P001 → Courage Coat

Material conversations in making & courage.

The coat is made from a Malawian hotel bedsheet, the surface upon which a diverse group of people & organisations met to explore courage and imagination together in Lilongwe, 2022.

Sharing this back in London inspired the students at London College of Fashion (LCF) to engage with the same inquiry from their perspective, resulting in a final fashion artefact, returned and shared with the DAL makers in 2023.

The ‘plastic lilies & roses’ are made by the students from the base of recycled plastic water bottles. Using a candle to sculpt the petals, twisted recycled paper forms the strings hanging from them. Other reimagined-making techniques are demonstrated on the coat, too. The pattern for the coat itself is recycled from a 1950s Vogue couture pattern.

This piece and the people it brought together, marked the start of a reciprocal ‘making’ conversation between the Global South & North, through the hands of makers in Dzaleka Refugee Camp and the students & course leaders of London College of Fashion.