Recently, ABOUT A WORKER had the chance to win the prize “Mondes Nouveaux” a program supported by the French Ministry of Culture, giving to 254 artists in France, the financial support to make a dream project become true!

As our mission is to imagine a new production, creation and distribution system inclusively, we decided to start a research project on territorial textile industries in different regions in France starting by Les Hauts-de-France. Cradle of the French textile industry and renowned since the 14th century for having overcome numerous industrial crises, Les Hauts-de-France has become an inspiring platform for its numerous social, innovative and eco-responsible initiatives.

To complete this first step, we have surrounded ourselves with many important actors of the region who have agreed to open their factories, be interviewed and give us material dead stocks. A big thanks to : Alter, Atelier Agile, Gemtex, Lemaitre Demeestere, La Maison Demeure, La Redoute, Safilin, Sophie Hallette, Potencier who took part of the project.

After meeting these actors and filming short documentaries on their practices, we then decided to value their expertise by organizing and curating an exhibition called “MADE BY LOCALS (?)” at Les Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail in Roubaix. The exhibition purpose was to expose their visions on locally made production, while building with students from local textile and fashion scholar programs (including ESAAT ROUBAIX & ANTI_FASHION), a public creative factory.

ABOUT LES ARCHIVES NATIONALES DU MONDE DU TRAVAIL

Installed in the heart of Roubaix in the former Motte-Bossut cotton factory, which was in activity from the 19th century until 1980, LES ARCHIVES NATIONALES DU MONDE DU TRAVAIL’ s mission is to collect, classify, preserve, communicate and promote the archives of professional actors in France : companies, unions, committees, organizations, associations. The MADE BY LOCALS (?) Exhibition was hosted within this historic monument. We also were helped by archivists to find documentation on les Hauts-de-France textile backgrounds.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH SECTION

We exposed our research through an immersive experience displaying our whole process and materials: movies, interviews, texts, pictures, archives, objects found at our partners factories and within Les Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail. Our aim was to make the visitors travel with us and give him the opportunity to open the doors of the Hauts-de-France textile world.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE FACTORY

The main part of the exhibition was the creative factory : an inclusive production chain and cooperative, giving everybody the possibility of learning couture basics while creating a collection of products collectively with upcycled fabrics from our textile partners. Thanks to textile and fashion students from ESAAT ROUBAIX and ANTI_FASHION who have helped us to design and organise the experience.

The clothes and accessories made and designed by the participants were then sold in the shop section within the creative factory. As visitors could help within the cooperative, they could get discounts as a reward for their collaboration.