Friday 6 June
13:30 – 17:30
The Studio
Climate activist Aditi Mayer joins Safia Minney MBE in conversation exploring the role of craftsmanship, social justice and environmental responsibility.
Join Safia Minney MBE, founder of Indilisi, and storyteller and sustainability activist Aditi Mayer to examine the role of craftsmanship in the contemporary marketplace and the significance of its cultural lineage in Sofa Story #5.
Shifting the focus to traditional craftsmanship and the opportunities that lie in supporting and scaling craft production, the discussion will consider how supporting global communities can contribute to a new commercial model that values grassroots creativity while championing environmental and social justice. Can the broader fashion industry take the traditions of the past and flip the script, moving towards an inclusive and restorative model that challenges today’s disposable culture?
Sofa Story #5 is part of our series of ‘Sofa Stories’ with experts and professionals in their field where we explore topics such as Circular Design, Social and Ethical Practice and consider how we can produce fabrics more regeneratively. Come along to learn how designers and start-ups are channeling their creativity to re-think traditional design systems and innovate the craft of making, as a designer label or larger brand. Book your slot for our morning Circular Design Practice session here.
Aditi Mayer
Aditi Mayer is an interdisciplinary thought leader working at the intersection of social and environmental justice. As a journalist, photographer, and public speaker, her work examines inequities within global supply chains—particularly in the fashion industry—while amplifying narratives of resilience, heritage, and cultural preservation. She is the founder of The Artisan Archive, a storytelling and social impact platform weaving narratives of craft, climate, and culture. Mayer’s advocacy began in 2014, organizing within Los Angeles’ garment industry and mobilizing for labor justice in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza Factory Collapse. In 2020, she was named a National Geographic Explorer, documenting the social and environmental dimensions of India’s farming and artisan textile industries. Beyond her professional work, Mayer serves on the boards of the Garment Worker Center, Fashion Revolution India, and Governance for Tomorrow, deepening her commitment to systemic change. From features in Vogue to National Geographic, she is known for bridging art, industry, and education—all through a socially conscious lens.
The Artisan Archive
After years spent documenting cultures and craft communities around the world—handloom weavers in India, shea cooperatives in West Africa, agroforestry projects in Peru, to kintsugi masters in Japan—our founder, journalist and environmental storyteller Aditi Mayer began to observe a shared precarity: traditional craft and cultural knowledge systems under threat. Not because they lacked relevance, but because the systems surrounding them had failed to protect, honor, or invest in their survival.
The Artisan Archive emerged in response: a storytelling platform and culture lab dedicated to the preservation—and evolution—of global craft ecologies. The platform examines the cultural, ecological, and political forces that shape artisanal traditions through documentation, design. Here, craft is not seen as static folklore, but as a living system of resistance, resilience, and regeneration.
This is a space rooted in memory, but driven by possibility—one that sees the past not as nostalgia, but as a strategy for shaping the future of fashion, design, and culture at large.
