Rebecca Earley is a Lecturer and Reader in Textiles Environment Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. She is an award winning fashion textile designer who produces textiles for her own label, ‘B.Earley’. She can be described as a practice-based design researcher in that her research integrates designing both as a mode of investigation and communication of research outcomes. This practice component encompasses a wide range of design related activities. For example, she produces hand and digitally printed textiles for her own label, undertakes public art projects and commissions, and is an educator, facilitator and curator.

Rebecca graduated with distinction from the MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martin’s in 1994. Her graduation collection was widely recognized as ground breaking in the field of printed textiles for fashion, and the heat photogram print technique she pioneered has since become an industry standard printing process, often referred to in many publications and texts. She set up the ‘B.Earley’ label and studio in 1995 with backing from the Crafts Council and the Prince’s Trust, and established herself as a cutting edge fashion textile designer. Her practice began with creating catwalk collections, and quickly moved onto costume design, accessory design, public art commissions and collaborative art projects.

In 1998 Rebecca’s interest in the environment emerged and she analysed her own studio design and production practices and subsequently developed an exhaust printing technique, which produced hand printed textiles with no water pollution and minimal chemical usage. Since then she has continued to investigate new techniques and theoretical approaches to textile design, working on a variety of research projects including: natural indigo at the Eden Project; Well Fashioned, an exhibition dedicated to eco fashion, Crafts Council Gallery; the TED Resource – a facility for designers that draws together some 2500 samples, products, imagery and information about eco textiles and fashion; Ever & Again: Rethinking Recycled Textiles - an AHRC funded three-year collaborative practice-based research project; and Top 100 – a long term polyester shirt recycling project.

The diverse and challenging nature of her outputs lead her into teaching textiles at Chelsea in 1995, and then into pursuing personal research projects from 1996 onwards. Rebecca became a Research Fellow for the Textiles Environment Design (TED) project at Chelsea in 2002. TED is a research project involving design staff practitioners at Chelsea. Staff and students work collaboratively and on individual projects. A central theme is the relationship of textiles and the cultural and ecological impacts of design. TED places the individual textile practitioner centre stage, where “80-90% of the total lifecycle costs of any product (environmental and economic) are determined by the product design before production even begins” (More For Less, This unique research cluster, established in 1996, seeks to 'explore the role that the designer can play in producing textiles that are more environmentally friendly'. This was the first research cluster in the UK that focused on the environmental impacts created at the design stage of textiles, rather than production or consumer use / disposal stages. Design Council Report, 1998).

Through the TED Resource the project seeks to help small-scale designers and producers make more informed decisions. Starting points for research may be theory, process or materials. TED has developed a series of environmentally positive principles and possible strategic solutions. These include minimising waste; using less harmful substances, energy and water; utilising new low impact technologies; designing systems and services to support textile products; and creating long or short life textiles.

In the last four years the social and cultural awareness and concern for the environment has grown exponentially, and Rebecca and TED have played a key role both nationally and internationally in creating and promoting eco textile design.

www.beckyearley.com

www.tedresearch.net