This week, we worked with SWARA Voice of Women. Starting with the warm welcome by the Swara team, we created our designs and made the clothes in collaboration with female artisans at Swara. Having known Swara since December, it was very nice to finally visit Swara's head office :)
Our work started out with designing clothes. In collaboration with @Megan Shaw, we created a collection made out of materials we bought from Save the Loom (the organisation we worked with in the week 1). Designing clothes was very exciting (and I remembered my childhood dream of becoming a fashion designer!)
Communicating the designs was a struggle, however. Even if the initial designs might have seemed simple, it was not simple at all when we described the design verbally. Due to the language barrier and misunderstandings in ideas, it took us a lot of time and effort to communicate our ideas to the artisans. Drawing again, showing pictures and using gestures, communicating our ideas required a certain amount of creativity. After repeated trial and error, however, we managed to create clothes full of originality. When we saw the end product of our design, our faces lit up with a sense of satisfaction.
Clothes-making is impossible without effective communication. What seems easy to make on paper is never easy to make in reality. Try to get it right but be okay when it’s not what you imagined. The balance between achieving set goals and staying flexible is not easy to strike.