsp;Ethical dilemmas in fashion careers: developing skills for driving sustainable change.&nbsp;Where Art School Leads: 2025 GLAD Symposium, Nottingham, 5 September 2025. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2025). Enacting sustainable transitions: Using fictional scenarios to explore change, grief and hope. Hope and Despair: Crisis and Opportunity –&nbsp;Annual Conference of the Association for Psychosocial Studies, Twickenham, 9-10 June 2025. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2025). Fashion Fictions: expanding the possibility of sustainable fashion systems. 4th Virtual Conference of the Possibility Studies Network 2025, Online, 20-21 January 2025. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024). Embodied enactment of mundane clothes practices from sustainable worlds [workshop].&nbsp;Anticipation 24:&nbsp;5th Annual conference on Anticipation, Lancaster, 11-14 September 2024. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2024).&nbsp;Fashion Fictions World Tour: prototyping post-growth worlds. 10th International Degrowth Conference and 15th Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics, Pontevedra, 18-21 June 2024. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023). Fashion Fictions: telling stories of sustainable fashion systems. Suffolk Storytelling Conference, University of Suffolk, 11-12 July 2023.Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023). Fashion Fictions: visions of re-localised fashion cultures. Dress Devolution, The Fashion and Textiles Institute at Falmouth University, 6-7 July 2023. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023).&nbsp;Organizing fashion differently: Fashion Fictions and post-growth systems.&nbsp;13th International Critical Management Studies Conference, Nottingham, 20-22 June 2023. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023).&nbsp;Fashion Fictions: dreams of radical economies. CKC 2023: New Futures for Creative Economies, Watershed, Bristol, 29-30 March 2023.Daker, E. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2023). Crafting and commoning: points of connection. CKC 2023: New Futures for Creative Economies, Watershed, Bristol, 29-30 March 2023. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2022).&nbsp;Fashion Fictions: unmaking the mainstream fashion system. Global Fashion Conference 2022 - Fashion Sustainability: From Dream to Reality,&nbsp;AMD – Akademie Mode &amp; Design – Hochschule Fresenius – University of Applied Sciences, 17-18 November 2022. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Aspinall, M. (2022). Speculating sideways: participatory enactment of parallel sustainable fashion worlds. Anticipation 2022:&nbsp;4th International Conference on Anticipation, Arizona State University, 4 November 2022. Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Aspinall, M. (2022). Fashion Fictions: learning to challenge the status quo.&nbsp;The Future of International Fashion and Design Education, Istituto Marangoni London, 29 September 2022. [video] Aspinall, M. &amp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2022). Fashion Fictions: student experiences of designing sustainable fashion worlds.&nbsp;Futurescan 5: Conscious Communities, University of&nbsp;Leeds, 7-8 September 2022. Twigger Holroyd, A (2022). Fashion Fictions World Remix [workshop]. Practicing Solidarity, Arnhem, 30 June–1 July 2022.Sharma, S., Schulte, B.F., Fatás, R., Howell, N., Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Eden, G. (2022). Design futuring for love, friendship, and kinships: five perspectives on intimacy,&nbsp;ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New Orleans, 30 April–6 May 2022. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A &amp; Aspinall, M. (2022). Fashion Fictions Worlds Tour [workshop]. Fashion Reimagined: International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) 2022, Nottingham Trent University, 1-4 April 2022. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2021). Writing alternative fashion worlds: frustrations, fictions and imaginaries. Responsible Fashion Series, University of Antwerp [hybrid], 14-22 October 2021. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2021). Prototyping fictional fashion worlds: how can textiles help us to imagine realities beyond the present? Textile and Place, Manchester Metropolitan University [online], 11-15 October 2021. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2021). Fashion Fictions Secondhand Safari [workshop]. Secondhand Cultures, Cardiff University [online], 15-16 June 2021. Howell, N., Schulte, B.F., Twigger Holroyd, A., Fatás Arana, R., Sharma, S. &amp; Eden, G. (2021). Calling for a plurality of perspectives on design futuring: an un-manifesto. alt.chi, CHI 2021 [online], 8-13 May 2021. [access paper online /&nbsp;access presentation video online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2020). Fashion fictions: exploring alternative fashion worlds together. Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers, Tulane University [online], 4 June 2020. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2019). Designing fashion fictions: speculative scenarios for sustainable fashion worlds.&nbsp;The Design After, Cumulus Conference, Bogota, 30 October-1 November 2019, pp.341-51. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2019). Folk fashion, reknitting, identity and wasting time (part of ‘Sustaining through making’ panel, convened by Professor Susan Kaiser and Professor Carol Tulloch). Sustainability in Fashion, Regent’s University London, 30 July-1 August 2019.&nbsp; Twigger Holroyd, A. (2017). Prototyping a new tomorrow: crafting leadership in fashion and sustainability. Making Futures 5: Crafting a sustainable modernity towards a maker aesthetics of production and consumption, Mount Edgcumbe, Plymouth College of Art, 21-22 September 2017. Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Brown, V. (2017). Can sustainable fashion be cool? Connecting with a low-carbon future – the challenges for the arts and humanities, Stirling, 19-20 April 2017. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2016) Shifting perceptions: the reknit revolution. Circular Transitions, A Mistra Future Fashion Conference on Textile Design and the Circular Economy, London, 23–24 November 2016, pp. 57–67. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A., Cassidy, T., Evans, M., Gifford, E. &amp; Walker, S. (2015) Design for ‘domestication’: the decommercialisation of traditional crafts. The Value of Design Research, 11th European Academy of Design Conference, Paris, 22-24 April 2015. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2015) Re-knitting: exploring openness through design. Research Through Design 2015, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, 25-27 March 2015. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. &amp; Shercliff, E. (2014) Making with others: working with textile craft groups as a research method. The Art of Research 2014: experience, materiality, articulation, Aalto University, Helsinki, 26-27 November 2014. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Not the end of the journey: exploring re-knitting as a 'craft of use'. Making Futures 3: Interfaces between craft knowledge and design, new opportunities for social innovation and sustainable practice, Mount Edgcumbe, Plymouth College of Art, 26-27 September 2013. [see journal article above] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Identity construction and the multiple meanings of homemade clothes in contemporary British culture. Fashion: exploring critical issues, 5th global conference, Oxford, 9-12 September 2013. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Satisfaction and frustration: the well-being experience of homemade knitwear. Well-being 2013, 2nd international conference, Birmingham City University, 24-25 July 2013. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Unravelling the power of knitting. Crafting the Future, 10th European Academy of Design Conference, Gothenburg, 17-19 April 2013. [access online] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2013) Rethinking the designer's role. Futurescan: Collective Voices, Association of Fashion and Textile Courses Conference, Sheffield, 10-11 January 2013. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2012) Re-knitting: emotional mending. 1st Mend*rs Research Symposium, Docker, Kendal, 29 June-2 July 2012. Twigger Holroyd, A. (2011) Fashion Diggers: transgressive making for personal benefit. Making Futures 2: the crafts as change maker in sustainably aware cultures, Dartington, Plymouth College of Art, 15-16 September 2011. [see journal article above] Twigger Holroyd, A. (2010) Stitch-hacking and pattern-blagging: a manifesto. In The Loop 2: knitting, origins and evolution, Lerwick, Shetland Museum &amp; Archives, 1-5 September 2010. https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Fashion-Fictions-Imagining-Sustainable-Worlds Sun, 02 Nov 2025 16:28:05 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Fashion-Fictions-Imagining-Sustainable-Worlds FASHION FICTIONS: IMAGINING SUSTAINABLE WORLDS <img width="852" height="1109" width_o="852" height_o="1109" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d7bd45dffd48015c354742f6fc1d32c27e41fd6344c4d111ceeb57dbd1634fa/Fashion-Fictions-cover.jpg" data-mid="240163308" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/852/i/8d7bd45dffd48015c354742f6fc1d32c27e41fd6344c4d111ceeb57dbd1634fa/Fashion-Fictions-cover.jpg" /> Read open access ebookOrder print copy Watch recording of online book launch Open access funded by UKRI. Illustrations by Helen Merrin My latest book, Fashion Fictions: Imagining Sustainable Worlds, was published by Bloomsbury in December 2025.&nbsp; If you could imagine an entirely new fashion system, what would you dream up? An open access book, Fashion Fictions: Imagining Sustainable Worlds presents a kaleidoscope of crowdsourced responses to this open-ended prompt, exploring the common themes and issues that arose in the myriad of ideas received. Bridging the gap between fiction and reality, this imaginative and original project brings something entirely new to the study of fashion and sustainability. Each world differs immensely – in one, the fashion conscious use foliage to dress up for a night out while, in another, commercial trade in clothing is as unthinkable as trade in human organs. These fascinating imaginings are fleshed out and brought to life by each chapter. A source of inspiration for designers, researchers, activists and students alike, Fashion Fictions encourages its readers to reimagine the world around them and reveals what people are really yearning for in their experience of fashion. “Usually, more fiction and more fantasy is not what fashion needs, for fashion has long pretended that it has nothing to do with the earth – until now. Fashion Fictions is an outstanding book about the radical power of imagination and action to change fashion for good.“ Kate Fletcher, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK “Fashion Fictions is a critical part of the next phase of fashion and sustainability: here entirely new worlds are created. The fertile soils of these realms foster our collective fashion imagination, guiding the work ahead.” Timo Rissanen, University of Technology Sydney, Australia “Fashion Fictions encapsulates exactly why creative imagination is at the heart of sustainable reform for the fashion industry. An inspiration to those who are brave enough to envision what the future can be!“ Dr Alana James, Northumbria University, UK“This book stands out for its originality and forward-thinking ideas. Each chapter is a testament to the author's creative prowess, offering readers a glimpse into possibilities to imagine fashion beyond what is known. The practical applications and conceptual explorations are both inspiring and thought-provoking, encouraging readers to rethink traditional approaches to fashion design and production through experiential imagination.“Dr Clarice Garcia, University of Technology Sydney, Australia https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Organizing-Differently Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:53:21 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Organizing-Differently ORGANIZING DIFFERENTLY <img width="1200" height="900" width_o="1200" height_o="900" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/160c99c3a362e90fa2f056ee21120b6f3cc4ebb4332b5d9078166e648157cf5f/Organizing-Differently.jpeg" data-mid="249718198" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/160c99c3a362e90fa2f056ee21120b6f3cc4ebb4332b5d9078166e648157cf5f/Organizing-Differently.jpeg" />2025-28 Funded by the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Visual and Performing Arts Collaborators Martin Born Sally Cooke Jakub Lanc Mats Siffels My current research builds on my previous work in participatory speculation and alternative fashion systems to explore how the production, exchange, use and recovery of clothes and other forms of material culture might be organized differently. Context The industries that supply our everyday products are dominated by commercial businesses that are aligned with a capitalist system organized around endless economic growth. This is problematic, because evidence shows that the pursuit of growth leads to environmental degradation and increasing social inequality; sustainable and just systems need to be organized in different ways. While there are many inspiring examples of non-capitalist organizing in fashion and other areas of material culture, these activities take place in the margins of the system and do not dent the dominance of the conventional for-profit growth-based business as the archetypal organizational format. In design and management education, where the norms and expectations of organizing are passed on, conventional businesses dominate live briefs and industry case studies. Students do not develop an understanding of alternative forms of organizing and go on to follow familiar paths, making it difficult for these alternatives to spread and gain influence. My experiences within and beyond research settings have revealed intense interest in alternatives to the capitalist status quo but little understanding of how fashion, or the industries of material culture more generally, might be organized differently. Underpinning this lack of literacy is a widespread feeling of inevitability regarding capitalism as an overarching system, which means that alternatives feel doomed to remain in the margins indefinitely. The project Organizing Differently aims to support the flourishing of post-growth systems for fashion and other areas of material culture by speculating on alternative possibilities for organizing. These speculations, generated via participatory workshops, will draw on existing organizational formats but also push beyond them, using a design orientation to devise propositional arrangements of people, resources and material flows that could thrive in a post-growth economy. In doing so, organizing is presented as a space for play and experimentation and capitalism is understood as just one among many possible systems.Three questions are driving the research: How can a participatory speculation project focused on organizing differently be designed to maximise engagement and impact? What speculative visions are generated by participants and what forms of organizing are involved?What is the impact of participation and engagement on people’s thinking regarding dominant and alternative forms of organizing? In practical terms, the project will involve: the collaborative design of a participatory workshop in which participants will generate and develop propositional arrangements of people, resources and material flows delivery of the participatory workshop in various settings involving academics and practitioners, each focusing on a particular product or material and a particular geographic location building on the propositional visions created in the workshops to produce an openly accessible online resource of fictional organizations, materialized via tangible ‘props’, for use in education and other settings. Through this practice-based research I am investigating interconnections between designing and organizing. I am interested not only in how organization can be designed differently and how design can be organized differently, but also in resonances between these two widespread processes. Both, for example, create new arrangements of people and things, which ‘loop back’ to impact upon the people who interact with them. Get in touch! I am currently looking for partners with interests in organizing, design, material culture and post-growth economics, located in the UK and Europe, to co-host a one-day participatory workshop (timescale: mid-2026 to mid-2027). Interested in discussing the possibility? Please get in touch! https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Fashion-Fictions Sun, 14 Jun 2020 19:28:09 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Fashion-Fictions FASHION FICTIONS <img width="1059" height="720" width_o="1059" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4d7fe2eb471f0aee0de2e5f1369dce9098907756d012bfab107d54376f74b16/Screenshot-2020-06-14-at-20.36.10.png" data-mid="74546159" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e4d7fe2eb471f0aee0de2e5f1369dce9098907756d012bfab107d54376f74b16/Screenshot-2020-06-14-at-20.36.10.png" /> September 2021 – May 2023Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship funded by the Arts &amp; Humanities Research Council Principal Investigator: Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd (Nottingham Trent University) Project partner: Atlas of the Future Fashion Fictions brings people together to generate, experience and reflect on engaging fictional visions of alternative fashion cultures and systems. The initiative takes fashion design from its usual commercial context to instead explore speculative scenarios with diverse groups of participants through written outlines, visual and material prototypes and ‘everyday dress’ projects. The fictions, or Worlds, are framed as parallel presents, rather than speculative futures, and are guided by some loose parameters. These parameters specify that the fictions should describe sustainable and satisfying cultures and systems; explore social and cultural factors, rather than technological change; and focus attention on use and associated practices such as loaning and sharing, rather than production and conventional consumption. In research terms, the aim is to understand how alternative fashion cultures and systems might be imagined and experienced, and discover which historical or contemporary real-world examples we can draw on in the process of exploring them. As a form of activism, the initiative aims to contribute to the emergent post-growth fashion movement – which seeks a fashion system that fully acknowledges the Earth’s capacity to support life – by supporting people to imagine alternative ways of living with clothes and take action to bring them into being.&nbsp; https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Reknit-Revolution Mon, 23 Apr 2018 20:20:38 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Reknit-Revolution REKNIT REVOLUTION <img width="5029" height="2500" width_o="5029" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0851096f095c9b13ad75110ffd1c392657573cb38c49162a8d43e3b129df7b3b/CARDIGANISE-pair-full-size.jpg" data-mid="15551733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0851096f095c9b13ad75110ffd1c392657573cb38c49162a8d43e3b129df7b3b/CARDIGANISE-pair-full-size.jpg" /> REVIEW: Exhibition Review - Units of Possibility: The Reknit Revolution by Carol Tulloch in Fashion Practice Exhibition Review - Units of Possibility: The Reknit Revolution by Ania Sadkowska and Sarah Walker in Craft Research Reknit Revolution provides resources to support reknitting: the reworking of existing knitted items using knit-based skills, techniques and knowledge. I have developed a comprehensive range of treatments that could be used to rework an existing item of knitwear.&nbsp;These processes draw on instructions and examples from the past but also inventively respond to the mass-produced items in our wardrobes today. Each treatment is highly flexible in terms of scale, aesthetic and finish. Instructions for three key techniques – replace cuff, stitch-hack and cardiganise – are currently available on the Reknit Revolution site. They include step-by-step animations, examples of existing projects, instructional videos, guidance on design and top tips. This work was initially created as part of my&nbsp;PhD research, and has been further developed since. The project was&nbsp;showcased at my first major solo exhibition, Units of Possibility: The Reknit Revolution, at Rugby Art Gallery &amp; Museum in summer 2017. The exhibition toured to The Knitting &amp; Stitching Show in London and Harrogate. The centrepiece of the exhibition was the Reknit Spectrum,&nbsp;a large-scale diagram showcasing the reknit treatments. A film, created in collaboration with filmmaker Jonathan Hamilton, communicated the intricacies of the reknitting process and the tacit knowledge involved. Cathedral Cardigans and the Stitch-Hack series explored the creative potential of the techniques, while works created by local knitters provided further evidence of the accessibility and versatility of this approach. <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2ba3c0b7cdf55738f66f9a8a0777bfd2869cac50e3144e18bb19bc28cca9b19e/reknit-exhibition-17.jpg" data-mid="15551283" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2ba3c0b7cdf55738f66f9a8a0777bfd2869cac50e3144e18bb19bc28cca9b19e/reknit-exhibition-17.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb735f45f8fe7b8bc1bc1e338350ee2e76ee308acd32562cd7d81e92e040e25e/reknit-exhibition-37.jpg" data-mid="15551284" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb735f45f8fe7b8bc1bc1e338350ee2e76ee308acd32562cd7d81e92e040e25e/reknit-exhibition-37.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c384f4d9b0baaafe8db35c04b39ee8072755b7f663e3a5f5f29aa281a4d70bcd/reknit-exhibition-5.jpg" data-mid="15551281" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c384f4d9b0baaafe8db35c04b39ee8072755b7f663e3a5f5f29aa281a4d70bcd/reknit-exhibition-5.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acc9c5090a10e4b1eb0c1fbea05e59bbc74b3bbcd941cdb428e9a2b37089ebbf/reknit-exhibition-7.jpg" data-mid="15551280" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acc9c5090a10e4b1eb0c1fbea05e59bbc74b3bbcd941cdb428e9a2b37089ebbf/reknit-exhibition-7.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44fb9e3f9a035a940a9a2d0bb5c0849fafeb6970c0dae39240c20591e69c73a9/reknit-exhibition-8.jpg" data-mid="15551279" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44fb9e3f9a035a940a9a2d0bb5c0849fafeb6970c0dae39240c20591e69c73a9/reknit-exhibition-8.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/32c0a26ce0917c119e3dca98b3c941741ae2f547f5a0dc5028c0983e6733c4de/reknit-exhibition-4.jpg" data-mid="15551282" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/32c0a26ce0917c119e3dca98b3c941741ae2f547f5a0dc5028c0983e6733c4de/reknit-exhibition-4.jpg" /> Photographs by Jamie Grey at Rugby Art Gallery &amp; Museum https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Historical-Perspectives-on-Sustainable-Fashion Mon, 11 Jul 2022 14:12:24 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Historical-Perspectives-on-Sustainable-Fashion HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SUSTAINABLE FASHION <img width="568" height="740" width_o="568" height_o="740" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0f2e83c02617d1f2f8b4b35a647a783f2c3f5efefb5e629d45faea7a63f5272/9781350160439.jpg" data-mid="147587509" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/568/i/a0f2e83c02617d1f2f8b4b35a647a783f2c3f5efefb5e629d45faea7a63f5272/9781350160439.jpg" /> Co-authors: Jennifer Farley Gordon and Colleen Hill This co-authored book, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.&nbsp; For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward.The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo.Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change. “In this fascinating study, the historical research sits alongside museum examples of surviving garments, while the contemporary debates engage with the latest arguments and the freshest responses to the urgent need to do fashion differently.” Annebella Pollen, Professor of Visual and Material Culture, University of Brighton “This book is compelling—journeying to the past in order to transform the future and asking what fashion can and should be in a climate changing world.” Kate Fletcher, Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London and the Royal Danish Academy https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Folk-Fashion Mon, 23 Apr 2018 20:20:36 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Folk-Fashion FOLK FASHION: UNDERSTANDING HOMEMADE CLOTHES <img width="860" height="1337" width_o="860" height_o="1337" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/17e1559943efbf9e093f012baa57304a560aab6ed9d409ce5393b4a4fd70b625/Folk-Fashion-S1.jpg" data-mid="15303457" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/860/i/17e1559943efbf9e093f012baa57304a560aab6ed9d409ce5393b4a4fd70b625/Folk-Fashion-S1.jpg" /> REVIEWS: Book Review - Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes by Timo Rissanen in Craft Research Book Review - Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes by Lucy Wright in Folklore Book Review - Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes by&nbsp;Siún Carden in Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture Book Review - Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes by Michelle Hanks in Fashion Practice Folk Fashion for Fashion Folk by Rebecca Smith in The Fashion Studies Journal Podcast 8: Wardrobe Engineering and Folk Fashion by Mrs M's Curiosity Cabinet (book review starts at 21:15) My first book, Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes, was published by I.B.Tauris in 2017.&nbsp; A dynamic resurgence in making and mending clothes is under way, supported by the connective power of the internet. Although many derive great pleasure from this creative process, stories abound of homemade garments languishing at the back of the wardrobe. Folk Fashion draws on theories of fashion, culture and craft to investigate this tension and examines the complex relationship between amateur making and sustainability. Using the innovative metaphor of fashion as common land, Twigger Holroyd explores the making and remaking of both individual garments and the wardrobe as a whole. She combines her own experience with first-hand accounts from folk fashion makers to present diverse perspectives on this fascinating, yet under-examined, area of contemporary fashion culture. Looking to the future, the book also offers a vision of how makers might maximise the radical potential of their actions. 'This book is a fashion tour de force. It is clothing where we the people, our ideas and our fingers - nimble or otherwise - matter.' Kate Fletcher, author of Sustainable Fashion &amp; Textiles and Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion 'Folk Fashion takes an in-depth look at the implications of the handmade clothing movement. It's a must-read for anyone interested in how the act of making affects our world.'Sarai Mitnick, founder of Colette Patterns and Seamwork Magazine 'This book is an inspiring reminder of the wealth that making brings into our lives. From evoking the spirits of the craftspeople that came before us to creating more meaningful relationships with both the materials and our community as we go, Twigger Holroyd deftly shares what a force folk fashion can be.'Betsy Greer, author of Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism and Knitting for Good! https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Crafting-the-Commons Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:15:39 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Crafting-the-Commons CRAFTING THE COMMONS <img width="2560" height="1920" width_o="2560" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d474dacc4af560e63fe9d5a72e7a79ee55d6a113c56bedd6939c0b6eae80b38f/P1030624.jpeg" data-mid="63449487" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d474dacc4af560e63fe9d5a72e7a79ee55d6a113c56bedd6939c0b6eae80b38f/P1030624.jpeg" /> <img width="589" height="400" width_o="589" height_o="400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/82238651cd128d45f65677796ce67c95a2ed80e272d09f58de9fc577d8aaac3a/WeAreCommoners_logo_yellow-e1616672031726.png" data-mid="112224969" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/589/i/82238651cd128d45f65677796ce67c95a2ed80e272d09f58de9fc577d8aaac3a/WeAreCommoners_logo_yellow-e1616672031726.png" /> June 2019 – December 2021 Funded by the Arts &amp; Humanities Research Council Principal Investigator: Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd (Nottingham Trent University) Co-Investigator: Dr Leila Dawney (University of Exeter) Project partner: Craftspace In recent years an array of community-oriented craft initiatives have emerged, including makerspaces, online networks and campaigns to repair, rather than replace, consumer goods. Enabling peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge, tools and materials, these non-capitalist initiatives disrupt industrial production and resist the individualisation inherent in consumer culture. Their ethos of openness places them within the realm of the commons: a versatile concept of collectivity being explored in a multiplicity of practical and academic contexts. The Crafting the Commons network brought together makers, curators and academics to creatively interrogate intersections between craft practices and emergent academic research on the ideas, stories and politics of the commons to develop new understandings of craft and generate further practical craft-as-commons propositions. The network informed the development of We are Commoners, a major touring exhibition by Craftspace. Academics with expertise in craft/design and commons participated in the network alongside the exhibition’s curators and commissioned makers. In summary, the network investigated three research questions:What forms of commons can be created or animated through craft, making and repair? What are the political dimensions of these practices, and what is their transformative potential? What mythologies and narratives are drawn on in the creation of these ‘craft commons’, and how are these translated into social and material practice? The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, network blog and&nbsp;online ‘Crafting Worlds in Common’ symposium disseminate the network’s findings. <img width="2480" height="2480" width_o="2480" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/098c233da4e9f437ff4c66746784a845753074889d0ecb8d691849800cdf424e/CraftingWorldsinCommon_shorter.jpg" data-mid="112224931" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/098c233da4e9f437ff4c66746784a845753074889d0ecb8d691849800cdf424e/CraftingWorldsinCommon_shorter.jpg" /> As well as leading the network, I also created an installation, ‘A Temporary Outpost of the Blue Fashion Commons’, for the We Are Commoners exhibition. Visit conceptual projects for details. https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Stitching-Together Thu, 21 Feb 2019 16:27:58 +0000 Amy Twigger Holroyd https://amytwiggerholroyd.com/Stitching-Together STITCHING TOGETHER <img width="3008" height="2000" width_o="3008" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acefd2f3ac007a941b769dea94ef17620d6bdcc6f1db39af93b6581af7ecb4ae/Amy-hands-knitting.jpg" data-mid="35979008" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acefd2f3ac007a941b769dea94ef17620d6bdcc6f1db39af93b6581af7ecb4ae/Amy-hands-knitting.jpg" /> Funded by the Arts &amp; Humanities Research Council, 2019 – 2021 Principal Investigator:&nbsp;Dr Emma Shercliff (Arts University Bournemouth) Co-Investigator:&nbsp;Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd (Nottingham Trent University) The Stitching Together research network brings together researchers, professional textile practitioners, project commissioners and textile enthusiasts&nbsp;to foster critical dialogue around&nbsp;participatory textile making – making textiles with others –&nbsp;in research and practice. We are establishing critical dialogue around participatory textile making methods, collating examples of best practice and arguing for their value. We disseminate this knowledge to academic and non-academic audiences and hope to prompt new participatory initiatives. Outputs of the network include: the Stitching Together Good Practice Guidelines, aimed at facilitators of participatory textile making workshops and projects in diverse settingsa double special issue of the Journal of Arts &amp; Communities, with 15 case study articles critically discussing research projects that involve participatory textile makinga film that provides an introduction to the network and to the use of participatory textile making in academic researcha growing collection of online case studies, describing a diverse range of participatory textile making projects in practice and research contextsrecordings of Stitching Together events: the Good Practice Guidelines launch and the Study Day films, presentations and discussionsan ‘in conversation’ video, created for National Centre for Research Methodsa guest post for the Social Research Association bloga guest post for the ArtWorks Alliance blog Further details are available on the Stitching Together website.