"Hands on Fashion"

Carolyn Perry helps young people find inspiration in Islamic Art

This summer, ‘A’ Team Arts, a Youth Art organisation based in Tower Hamlets, London has focused on Islamic art to give the inspiration for their summer our fashion course 'Hands On Fashion'. Carolyn Perry, administrator of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, and Islamic Art specialist, took students on a tour of the British Museum’s Islamic Gallery and also the contemporary exhibition of Middle Eastern artists called ‘Word into Art’. With gallery visits for inspiration, students were then taken through all of the stages required to design and create an outfit for a catwalk collection. The programme works with young people aged 13-19. As well as learning skills in sewing and garment construction the students use different textile techniques and methods.

The results will be shown in the internationally renowned Alternative Fashion Week which takes place in London in March 2007: watch this space!