It’s a stitch down memory lane as children learn art of ‘slow fashion’
An Edinburgh couple hope their online courses will revive old skills and ‘inspire the next Vivienne Westwood’, reports Elle Duffy
IT is the household memory of many – running to your grandmother with a button that has broken free from your favourite cardigan.
She would have fixed it in seconds and the garment you thought was lost now has a new lease of life.
But one Scots design firm says the skill of sewing and creating clothes from scratch is being lost in a world of fast fashion – and they have launched a new course to help revive the trade in Scotland’s young people.
Children are being invited to learn the art of “slow fashion” and clothes creation with Edinburgh-based design studio Arkdefo.
Founded by husband and wife team Andrew and Elizaveta Bennett, the studio is offering a 40-lesson course which they hope will “inspire the next Vivienne Westwood”.
“It’s so important to have these skills in your life, whether it’s just making a scrunchie or a full-blown dress,” creative director Elizaveta explained.
“I feel it’s getting forgotten. It used to be a family activity, people used to make clothes together all the time. I want this course to let kids step back and make things themselves.”
The foundations for the course were laid at the beginning of June, when Mrs Bennett, originally from Moscow, launched an online shop with slow fashion collections and scrunchies from the offcuts.
When a friend of the family mentioned their children would love to learn the trade, she pitched it to an Edinburgh community group, and, within hours, her feed had exploded with notifications.
“It was the first hour, there was just so much traction,” she explained.
“The selling point was that mums can get a bit of a break, and their kids can learn something that will stick with them.”
Since then, she has spent her time filming and editing her course videos, which will be rolled out to customers on July 27.
“I want to inspire them, and teach them not to be afraid of mistakes,” she said. “Schools are often trying to make you ‘perfect, perfect, perfect’ – but to me, you learn by doing.”
The course explores the basics of sewing, before teaching children how to make scrunchies, gym and tote bags, and then finishing with dresses and jumpers.
Entirely online, the five-module lesson pack will encourage purchases from local independent suppliers in
Edinburgh. It promises a bonding experience for parents and their children, while also acting as “an online babysitter”.
“The skills you’re getting here are skills for life,” Mrs Bennett said.
“There is, of course, an expense, but the benefits that come from this, not just physically, but mentally, are just amazing.”
Elizaveta has not owned anything that she has not made herself for the last year, and says that the feeling of creating something yourself is something that she wants to pass on to the next generation.
“I don’t have kids of my own,” she explained. “When you don’t have children of your own, you don’t think,
It’s so important to have these skills... I feel it’s getting forgotten
‘I should do something for children’. It’s just not on your radar. But when I’m filming these lessons and videos, I know I’m doing the right thing.”
The couple hope that, in teaching the basics and perhaps inspiring some budding designers, they can help children understand the amount of work that goes into the art.
“It’s not bombarding kids with the political stuff of the world – but it’s giving them the creativity, something where they can find an art in clothes and fashion and a life skill that they can pass onto their own children,” Mr Bennett said.
The course is due to go live on
July 27, and parents can register their interest at courses.arkdefo.com.