Presse Münsterland e.V. | Picnic blanket as a fashionable accessory
The fashionable picnic blanket
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Press release

Picnic blanket as a sustainable fashion accessory: Münsterland e.V., Schule für Modemacher Münster and Münsterland textile company cooperate

MÜNSTERLAND/MÜNSTER. A skirt that also serves as a picnic blanket, a blanket as a handbag and bicycle bag, backpack or cape - since mid-August, seven students from the Schule für Modemacher Münster have been on the go when it comes to picnics and have already developed many creative ideas. Their mission: to design and produce a fashionable and sustainable picnic blanket with a clear reference to Münsterland. The project partner is Münsterland e.V., the fabrics were donated by well-known Münsterland textile companies.

"This is cooperation par excellence," says Melanie Schlüters, head of the Picknick³ project at Münsterland e.V. "Picnic stands for the Münsterland region's attitude to life and offers opportunities for innovation. It can connect very different people, cooperation partners, trades and service providers. We try to initiate these cooperations so that innovative products, services and experiences are created. The fashionable picnic blanket is one of them, turning the two-dimensional blanket into a three-dimensional accessory."

On the initiative of the association, the students from the first semester of the training course "Product Management for Fashion Design and Clothing" started in mid-August with many ideas. In the meantime, these have almost become finished products. "At the beginning I couldn't decide between my different ideas," says 19-year-old Maren from Münster. She finally designed a plate skirt with vegan recipes that can be spread out on the floor as a round picnic blanket. A picnic basket can be placed in the hole in the middle. "I found the idea of a round blanket particularly nice, so you automatically sit in a circle with your friends." And Maren also brought in her very own character: "As a vegan, I specifically chose a fabric with vegetables. Then I modified recipes from Münsterland classics, tried them out and immortalised them on my skirt."

The students also designed blankets with bicycle motifs, castles and palaces as well as the typical Münsterland gabled houses - all wearable in the form of a skirt or cape or suitable as a means of transport, such as a backpack or bag. And since the Münsterland is inconceivable without the bicycle, the Leeze also gets a blanket "to wear": Belén from Münster has designed a foldable picnic blanket that can be taken along as a saddle bag on the luggage rack. "The realisation was not quite easy," she says, "but in the meantime I am very satisfied." A skyline of the port in Münster is to be sewn onto the blanket to make the regional connection clear.

For the project, the schoolgirls had fabrics from all over Münsterland at their disposal: six regional companies donated fabric remnants from their production for the project. They included pit cloths from TextilWerk Bocholt, bed linen from Bierbaum in Borken, Westfalen fabrics from Mackenbrock in Münster and other fabrics from WÜLFING in Borken, Tegris in Gronau and SETEX in Greven. "Thanks to the fabric sponsorship, all the picnic blankets are also recycled products and made completely sustainably," emphasises lecturer Marion Beermann, who supervises the students in the subject "Experimental Design". And Laura Woolfenden, project manager at Picnic³, also underlines this aspect: "As a nature-loving and former textile region, the Münsterland has a lot of potential to contribute to sustainable production. So it's all the nicer when the theme of the picnic inspires us to do so and when cooperation perhaps turns into long-term collaboration. This is already the second educational cooperation in the Picknick³ project. More are to follow."

On 20 November, the schoolgirls will be allowed to demonstrate their models at the LWL Museum at an event on the topic of sustainability in fashion, art and culture. In addition, they will present the sustainable picnic fashion on 28 January at the School of Fashion's nationally renowned show: "Students on Catwalk".

More information on the topic of picnics is available at www.muensterland.com/picknick.

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