What Can We Learn About Sustainability from Central Asia's Textile Traditions? Meet Fashion Revolution Kazakhstan's Aigerim Akenova

WARDROBE CRISIS with Clare Press

Whether it’s the joy of dyeing cloth with pomegranates, the age-old practicality of turning sheep wool into felts and knits, or the rich legacy of complex embroideries and silk Ikat weaving, Central Asian textile traditions are bonded by cultural meaning and a respect for the natural world. And resources: nothing gets thrown away, as this week’s guest Aigerim Akenova explains through her love for patchwork - her nomadic ancestors' answer to upcycling.

Aigerim is the country co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution Kazakhstan. With a global outlook (studied in Milan, lives in California), she's also a contemporary Kazakh designer determined to centre sustainability in the national fashion conversation, as the country she was born and raised in scales up its design and creative industries. Still, the big money in this former Soviet territory of 19 million people, is still in mining. The economy is based on oil, coal, gas, but also things like copper, aluminium, zinc, bauxite and gold. As Aigerim puts it: "We've got the whole periodic table." And Kazakhstan is the world's largest uranium producer.

What role could sustainable fashion play in growing newer, lower carbon industries here in line with SDGs? What do young urban Kazakhs and Central Asians in neighbouring countries want from the fashion today? As well as its craft heritage, Kazakhstan also has a vibrant modern fashion scene, its own fashion week, and (doesn’t everywhere?) fast fashion - so how can these two sides find balance in future? Aigerim says we have much to learn from nomadic traditions of sustainable clothing systems.

THIS IS OUR ANNUAL FASHION REVOLUTION SPECIAL BE CURIOUS, FIND OUT, DO SOMETHING. This year's theme is Manifesto for a Fashion Revolution - check it out here.

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