16/03/2025
What a truly special trip to Patthani and Yala to experience a brand new cottage industry here turning waste into art. Here in the Southern most province of Thailand, have partnered with social enterprise .patchwork to up-cycle clothing waste into one-of-a-kind art. A third of Concur’s profits are invested back into these communities which face higher socioeconomic challenges due to a combination of historical, political, economic, and social factors. It was so special to celebrate Ramadan with founder and his family.
It’s important to promote cottage industries like these in fashion because they are the antidote to the centralized industrial production model. Cottage industries foster sustainability, supports cultural heritage, promotes economic empowerment, and prioritizes ethical and local production practices. After working together for a year now on this project, I am so excited to launch our boro line called “Boro for Peace” this April, through our retail partners in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Philippines, and here in Thailand.
Another inspiring initiative down here called ‘Trash Heroes’ is spearheaded by Khun Arm a professor at PSU. These Trash heroes have been doing weekly beach cleanups for the past 9 years, and have developed truly innovative ways to give a second life to the endless amount of flip flops that wash up onto the beach. They are churning and remolding these used flip flops into new soles, and I’m particularly interested in designing this very raw material into wearable art. Their techniques are open source so to inspire long term behavioral changes towards waste.
On this trip we shot a short documentary film about the inspiring people in Patthani and Yala, and the creativity that comes from their unique point of viewed Thank you to the production team .tn .touchtheera and I so look forward to releasing our film later this year!!!