An evaluation of the 'Pockets of Love' project. The reciprocity between research, KE and the curriculum

Pockets of Love was a practice-based, intercultural learning project delivered during the 2024–25 academic year within LCF’s MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology programme. Co-designed by Prof Helen Storey and course leader Alice Richardson, in collaboration with Deepa Patel and David Betteridge, the project builds on over a decade of sustained creative partnerships with refugee communities in Malawi, Mozambique, and the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, working closely with UNHCR.

At the heart of the brief was a textile artwork created by the Dzaleka Arts Lab (DAL) in Malawi: Pockets of Love, a large blanket made from jean pockets and hand embroidery. Students were invited to respond creatively to this work while working under constraints that mirrored refugee camp conditions—handmaking only, use of second-hand or found materials, and techniques that could be replicated without electricity or machinery. Student’s completed works were returned to Dzaleka, establishing a reciprocal, material dialogue.