Kalopsia Assemble: Scottish Sustainble Textiles Project

On Thursday night, I went along to the launch of Assemble, a new textiles project byKalopsia; a creative agency based in Leith, Edinburgh. Held at the hipster-central industrial-chic venue of The Biscuit Factory, the event was a relaxed affair with delicious craft beers, and a couple of explanatory and inspiring speeches from the founders thrown in. I was intrigued to learn more about the proposed ideas, as Kalopsia's pop up collective The Facility sits not far from The Scottish Design Exchange where I work, but I never quite understood what the company's visions were, so Thursday was an interesting and informative experience in a room full of passionate, creative people.

A project that has joined with digital print company BeFab Be Creativeand with support from Leith Rotary, Assemble thrives off creative collaboration and preaches the benefits of micro-manufacturing. Below is the ethos of the organisation, which I think any local creatives will agree with. It will be exciting to see how the start-up progresses and what lessons are learned along the way, If you want some more information, go to www.contemporarytextile.com"We believe a sustainable industry is vital to the future of Scottish textiles. We believe that we are ergonomic and we take active steps to ensure that textile waste is kept to a minimum. Working alongside designers, we encourage a made-to-order production which is more economical and less wasteful. Kalopsia encourages a culture of rejecting mass produced, poorly made ‘fast fashion’ and favours high quality textiles that have been made with craftmanship and skill from concept to manufacture. We offer low volume, high quality, bespoke manufacturing services. Kalopsia acts as an advocate for the wealth of creative Scottish talent and works to support and create opportunity for those looking to establish themselves within the textiles industry."