Designed for Life - In conversation with Professor Rebecca Earley

Published 3rd February 2021

Our latest podcast is now available.

In this episode of Designed for Life, we are in conversation with Professor Rebecca Earley. Podcasts created by Design and Technology Association in partnership with the Edge Foundation.

Rebecca is a design researcher and award-winning research team leader at the University of the Arts London. She is based at Chelsea College of Arts where she is Co-Director of Centre for Circular Design (CCD). 

In October 2021 she co-founded World Circular Textiles Day 2050 with a team of like-minded collaborators who all want to create clear roadmaps for circular textiles, by drawing together current academic and industry research into inspiring, shared visions.

Rebecca's practise research encompasses making materials and prototypes, exhibition curation and writing. She is also a highly skilled workshop facilitator and communicator, specialising in the translation of cross-disciplinary design-led research into commercial contexts for sustainable fashion textiles and other fields. She particularly enjoys the challenge of educating and inspiring all kinds of audiences into more sustainable choices and actions towards circular futures.

She trained as a printed textile designer (BA Hons, Loughborough, 1992) and fashion print designer (MA, Central Saint Martins, 1994), before setting up her B. Earley London-based studio in 1995, with support from the Prince's Trust, Arts Council and the Crafts Council. In the late 90’s she created her award-winning low-impact, ‘exhaust printed’ recycled textiles. Her creative fashion textile work has been widely exhibited over the last twenty years; her prints and garments are collected by museums across the globe including MFIT in New York, RISD Museum, as well as the V&A and Crafts Council in London and the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford).

Here are some mini clips to whet your appetite:

• Shift in Corporate Culture
• Rebecca and Karl Largerfeld
• This is Like the Rest of my Life
• Boredom is Really Important

Look out for our series of podcasts now. Search for Designed for Life where you normally access your favourite podcasts: Apple, Google, Spotify and other podcast platforms.