Spell my name

The idea

Daryna Eder: In FRAMIORE we want to voice the stories of the ethnic groups which dissolve in the modern world. So, once I stumbled upon an article which unfolded some extremely terrible facts about one folk struggling under the pressure of a giant country in front of me, I knew it will be the topic of the next project. The article was talking about Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China, and their persecution by Chinese government. Thanks to the connections we gained through WORTH support we met people who have been to this area, and to those who learned the culture of Uyghurs. They enriched the picture of the current situation and we started developing the project and speaking about it with people around us.

The birth of the project

DE: Spell My Name project has been born out of the need to make a voice of Uyghurs stronger. To talk about it not just during political debates, but to bring it out of the context and address people with visual and tactile messages in the form of clothes and photos. The Spell My Name garments are a voice to reflect the cultural heritage of Uyghurs in the modern world. We took traditional silhouettes, colours, ornaments, distorted, torn, and replaced them in the collection to bring the changes the folk group is facing nowadays in the spotlight. For the garments we used Western sustainable technologies – ecological fabrics and locally hand-woven elements. The design of the garments is minimalistic and timeless, which allows a lot of combinations and does not create an unsustainable consumer behaviour.

FOR THE WORLD: preserving the cultural heritage
FOR THE COUNTRY: creating working places
FOR US: growing, trying the craftmanship collaboration
FOR THE CLIENT: skin-friendly materials, European production

The creative process

DE: Some may think a creative process is all about inspiration and being in a flow. But nowadays the creative process is a part of a bigger network: marketing, PR, sourcing of materials, mentoring, reporting, productions, development and so on. So, the biggest challenge is always to meet the proper timings so that the next process can start. For example, provide the sketches of the outfits in time so that the pattern makers could start developing the samples. Inviting a photographer early enough to make the photos of the creative process. It is a living system, and the biggest challenge is to foresee the next steps and create the flexible plan for the whole team.

The collaboration

DE: Working in a group has a healthier dynamic in the sense of delegation and sharing the tasks. One-man work means you must do a lot of different kinds of tasks simultaneously and naturally some of them get postponed or not done at all. In a group we managed to split the work among us so that everyone had its own field of responsibility and did not interfere in the work of others. We all are a group of specialists in different branches and it is a great pleasure to learn from each other during the working process. Each of us devoted themselves to a field be it a weaving or marketing and working aside of each other enriches our knowledge.

The future

Thanks to the WORTH mentor Margareth Lartmuth we met many interesting people, including those who have been in this part of China and researched the Uyghur culture. They enriched the picture and are helping us to spread the word and find ways to help Uyghur people directly with proceeds from sales.

We really got on well with people whom we met through the project. And we are even discussing going on new ventures together. Expanding our collaboration beyond the project. One of the project advisors Dr. Savithri Bartlett is now helping to create and implement circular economy principles in production, and we are also discussing opportunities for starting projects in education together. WORTH opened so many interesting doors! This is about growing synergy cross borders!

We are planning to maintain the enthusiasm we gained during the WORTH project and create a consumer version of the Spell My Name collection, which will be available on our e-commerce website. The stories gathered along the project will be shared around our social media, celebrating the creativeness, cooperation, and storytelling.

As for the Framiore brand - a big path of growth and development is ahead of us, we are on the way of building the example of honest, effective, and meaningful business in Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk. Our great dream is to create our own laboratory and full on R&D centre, in which we will develop and test textiles and tailoring techniques, ensuring that we drive the way of sustainable principles production. To transfer this idea into reality we plan to attract additional investments.

The message

DE: Collaborations are crucial if you want to push your boundaries and grow personally and professionally. Speaking of myself, I would never manage to create something so unexpected for my own mind as it could happen while collaborating with other minds. A dynamic synergy filled with the ideas and energy of a lot of people will always be more powerful than the energy of one person. And in this project one of the most important roles of collaboration is raising the voice, spreading the information, sharing it with more and more other people.