FABRIC ALCHEMY WORKSHOP: Exploring the origins+practice of intentionally upcycling

FABRIC ALCHEMY WORKSHOP: Exploring the origins+practice of intentionally upcycling

Join Mahdiyyah for a hands-on experience at Cornell University College of Human Ecology (HEB T23) where Mahdiyyah will share information and lead discussion about the impact of textile systems on community and human health.
In the first half she will be overviewing some of the ways in which the outdated systems within the textile industry negatively impacts community health, especially for urban and communities of color and the global majority, and how the practice of strategic fabric alchemy mirrors structures within nature and ancient practices to actively address these systems.
The second half will outline a basic workshop to apply the methods of upcycling, fabric alchemy, and mechanical recycling to repurpose and design a biodegradable item previously considered throw-away, and leave zero waste in the process.

Participants will honor the natural material by using its parts in their entirety, akin to ancestral

practices of consumption. There will be time for questions and discussion about the information provided and the project.
This workshop is sponsored by the Cornell Fashion+Textile Collection, and funded in part by the Charlotte A. Jirousek Fellowship in the Cornell Fashion+Textile Collection.

Mahdiyyah, the Fabric Alchemist, is an Afro-Indigenous Zero Waste Designer, Circular Fashion Educator, and Textile Waste Strategist. Her skill of patchworking discarded scraps mirrors the master quilting and pioneer upcycle skills of her African ancestors, and the regard for regenerative designing with natural materials echoes that of her Indigenous ancestors' past.

Her process of Fabric Alchemy throughout design + education is her approach to calling on ancient techniques like repurposing(upcycling) and mechanical recycling of discarded materials from nature, to alchemize them into more useful garments and fabric material. This process is what she centers her educational workshops on, which ultimately considers the life cycle of clothing, the health of its wearer, and the reverberations of textile systems felt in communities of the global majority.

Mahdiyyah has been a recipient of the Fibers Fund Fibershed Grant, Slow Factory Garment 2 Garment Grant, and a winner of the Wear We Are Going Eco-Design Program. She has facilitated her workshop series with Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Fibershed, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, East New York Farms, Harlem Children’s Zone High School, and more. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, WWD, and on shows like Tamron Hall, Showtime’s The Chi, and FuseTV’s Upcycle Nation. Some of Mahdiyyah’s speaking engagements include The Fabric Act: Live at The Canvas, Earthday: Global Fashion Exchange in partnership with Fashion Revolution USA and Greeningfullife, and Conscious Fashion Collective: Demystifying Financial Sustainability in Slow Fashion.

www.mahdiyyah.co/about

www.mahdiyyah.co/workshops

Host or Publisher Mahdiyyah +Ventura Vie