May 13 - June 17, 2023

OPENING May 13th 6 - 9 PM

Rust Belt Fibershed: One Year, One Outfit

The One Year, One Outfit project collectively responds to a culture of extraction and fast fashion with regeneration and slow fashion. Over thirty artists from the Rust Belt Fibershed region (within 250 miles of Cleveland) have created 23 outfits by following a soil-to-soil supply chain: fiber and dyes are grown, harvested, and made into a garment within the 250 mile radius, and all garments are able to return to the soil at the end of their life cycle. Outfits are created in partnership with farmers, fiber guilds, community gardens, local art studios, and the collective power and inspiration of the cohort. The project is built around skill and tool sharing and a shared passion to solve problems by looking at all our region has to offer as a gift. The project aims to create a paradigm shift that better relates to the Earth and our communities with care and is organized by the Rust Belt Fibershed as an invitation for us to question the origin of our clothes and explore local, slow fashion.

Participants of the first One Year, One Outfit Challenge work as individuals or collaborative teams, in order to design, source, and create one outfit (defined as 3 distinct garments or accessories) within a cohort of other makers.  The goals for this project are to provide a structure for imaginative, slow fashion to thrive; celebrate the incredible amount of local talent and production in the regional fibershed; connect folks to each other through monthly cohort meetings where they share projects, progress, hang-ups, connections, etc.; create a collection of stories and a body of work that will provide a glimpse of our unique region and steward our valuable material and human resources.

Participating Artists and Collaborative Teams: Shelby Barney; Lauren Brush & Erin Carlson; Julie Castelli & Jenni Kusowski; Debbie Christensen; Emily Depew; Lizzie Essi & Maggie Latham; Gretchen Graff; Sara Guren; Heather Hansen & Kaitlin Proppé; Kati Jackson; Emily Kichler; Anna Kiss Mauser-Martinez; Kate McMahon; Aramay Moss; Morgan Neiss; Amber Rose Ostaszewski; Katie Pfohl & Brette Soucie; Courtney Phillips; Amanda Purnell; Hannah Reed; Priscilla R Roggenkamp; Margaret Sankey; Sarah Silk; and the Praxis Fiber Workshop Team of Will Grimm, Ajdin Kulic, Jessica Pinsky, Chad Troyer, & Denise Williams.  

Project organizer: Sarah Pottle

Rust Belt Fibershed's 2023 ASIYS Residency was generously funded by Puffin Foundation West.

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