Crafts

What challenges do handicraft artisans face while goods are easily available at the click of a button? Is there an expiration date to the existence of traditional crafts?

Supply chains faced obstacles during the Covid pandemic. Stimulus packages were introduced. However, little was done for women artisans. But activists and promoters of arts and crafts in Bangladesh seek to change mindsets.

Designing society: In a German-Bangladeshi exchange program, the participants explore design between aesthetics and social entrepreneurship

Fashion without exploitation: The fourth exchange project by Local International for students of fashion design in Germany and Bangladesh was dedicated to sustainability along supply chains. The students now present their results and responses in an online exhibition.

Although eco-friendly, ethical, and sustainable fashion has only been a recent awakening for the global fashion industry, Bangladesh has been a quiet champion practicing it in silence for multiple generations. 

Are the tradition-rich methods to create certain products still in keeping with the times or must they yield to the driving rhythm of the globalised economy?

Our editor meets one of her inspiring mentors to reflect on aspirations for a “good life” with the constraints of a finite planet and solidarity actions for Bangladesh’s crafts people that would continue to have impact beyond this pandemic.

Learning from Dhaka: In a German-Bangladeshi exchange program, young designers are rethinking crafts – as an arena for cultural and social sustainability

Rethinking fashion: a German-Bangladeshi exchange programme is in search of solutions for a sustainable textile industry