Natalie Chanin has been described as THE innovator of slow fashion. Natalie will share her work of sustainable design, craft preservation, organic supply chains, local manufacturing, and social equity work. As the founder of Alabama Chanin, Project Threadways, and The School of Making, Natalie has unique insights into sustainable design and placing your values at the center of your design practice. 

ASL interpretation will not be offered at the event. The lecture uses a slide presentation. All content from the slides will be read aloud or described. 

SPEAKER BIO:

Natalie Chanin is a designer, artist, writer, and founder of Alabama Chanin, Project Threadways, and The School of Making. She has a Bauhaus-inspired degree in Environmental Design with an emphasis in industrial and craft-based textiles from North Carolina State University. In 2000, she left a career in Europe and New York City to return to her hometown in The Shoals community of northwest Alabama, to begin the work of sustainable design, craft preservation, organic supply chains, local manufacturing, and the social equity work which culminates in the three organizations today.

Chanin continues to work in the arts and design with a love for public history—using conversation and scholarship to bridge generational, economic, cultural, and social gaps—unfurling a more equitable future for textiles, people, and planet. She has written six books and is a mother of two, an avid gardener, and an enthusiastic cook and entertainer from her home in The Shoals.

Link to CFDA Bio: https://cfda.com/members/profile/natalie-chanin

About California College of the Arts

Located at the center of innovation and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area, California College of the Arts is home to a world-renowned faculty of practicing artists and entrepreneurs, and a diverse community of makers that are boldly reimagining the world. Offering 22 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs in fine arts, architecture, design, and writing, CCA’s creative culture is built around the ideals of interdisciplinary collaboration, sustainability, and community engagement.

California College of the Arts campuses are located in Huichin and Yelamu, also known as Oakland and San Francisco, respectively, on the unceded territories of Chochenyo and Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, who have continuously lived upon this land since time immemorial. We recognize the historic discrimination and violence inflicted upon Indigenous peoples in California and the Americas, including their forced removal from ancestral lands, and the deliberate and systematic destruction of their communities and culture. CCA honors Indigenous peoples—past, present, and future—here and around the world, and we wish to pay respect to local elders, including those of the lands from which you are joining us virtually today. If you are unsure of who’s land you are currently residing upon, we encourage you to visit native-land.ca.