Fashion designer and mental health activist, Sarah Hollebon, has collaborated with Soho Parish C of E Primary School, Year 6’s and All Souls C of E Primary School, Year 5’s, to host a unique and creative workshop that weaves together textiles and mental well-being.
The workshop included Sarah talking about different aspects of mental health and how the children can look after their well-being. Sarah also shared how she uses clothing within her brand to reflect mental health. The children were then invited to create a textiles piece each that portrayed emotions that they’ve felt in a creative way on fabric. “Creativity is not about being the next Van Gogh or Picasso, it’s not even about the final outcome. Creativity is about how it makes you feel” says Sarah.
“The session was inspiring and filled with great examples of how design and textiles can help with our mental well-being, the children were very engaged and thoroughly enjoyed creating their own design. They were curious and eager to ask you many questions Sarah so this sparked a lot of conversation with many connections being made as some children shared their own artistic outlet.” Fouzia, Year 5 Teacher, All Souls C of E Primary School
“This was a very unique workshop. The children were spoken to about different aspects of mental health and how to look after our mental wellbeing. Sarah told us how she uses art to reflect different emotions that she feels. She showed us different images of her work which were very fascinating. The outcome of this workshop was children portraying the emotion they like the most in creative way on the fabric. The different pieces of work showed the efforts children put in to portraying their emotions. Children enjoyed the workshop and had a really nice time.” Says Shefali, Year 6’s Learning Support Assistant at Soho Parish C of E Primary School.
After both workshops, Sarah took the children’s artwork back to her studio and turned them into unique patchwork style jackets. The garments were then exhibited at each school as a unique and meaningful way to showcase the children’s artwork.
We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health, and it’s important we take equal care of both. “50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24”, a shocking yet prevalent statistic by The MentalHealth Foundation. Mental health has a huge impact on a child and it’s vital children are equipped with the knowledge, awareness, and tools to help support their well-being as they go through life.
Creativity is a healthy and positive tool for supporting children’s wellbeing. It can help reduce stress and anxiety as well as improve mood and self-esteem. It can be like a form of meditation, to help release emotions and help make sense of our feelings. It also promotes connection, with the people around us and also the connection with ourselves.
Located in Kingly Street, Carnaby, Sarah Hollebon says “I started to experience anxiety around the age of 11 as I was getting severely bullied at the time and then over the years, as the bullying got worse, my mental health got worse, which ended up developing into post-traumatic stress disorder. I was introduced to textiles around this time and I was instantly captivated. I enjoyed it so much, I would often go into a meditative state when sewing and designing. I was able to use textiles as a healthy release to express my thoughts and feelings. I believe there is a healing power in textiles. It is a cathartic experience as well as a skill that can be consistently developed and refined. This is the reason why I am very passionate about running my creative workshops with primary school children. I wish to inspire children to use textiles as a way to express how they are feeling, as well as show them sewing is a skill that they can take with them for the rest of their life”.
Sarah creating the jackets from her studio
Showcasing Soho Parish C of E, Year 6’s jacket
Showcasing All Souls C of E, Year 5’s jacket
'We were delighted when textile artist and designer Sarah Hollebon approached us to propose working with our school. As a school that highly values an Arts rich curriculum and also has a strong focus on our pastoral care and wellbeing, we welcomed the idea of the workshop to combine mental health awareness with a creative approach. The children really enjoyed the workshop and being able to express their emotions through the medium of textiles. We were especially pleased that this was able to turn into a collaborative project with our partner school All Souls primary school. The garment that Sarah made with the children's work was beautiful and it was wonderful to be able to display this in school for all to see. It's so important that children get the opportunity to work with artists and crafts people to inspire them and promote careers in the Arts' Hannah Peaty, Assistant Head and Art lead, Soho Parish C of E Primary school
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