Photo: Beatriz Fernandez Garcia
Patch Club is a research and design strategy that aims to:
– Build a community integrating topics like: social interaction, (fashion)design, circular economy (reusing, repairing, upgrading), local initiatives & women entrepreneurship.
– Act as an accessible social design school, rising awareness, transferring knowledge and learning by doing.
– Impulse and develop (women) enterprises in the social craft-production sector.
In the first project of this strategy ‘Welcome Patch Club’, we got a better understanding of the women’s talents & needs and we identified the added value of our design approach for the potential local social enterprises:
Welcome Patch Club! was initiated by goood to empower the women of the suburbs of Amsterdam by bringing design knowledge to their existing activities. After a preliminary research regarding the needs of the local women and initiatives, goood developed and executed a series of eight design workshops in which the participants learned basics concepts of sustainable fashion design and some entrepreneurship tools.
Over twenty-five women, involved in sewing groups, of different cultural backgrounds participated in the workshops. At the end of the project, several women had improved their product designs and started to promote their products in a more professional way. Others started to share their existing knowledge on traditional sewing and craft methods by giving courses and sharing with other participants outside the workshop moments.
This first research activity was undertaken by designers Beatriz Fernandez, Daniela Castelbranco and Caro Isern, supported and made in cooperation with our local partners: Cultuurhuis at Westside Coop, Stichting Nisa 4 Nisa, and Amsterdam Nieuw-West.
Do you want to know more about the strategy? Contact us!
