Design and sustainability are at the heart of local international. It is our aim to educate, inspire and encourage young fashion designers to be visionaries and design thinkers. We hope to create a generation of informed designers that are pioneers at the forefront of changing the fashion and textile industry.
rethinking fashion
local international motivates designers to use materials and labour responsibly and to consider the entire life cycle of a product in their design.
local international fosters an awareness of the wide range of choices designers are presented with in their future working lives and the manifold responsibilities they take on in their work.
Since 2014, 74 fashion designers and fashion design students from Germany and Bangladesh have been selected to join local international on four exchange projects so far. Our projects offer an inspiring syllabus reaching from international excoursions, symposiums and lectures to practical workshops and best practice site visits of ethical and sustainably producing fashion companies.
In lectures and specialised workshops, our participants are provided with an insight into the current developments and new research in the areas of sustainability and design, in order to develop their individual creative approaches, concepts, products and collections.
We visit production sites and meet with NGOs, designers, artisans, workers and representatives of the fashion and textile industry in Bangladesh and Germany. local international has been invited to visit outstanding industrial operations and beautiful individual design studios to show the wide spectrum of best practice in the area of sustainability.
local international °1
Professional Development Training
Exchange programme for fashion designers from Germany and Bangladesh focussing on sustainable fashion design strategies
In Autumn 2014, local international started as professional development training for fashion designers from Dhaka and Berlin. The pilot project aimed to raise awareness for sustainability, participation and fair trade within the fashion industry.
local international °2
International Design Exchange
Project for fashion students from Germany and Bangladesh focussing on sustainable design in the fashion and textile industry
The second edition of local international started in October 2015, this time with fashion design students from Dhaka and Berlin.
local international °3
Sustainable Design Conference
in Berlin for fashion lecturers and fashion designers from Germany and Bangladesh
The third edition of local international was organized as a Sustainable Design Conference in Berlin in Dec 2016.
local international °4
Digital Edition
Digital semester focussing on sustainability and crafts
local international °4 was a semester of daily web seminars and digital company visits, video talks and online discussions focusing on sustainability with the aim to encouraging the collaboration with artisans. The project took place from April 2020 – Aug 2020.
exhibitions
In the course of the local international projects, all participants conducted design research and created individual innovative concept ideas, strategies for sustainable products or conceptual design solutions within the wide field of sustainability, often alongside cooperation partners in the industry and NGOs.The individual project results and our exhibitions are not the most important output of local international but its input into the way these designers will shape their industry in the future.
The project outcomes have been presented in three exhibitions: local international °1, at the design transfer gallery of Universität der Künste Berlin during Berlin Fashion Week 2015, local international °2 in the Kunsthalle at weißensee kunsthochschule berlin in April 2016 and local international °3 at Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Bidyapeeth Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh in April 2019.
