Meet GFW21 Zandra Rhodes Textile Award Winner, Max Telford. Max is a graduate from Northumbria University, whose textiles impressed the exhibition award judges, which included GFF Global Ambassador and award namesake, Dame Zandra Rhodes. Read more about Max’s award-winning work below!
What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university?
The most valuable lessons I’ve learnt during my time at Northumbria University have been to trust my design instinct and reflect who I am in my work. It’s taught me to value to the importance of responsible design and think about how sustainability can be creatively integrated into everything I do. As a result, I feel that my design philosophy has grown and adapted as I’ve learnt a new way of approaching creative challenges.
What was the starting point of inspiration for your final project?
It all began with a little red tin I found in my Nana's house when we were clearing out. Within this tin lay the records of my family's Danish past and the events that transpired for a relative I came to know as Great Uncle William. A diary amongst the collection spoke of his time on the front-line during WW2 and his contributions to the war effort. Family's photos, a postcard of their Danish hometown and military documents all make up this priceless piece of my past which create the foundations of my FMP. My FMP research led me to discover new information about my Danish relatives I’d never known anything about.
I learnt that they moved to the UK during WW2 and my great uncle William became part of the Durham light infantry to fight in the conflict. It has been a process of re-piecing my past from what remains when there’s no longer anyone around to ask. It has been a personal journey that brings together the air looms given to me in order to build a memory for the future.
I wanted to research the Waste not Want not Campaign in Britain which saw citizens utilising everything in the house to support the war effort. My research led me to re-use old teabags and turmeric rice water to develop natural dyes for my work, which features in the final product. Novello land & sky takes inspiration from my family’s old military documents and WW2 uniforms, to create a project that explores the hardship and perseverance of the war effort. By creating a visual story through print exploration-based of old military diagrams and emergencies surveillance maps, my FMP collection is created from my great uncle’s accounts on the front lines and the people who fought alongside him.
What form does your FMP take?
My FMP has taken form as a collection of looks that all reference back to soldiers on the front lines, as quoted in my great uncle Williams aviation diary. I created two of the six looks that have strong story-driven narrative and link to each other in a way that is cohesive and relevant to my final product. The looks made were the Cartographer and the Pilot, I wanted to create these looks as they shared an affinity but also stood as a reminder that both perceive the land and sky in ways the other cannot. In addition, I created a publication called ‘Thora guide to deconstruction’ my project concept looks heavily at the afterlife of garments and how consumers can responsibly dispose of their clothes once finished with.
The guide gives an in-depth process to how pieces from the collection can be deconstructed and re-purposed, whether that be to compost, recycle or up-cycle the option of landfill is never an option. The publication also features an editorial shot from my collection that were taken in locations available to me during the pandemic. As a result of my research, my Photoshoot takes place at the B-29 overexposed crash site in Glossop. This place is the site of a plane crash in 1948, which saw a photographic reconnaissance plane go down in the harsh fogs of the Snakepass during its descent.
I wanted to encapsulate the feeling of history my collection carries with the physical remnants of the past these ruins hold. My prints create a direct link to the scattered plane parts along with the sprawling landscape surrounding this isolated site. Playing with the contrast of land and sky I wanted this photoshoot to encapsulate the essence of WW2 history and pay respects to the war effort. My other editorial shoot takes place in my bedroom at home, I had to create a studio in a confined environment that gave a sense of space. Opting not to use models for this shoot I utilised the effects of gravity on objects to capture still images of my collection falling. Almost like parachuters making their descent, the photoshoot uses dark lightning to create a soft but eerie feeling as though time itself had stopped.
What materials have you used and how did you source them?
The materials used in the creation of Novello land & Sky all derive from hemp and linen sourced within the UK. I wanted to use fabrics that were traditionally used during WW2 and Hemp was the most appropriate to the collection. Hemp is a responsible fibre which when composted returns vital nutrients to the soil. Following on from the waste not want not to campaign I wanted to use untreated, natural fibres that could break down effectively than heavily treated fibres. I also opted for corozo buttons and a Brass slide adjuster instead of plastic as I wanted to remove plastic from my collection altogether. I applied natural dyes made from waste tea bags onto my linen to create a Shibori effect printed fabric and developed my own screen prints which have been hand applied onto the hemp to create the narrative-driven print.
How has it evolved from your initial ideas and what have you learnt along the way?
I feel I have evolved as my collection has evolved throughout my final year. New discoveries about my past have led me to develop new prints and garment designs as I decipher my great uncle’s notes. Initially, I didn’t know very much about natural dyeing processes and I’ve had to adapt and alter my way of thinking in order to achieve an authentic feel to my collection. Research into the waste not want not campaign really made me re-evaluate my design approach and it became a bigger requirement that what I make has a strong relation back to my uncle. My initial ideas have grown as I’ve learnt more about my family and I feel that from where I started and just wanting to do a project on WW2 it has become something entirely more personally and concept-driven that reflects who I am as a designer. My understanding of responsible and sustainable design practices have driven my research as I’ve had rely on past events from the war that can be used to create a responsible collection in the present day.
What are the messages and themes behind your project that you want people to take away? Do explore any topics like diversity, sustainability or politics in your work?
Ultimately the message I want people to take away from Novello Land & Sky is that we sometimes need to refer to the past in order to inspire the future. The rise of throw away culture has made it so easy for us to not think about our waste once it’s in the bin. But we are now at a point where it can no longer be ignored. How can we create responsibility in a way that not only informs the industry but the consumer as well? What can we do as a designer to reduce our global impact? And how can we use our voices as a positive tool for change?
What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?
I want to be a part of the voice that tackles fast fashion waste. I want to be able to help research ways of reducing its impact on the environment and how we can responsibly dispose of our clothing after we’ve finished with it. I want to push for government regulations that implement restrictions on the quantities of fast fashion being made and promote more conscious buying habits to the consumer market. It’s so important now more than ever that people are aware of what is happening in the world, and to create a voice for transparency within the fashion industry means opening the gate for consumer to really understand where their clothes are coming from.
What is your plan once you finish your BA?
When I leave university, I want to do my masters in sustainable design, specifically looking at how natural fibres break down in the environment. I would specifically like to research and develop natural dyes that can break down alongside textile waste to benefit the soil ecology. Researching how to compost fabric off-cuts has been a part of my FMP over the last year and I would like to carry that research on and find ways of applying it to industry practices. Essentially how can we upscale compost to an industrial level?