Opening Remarks by Yimin Deng-Wen
As the organizer of this event, we are so very excited to inaugurate the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion Connecticut Chapter. UCRF is an international alliance of fashion researchers that are involved in addressing our intensifying ecological and planetary crisis. The artist founder of TILL: bioFASHIONtech, Jane Philbrick, is a signatory of UCRF.
I learned about UCRF through Dr. Timo Rissanen, who is the co-founder of the organization and a professor I extremely admire at my alma mater, Parsons School of Design. UCRF’s mission to take a leadership role in fashion sustainability, to advocate for systematic change, to diversify the discourse of the field,, to organize and to formulate visions converge with my path, a young designer researching, experimenting and creating solutions. It also converges with the purpose of TILL: bioFASHIONtech, that is to “build a new model that makes the old model obsolete”, quoting Buckminster Fuller.
It is truly exciting that we have a diverse panel here this evening to explore the opportunity of ecological fashion, not in the distant future, but of right here, right now. We came to know these practitioners, through community connections, through doing what we truly believe in and doing what must happen. There is so much beauty in being connected to these amazing people and realizing the support and companionship we have.
Once again, thank you all for being here. The movement of ecological fashion and planetary ecology is a movement of imagination, not of outlandish thoughts, but of courageous actions that we urgently need today. Enjoy.
