The fashion industry is one of the largest global polluters, second only to the oil industry. The production of textiles and garments causes environmental degradation in many regions around the world. Furthermore, workers in the fashion industry regularly experience human rights violations. We must do better. We want change.
Assemblage Worldwide is a nonprofit organization which connects fashion players in order to build knowledge in slow fashion. Our mission: A long-lasting network that shares knowledge and creates transnational synergies, that supports, enables, and promotes sustainable design and manufacture worldwide.
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Workshop – Beyond Fast Fashion @Media Design University
In collaboration with Yayra Agbofah of Revival and the Media Design University we curated a transformative lecture series centered on sustainable practices, the environmental impact of the textile industry, and the potential for global partnerships. The goal was to foster a dynamic workshop environment that brought together insights from industry professionals across the Global South. This cross-cultural exchange enriched the students’ learning experience, inspiring them to view collaboration as an essential tool for driving sustainable transformation in the textile sector.
Funded by Engagement Global and Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt
Assemblage Journal – Vol.1
The first volume of Assemblage Journal focuses on West African creatives who are redefining sustainability in the fashion industry. By offering a nuanced perspective on how traditional practices and cultural values are reshaping fashion’s environmental and social challenges, the journal is a bold challenge to mainstream narratives.
The journal features visionary designers and artists such as Awameite Design, Emmy Kasbit, Lagos Space Programme, and Zohra Opoku, whose innovative work is transforming fashion practices in the Global South. The interviews with these creatives limelights the ways they are fusing heritage, culture, and sustainable practices, presenting fresh, impactful solutions to the industry’s pressing challenges.
Assemblage Journal serves as a platform for amplifying these voices, connecting global fashion ecosystems, and offering readers new insights into sustainable practices. The first volume is not just a publication; it’s a call to action to rethink the future of fashion in a way that is diverse, culturally informed, and sustainable.
Funded by Engagement Global and Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt
Conference – De Fashioning Education @ The Digital Multilogue Berlin
We are excited to be part of the conference De-Fashioning Education in Berlin and share our research on non-western perspectives that shift perspectives in fashion, and create important conversations about new approaches and perspectives in a still western dominated field.
De-Fashioning Education is an open access conference, a collaborative contemplative space to consider contradictions and develop shared action. It invites us to re-imagine how we can learn for interexistence and interbeing – fashion education for the pluriverse.
More to de fashioning education conference
Learning Laboratory x Assemblage Worldwide @UdK Berlin – Universität der Künste Berlin
Assemblage Worldwide will be part of the Learning Laboratory and share the research ‚Shape Shifter‘. The research Shape Shifter focuses on perspectives and stories that actively shift perspectives in fashion, and create important conversations about new approaches and perspectives in a still western dominated field.
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Partnership with The Revival, Ghana
We are so excited to announce we’ve partnered with The Revival, Ghana.
Our goal: Increase collaborative projects that will support sustainable networks, increase educating, and create awareness about fashion waste and the impact on the global south.
THE REVIVAL is a community-led sustainable design non-profit educating, creating awareness, art and jobs with up-cycled global textile waste coming to Ghana.
Workshop – Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion @ Fashion Council Germany
Assemblage Worldwide offers a variety of workshops for students, designers and fashion experts that are interested in sustainable solutions in fashion.
“Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion“ focuses on global creatives and their efforts to reduce the negative effects of fashion production and consumption. Accompanied with photographs and videos of creative works the workshop limelight innovations of designers in the context of local, cultural and environmental concerns.
Panel – Exploring Up-Cycling in a Digital Age @Berlin Fashion Week
Thank you to 500KG CO2 for inviting us as panel member. The Future of Upcycling in a Digital Age, is an official Berlin Fashion Week format. During this one-day event, the co-created influencer collection “500KG CO₂” is presented through an immersive exhibition. Fusing VR, AR, independent fashion designers and influencers, experience the newest innovations in tech and upcycling.
Publication – Fashioning the Future @Guggenheim Bilbao
Assemblage Worldwide x Guggenheim Bilbao
It was great to be part of this great publication and contribute with our research and essay „Fashioning the Future“. The Publication showcased the work of over 120 artists and designers from the continent and focuses on a generation of entrepreneurs, thinkers, and designers from and within Africa who address a global audience and provide the world with a new vantage point on their continent.
Research – Practices from the Past @Vitra Design Museum and @Guggenheim Bilbao
Assemblage Worldwide x Making Africa Exhibition
Traditional knowledge, although new to climate science, has been long recognized as an important source of information and insight in domains such as biodiversity conservation, low carbon emission production, or sustainable dyeing solutions. A great example is Adire.
Adire (Yoruba: tie and dye) textile is the indigo-dyed cloth made in southwestern Nigeria – The bright color comes from locally-grown indigo leave. Currently we are working on a research and contemporary design-approaches of creatives using Adire for their designs. “Lagos Space Programme” for example is an amazing example doing incredible work in research and design.
More to Research Making Africa