Making for Change: Waltham Forest

This report documents the ‘Making for Change: Waltham Forest’ project led by Dr Francesco Mazzarella in partnership with London College of Fashion (LCF) and London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF) for London Borough of Culture 2019 (LBOC) and the Great Place scheme. Adopting a design activist approach, the project aimed at engaging, through fashion and making, local schools, businesses, residents and hard-to-reach communities in order to develop and retain creative talent in the borough and address issues affecting the community, such as deprived youth, skills shortage, fashion manufacturing decline and unemployment. The project also aimed at bringing together LCF and LBWF as long-term partners with aligned strategic objectives and shared plans beyond LBOC 2019, contributing to the LCF Knowledge Exchange framework and East Bank Strategic Objectives.

The report starts with an overview of Waltham Forest and its fashion-related activities to set the context and background of the project. It also outlines the research aim and objectives as well as the methodology that guided the development of the project in relation to its main areas of work: education, manufacturing, community engagement and legacy. In the concluding chapter, the overall outputs and outcomes of the project are discussed in relation to the key themes emerging from the research: sustainability awareness, empowerment and skills development, career pathways, community engagement, and partnership building. The final section of the report outlines the limitations of the project and recommendations for next steps.

• https://sustainable-fashion.com/events/m...