This trail around Nottingham’s Creative Quarter showcases objects, images and films created to represent an array of fictional parallel worlds.
These worlds are highly diverse, but have one thing in common: they all involve more sustainable and satisfying ways of living with our clothes.
The exhibits have been created by people taking part in Fashion Fictions. This international project was founded in 2020 by Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd, Associate Professor of Fashion and Sustainability at Nottingham Trent University. It brings people together to imagine, explore and enact alternative fashion worlds as an unconventional route to real-world change.
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Fashion Fictions recognises that we must dramatically reduce the resources we use, if we are to work within ecological limits. The project creates a safe space to explore what sustainable fashion systems might look like. To do this, participants ask ‘what if’ questions to imagine contemporary realities in parallel worlds: worlds that have split off from our own at some point in history, and taken a different path.
Follow the trail and you’ll discover quirky and memorable worlds. Look out for World 45, in which all textiles are initially used as curtains due to a widespread superstition; World 97, in which stains are celebrated rather than stigmatised; and World 1, in which the commercial trade of clothing is becoming as unacceptable as that of human organs.
As you explore the trail, have a go at the symbol challenge: find the symbol accompanying each exhibit and use the key provided on the map to reveal a hidden message!
Guided Tour
Join Fashion Fictions founder Amy Twigger Holroyd to hear the stories behind the World Tour exhibition trail
- Sunday 2 & Saturday 22 April, 2pm
- Free
- Meet outside The Shop, Sneinton Market, Gedling Street, NG1 1DS
Try It Out, Try It On
Drop in to our pop-up workshop to experience life in three fictional fashion worlds – or invent your own
We’ll be dressing up, documenting garment stories and exploring clothing poetry, as well as dreaming up all-new fashion fictions.
- Saturday 15 April, 11-4pm
- Free, all ages welcome
- Nonsuch Studios, 92 Lower Parliament Street, NG1 1EH
Unreasonable Dreaming
An evening of conversations about the Fashion Fictions project and post-growth fashion worlds
With Fashion Fictions founder Amy Twigger Holroyd and guests Kate Fletcher, Annebella Pollen and Dan Welch.
- Wednesday 19 April | 6-8pm
- Free, advance booking required
- Blend, Unit 30, Avenue C, NG1 1DW