Flock, Folk, Field

Flock, Folk, Field. The story about wool, from the animal and the land to the hands that make.

We have become disconnected from the materials we wear. Where do they actually come from? Between a living material and a finished garment sits a chain of hands, places and decisions that has been stretched so long that most of it is now invisible, to the designer as much as to the wearer. What we cannot see, we cannot take responsibility for.

Flock, Folk, Field puts the linked actors back in view. This year we follow one material from end to end: a living animal, a landscape, a pair of hands, a body. What becomes visible is not only about wool. It is about materials we have stopped looking at.

International designers each work from one of three positions. Flock is the origin: the living thing behind the material, and what we owe it. Folk is the making: craft, community, and the techniques a place hands down. Field is the ground: the land, the seasons, and the farmers and foragers who steward it.

Seeing a system as a whole is the first step to redesigning it.