Beautiful things, sustainably designed and made

Crafts This is the 15th edition of the fair, which starts this Thursday. In addition to selling products from the fields of fashion, furniture design, jewellery, bags, (home) decoration, ceramics and stationery, the trade fair also offers a support program in collaboration with the trade museum .

Designgut is organized by the Society for Beautiful Design. “We take care of a good product mix,” says Martina Straub, who is responsible for finance and project planning at the design fair. “Some labels from Winterthur are participating; we put a lot of emphasis on regionalism.”

According to Straub, Designgut is made possible thanks to around 60 volunteers. “We can count on a very loyal team of assistants.”

Eternal Trinity

“We were probably a little ahead of the zeitgeist at the time,” Straub said when asked if Designgut was a pioneer at that time with a focus on sustainability. “Now that the term sustainability is ubiquitous, we can use it.” This includes three aspects: ecological (resource conservation), social (human rights, fair trade) and economic aspects. The fair aims to complete this trinity as best as possible.

“Sustainably produced clothing still represents a niche market,” says Straub. To guide the audience at Designgut in Winterthur, pictograms show which criteria the exhibitors meet with their products, as well as distribution, for example whether they were made by hand in their own studio. This year the fair focuses on traditions. “We show several crafts what traditions there are and how they can be reinterpreted or revived.” Straub wants to look to the future: “It is inconceivable that manufacturers will bring back more and more high-quality clothes because the labels know how the clothes were made and the best way.” better recycled. ” Rental items will also be more popular. “One day we’ll be able to rent a couch too.”

Claudia Naef Binz

Gut design

Thursday, October 31 to

Sunday, November 3

Winterthur casino theater

www.designgut.ch