CREATIVES FOR OUR FUTURE
SWAROVSKI FOUNDATION
CAMILA WANDEMBERG
Textile Designer, 23, Ecuador
Ecuador designer, Camila has explored social interaction through garment design and research since her studies at California College of the Arts. After graduation, she started her career as a fashion designer and blended her apparel skills with a focus on color, textiles, people, and society, depicting an unabridged connection between all of her passions in her work. Camila brings sustainability to her practice in hopes of a clean and transparent change in the fashion and textile industry of Ecuador.
“Sustainable development establishes an equal level of respect between our planet and us.”
The focus of Camila’s projects was different forms of sustainability in textile manufacture. To reduce water waste in dyeing, she worked with a designer to colour fabric with bacteria, using ancestral eco-friendly pigments. With a local university, she devised a scheme that encouraged schoolchildren from different backgrounds to explore emotions through art. Pieces from their sessions were then transformed into textiles to be exhibited and reproduced, giving support to their schools and creating a conscious and emotionally sustainable product.
Camila is advancing three projects through the support of the Creatives for Our Future program; bacterial dyes and waste management, Art Therapy for children through textile, and the production of a sustainable Panama hat. All her projects are deeply connected to community building.
Camila is addressing the issue of sustainability in Ecuador’s textile and fashion industry. Her goal of this project was to develop sustainable advances to dying and manufacturing processes in Ecuador where a circular economy could be achieved.
“Having the opportunity to learn and connect with experts has been a privilege — the chance to expand our knowledge, to question systems, and innovate in the field. One-to-one conversations with people that already dominate the industry inspired me to push and believe in the development of my project. I learned from my project how crucial education is in society, in our ways of developing conscious decisions, and in the way humans view and take care of our world.”
"Sustainability has become the new compass for designers, artists, thinkers, and just about anyone interested in saving the planet. The creative industry is constantly proposing and questioning ideas — factoring sustainability into the equation enables different forms and possibilities. Hence, there is not just one way in which someone can be sustainable, there are millions of possibilities. By having creatives constantly innovate what sustainability even means, we are helping everyone to have a more accommodating and inclusive definition."
"My goal is to help create consciousness in people's lives. Living and advocating for a sustainable future is something I always seek to develop. I would love to be able to correct and patch up the wrongdoings in the production of things. I would like to educate the world to see the importance of taking care of our environment. I want to help create a change through what I know best: art, fibres, and lots of love for my planet."
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