In short vignettes tied to the changing seasons, fashion and sustainability pioneer Kate Fletcher, challenges the illusion that humans and garments are somehow separate to the rest of nature. Drawing out relations and responsibilities between fashion and natural systems, Fletcher invites a change in perception that can profoundly influence ways of how we think and act - including with clothes. Writings and predictions for each month entangle nature encounters with dressed bodies, upending fashion's usual tendency to disregard, devalue and extract the very natural systems it depends on. A beautifully illustrated pocket-sized book to take with you on your forays into nature. This will be a limited edition following the success of Fletcher's Almanac Volume I
Kate Fletcher (PhD) is a Professor of Sustainability, Design and Fashion in the Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Adjunct Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Her work, including that on systems change, post-growth fashion, fashion localism and Earth Logic, both defines and challenges the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability. She has written and/or edited twelve books available in eight languages, and in 2022 she was identified by author Margaret Atwood as a visionary. Kate is a co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. Her most recent work is about design, clothing and nature. Kate Fletcher is author of multiple books including: Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, 2014 [2008]; Fashion and Sustainability: Design for Change, 2012; Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion, 2016; Opening up the Wardrobe: A Methods Book, 2017; Wild Dress: Clothing & the Natural World, 2019; Design and Nature: A Partnership, 2019; Earth Logic: Fashion Action Research Plan, 2019; Outfitting, 2022.
Illustrated by Stephen Fowler, an artist and illustrator specialising in primitive DIY printmaking with alternative printing technologies, including rubber stamps and printing with tetra-paks. His work is held and exhibited in galleries and museum collections across the UK, Europe and North America. He is a keen teacher of his methods at many popular workshops. Author of the book Rubber Stamping: Get Creative with Stamps, Rollers and Other Printmaking Techniques. Stephen Fowler's art practice has focussed on rubber stamping and DIY printmaking for the past 15 years. Stephen specialises in public engagement using life drawing, book making, printmaking and rubber stamp making and he has run collaborative and experiential workshops at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Birmingham Library, the V&A, the Wallace Collection, Hayward Gallery's Wide Open School, and Margate's Turner Contemporary. He is a lecturer on Worcester University's Illustration degree course, a visiting lecturer at UWE's MA print course and runs master classes in the summer months at the University's Centre for Fine Print Research. Stephen has worked with many UK/International galleries and artists, including Jeremy Deller for The Strawberry Thief exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 2011. Stephen's zines and artist books are held in collections around the world including the Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, White Columns in New York, and Arnolfini in Bristol.
"my climate anxiety has been at its worst this month... Conceivably, it was at just the right time that I sat down to read Fletcher's Almanac by Professor Kate Fletcher, which went some way to soothe my anxiety and reminded me that amongst the cataclysmic it is still possible to reimagine other ways of being and doing. This is perhaps what Fletcher is best at. As someone who has been at the forefront of systems change and fashion as localism, with fourteen books under her belt, Fletcher has once again delivered on something that feels pivotal.Typically an annual publication, an almanac contains key dates, along with data such as weather forecasts and tide tables, organised in a calendar format. Taking this one step further, Fletcher's Almanac acts as a device to view the interdependency between fashion and nature, whereby nature is seen as the starting point and not just a resource for fashion to exploit." Meg Pirie, Fashion Roundtable
