Earlier this year Cunnington & Sanderson had the huge pleasure of being invited by the BA knitwear department at Nottingham Trent University to include their #wearemotionchallenge workshop into the University syllabus for the 1st year knitwear students.
The wear emotion challenge is designed to create awareness about the importance of good Mental Health for all. Talking about this important subject can be difficult so by expressing our emotions we can start a conversation about how we feel, which also show’s others that they are not alone. The #wearemotionchallenge has kindly raised donations for charities including Mind, Samaritans, and the Mental Health Foundation.
The aim for the students was to design and knit a balaclava that is unique, imaginative, and expresses a chosen emotion. Focussing on how their design can be zero-waste and sustainably focussed.
On January 12th Cunnington & Sanderson had the great pleasure of presenting their @no_wasted_jam zero-waste draping workshop at NTU. As an introduction for the emotive balaclava project Mathew & John presented various techniques on how to drape directly onto the head form for a source of inspiration. Deconstructing and reconstructing pre-loved garments the students began sculpting with their hands to visualise and experiment with silhouette, shape, colour, texture, and overall emotive storytelling along with sustainability aspects such as zero waste design, recycling and reusing materials.
The outcomes judged by Cunnington & Sanderson at the end of the academic year with the winner/s …... to be featured on the brands website and their social media with possible press coverage. Everybody will be invited to take part in the #wearemotionchallenge @cunningtonandsanderson to feature their final balaclava’s.
"It is a great pleasure for Cunnington & Sanderson to see such a varied array of creativity, design and hard work put into this exciting brief".
"The three students selected expressed a great amount of creativity and originality with their emotive balaclava design and construction, and above all their chosen emotion was strongly represented in their final work".
Many congratulations to all of the students who took part. Cunnington & Sanderson hope everyone enjoyed the brief and will continue to post their emotive stories on their Instagram account with the hashtag #wearemotionchallenge to encourage people to talk about their feelings which can create mental health awareness and support others.
Every body can take part in the wear emotion challenge simply by posting a picture on instagram wearing an emotion
and tag @cunningtonandsanderson #wearemotionchallenge. This will help to raise mental health awareness and start a conversation about emotions.
With many thanks to Nottingham Trent University and tutors Kandy Diamond and Juliana Sissons.