Over three intensive weeks at Spring Studios, "Makers Camp: The Ghana Project" brought together CSM students, artisans, and sustainability-focused companies to reimagine fashion's future through a lens of Ghanaian heritage practices and innovative material exploration.
This initiative, created by Berni Yates, a senior lecturer and knowledge exchange leader at CSM, together with Spring Studios, goes beyond traditional sustainability discussions by emphasising the revival of craftsmanship traditions from both West Africa and the UK. Instead of viewing waste solely as an endpoint problem, participants approached it as a creative starting point, challenging the fashion industry's production models.
Ghana is the world’s largest importer of used clothing. In Kantamanto, Accra’s clothing market, traders purchase bales of secondhand clothing from countries like the UK and the US. Around 40% of the contents of those bales are unsellable, classed as textile waste, and only a small proportion of that is recycled: the rest ends up in dumps, in rivers and the sea. So, over the three weeks, Spring Studios turned into creative playgrounds filled with rescued materials—discarded jeans, hotel sheets, shredded silks, old trainers, fake watches, and even counterfeit vinyl records—all sourced from Reskinned and Lighthouse Securities. Additional deadstock materials were donated from Panama Hat company - the last hat factory left in Luton.
CSM students then teamed up with talented makers Ruth Kent, Rosie Merriman, and Jacob Monk from London, alongside Ghanaian designer Kojo Kusi. With mentors Paolo Carzana, Julia Dias, Joshua Ewusie, Julia Sue Dotson, Julie Verhoeven and Esna Su offering guidance, everyone rolled up their sleeves to reimagine what fashion could be created from these discarded treasures.
"Sustainability doesn't destroy creativity," asserted Ross Barry of Reskinned, one of several partners including British Wool, Harris Tweed, and Lighthouse Materials who contributed to the project's rich knowledge exchange. This sentiment became evident in the resulting exhibition at Spring Studios, where material explorations—not finished garments—showcased possibilities emerging from counterfeit goods, discarded textiles, and locally-sourced fibers.
The ‘M school’ project's power lies in its intentional crossing of cultural boundaries. By bringing together Ghanaian makers with UK-based designers and students, including BA Textiles Weave 2nd years, the camp fostered dialogue between different approaches to textile traditions. "This project is about thinking globally, reacting locally," explained Berni Yates from Central Saint Martins, highlighting how intercontinental collaboration strengthens both innovation and cultural appreciation.
Textile artist Ruth Kent noted that "bridging the gap between companies and makers is so beneficial," pointing to the project's success in creating meaningful connections across different sectors of the fashion ecosystem. These connections represent a shift away from the brand-centered, one-way conversations that have dominated fashion, toward more collaborative, transparent, and co-authored approaches to design.
Perhaps most striking was watching Ghanaian designer Kojo Kusi create his first art piece alongside Ruth Kent, who worked with a loom layering upcycled fabrics from Reskinned. As strategist Ekow Barnes described it: "It was raw, chaotic, and beautiful."
For Spring Studios' Strategy Director Lara Ferris, who developed the project with Berni Yates, the project represents an important opportunity to "explore the future of fashion from within a commercial industry space. To create such an opportunity for hands-on thinking is one thing, to do this linking up practitioners from the Global North and South is truly unique." By providing space and a strategic framework for emerging designers to interrogate fashion’s commercial future, Spring Studios demonstrated their support for perspectives that will likely shape tomorrow's industry standards.
This "seed" project—intended to grow into a 3-5 year program—also includes partnerships with researchers from King's College London who are exploring deeper connections to public policy and social sciences, ensuring the initiative's impact extends beyond material innovation into systemic change.
The collaboration also highlights the natural synergy between Spring Studios and Central Saint Martins as neighbors based in Camden. Although this marks the first time they have worked together in an official capacity, they share a rich history in the London fashion scene. Both institutions believe this project signals the beginning of a powerful new partnership that will benefit London's emerging fashion talent, creating a bridge between education and industry that strengthens the city's position as a hub for responsible innovation.
As the fashion industry grapples with its environmental and ethical responsibilities, initiatives such as the Makers Camp demonstrate that solutions emerge not from boardrooms alone, but from hands-on collaboration between diverse stakeholders. By centering craft revival, waste reduction, and cross-cultural exchange, the project offers a blueprint for fashion education that prepares designers not just to create beautiful garments, but to rebuild the systems through which they're produced, valued, and preserved.