ETHICAL FASHION

The onsite event takes place in the Headley Lecture Theatre and the online event via Zoom

Booking is essential

With artist Kate Turnbull, fashion designer Rahemur Rahman, designer-maker Mila Burcikova and poet Karen McCarthy Woolf

Join this live in-conversation event to explore ethical fashion through the lens of colour and to mark our Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean.

Natural dyes and plants used by the artist Kate Turnbull

Topics will include the historic and contemporary use of sustainable, processes, materials and dyes, and  the global context and sustainable fashion processes that are embedded within Rahman’s work, inspired by South Asian textile designs and processes. 

Ethically-made menswear by fashion designer Rahemur Rahman

This event is taking place as a collaboration between the Ashmolean World in Colour season and the Everything is Connected season being produced by the Humanities Cultural Programme.

About the speakers

Kate Turnbull (above left) trained at Central St Martins (MA, Fashion & Textiles), worked in industry for over a decade and has been Head of Textiles at Headington School Oxford since 2015. In her new capacity as Eco Textiles Lead, she has devised an eco-textiles A Level course promoting natural dyeing, printmaking and ancient craft techniques. Kate works from her studio, The Secret Dyery, in Oxfordshire, scaling up natural dye recipes for commercial use.

Rahemur Rahman (above right) is a designer with an eponymous brand. The menswear brand Rahemur Rahman uses design to reinterpret and retell stories of South Asian identity. The emerging Bangladeshi, London-born designer blends history and tradition with fantasy, playing with patterns and texture to create distinctive pieces 'for the people who dream in colour'. He has shown at London Fashion week and has his work exhibited at the V&A.  

Dr Mila Burcikova is a designer-maker, researcher, and consultant in sustainable fashion. Her current work focuses on the connections between fashion and agriculture, and the role of time and cyclical patterns of nature in sustainable living. She is the Research Development Lead at Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion and has worked in advisory and research capacity for industry and academic projects worldwide.

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf FRSL is the editor of seven literary anthologies and the author of two poetry collections, An Aviary of Small Birds, and Seasonal Disturbances which was a winner in the inaugural Laurel Prize for ecological poetry. She was writer in residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights, UCLA. She currently teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London and has presented solo-authored and collaborative work worldwide - in Mexico, Trinidad, Jamaica, Brazil, Europe, America, China and the UK. 

This event takes place in-person in the Museum's Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom.

Tickets are £15 to attend in person and £10 to join us online.

BOOK YOUR IN-PERSON TICKET     BOOK YOUR ONLINE TICKET

If you have any questions, please email us at publicprogrammes@ashmus.ox.ac.uk