Sharing knowledge - creating synergies.
What we do
Assemblage Worldwide is a transnational research and cultural platform working across textile systems, material knowledge, and design education.
We operate at the intersection of research, practice, and cultural exchange — focusing on how textile systems are produced, understood, and transformed in response to ecological and social challenges.
Across contexts, we collaborate with designers, researchers, students, and cultural practitioners to develop situated approaches and drive more just and sustainable textile futures.
Why this matters
Textile systems are closely linked to environmental damage, resource use, and global inequalities within production and supply chains.
At the same time, valuable knowledge about materials, craft, and local practices is often overlooked.
Assemblage responds by creating spaces where different forms of knowledge can be shared, tested, and developed together.
Insights & Learning
We engage with textile systems through writing, research, and publication formats such as the Assemblage Journal, essays, and case studies. These formats open up critical perspectives on material practices and emerging approaches within the field.
Assemblage JournalVol. 1
This volume highlights designers and creatives from West Africa who are redefining sustainability through situated knowledge, cultural heritage, and material practice. Featuring Awameite Design, Emmy Kasbit, Lagos Space Programme, and Zohra Opoku, it challenges dominant narratives and proposes alternative systems of value. Vol. 1 is not only a publication, but a call to rethink fashion’s ecological and social structures through culturally grounded approaches.
Assemblage Journal Vol. 2 – Vision to Practice
Now live, this issue explores the shift from critical reflection to collective action. It examines how care, equity, and collaboration can reshape inherited systems and open new pathways for textile futures across fashion, education, craft, and community-making. Developed in collaboration with writer and editor Helen Jennings, the issue reflects on practices of unlearning and reimagining fashion systems.
Educational Formats
Our educational work connects students, designers, and researchers with practitioners across regions and disciplines. Through workshops and collaborative projects, we explore real-world challenges and develop practical approaches to more sustainable textile systems.
From Kantamanto to Global Change
with Yayra Agbofah (Revival!) In collaboration with AMD Akademie Mode & Design, this workshop explored global textile waste systems and their social and ecological impacts. Students translated critical reflection into actionable design approaches.
Can Fashion Photography Be Ethical?
with Eunice Pais (PAIS Agency) A critical exploration of fashion photography as a potential ethical and sustainable practice. Through mapping and manifesto-making, students developed speculative visions of ecological image-making involving humans, materials, and non-human actors.
Beyond Fast Fashion
with Media Design University + Yayra Agbofah (Revival!) A lecture and workshop series focused on sustainable practices, global textile systems, and crosscultural exchange. The program connected students with practitioners from the Global South, positioning collaboration as a driver for systemic transformation.
Cultural Dialogues
Through panels, exhibitions, and collaborative programs, we create spaces for exchange on textile production, cultural practice, and sustainable transformation.These include both invited contributions to conferences and our own initiatives, such as panels and symposia.
Learning Laboratory x UdK Berlin
Presentation of the research Shape Shifter, exploring shifting perspectives in fashion and challenging Western-dominated narratives in the field.
De-Fashioning Education Conference - Berlin
A collaborative open-access conference exploring how fashion education can be reimagined through interbeing, pluriversal thinking, and shared action.
Exploring Up-Cycling in a Digital Age - Berlin Fashion Week
Panel contribution with 500KG CO₂ exploring upcycling, digital fashion, and emerging technologies in sustainable design contexts.