Historically, needlework tended to flourish in female and feminine spaces — namely, the home. To embroider is to embellish: to create a fantasy world, allowing you momentary freedom. It gave women a voice when they had none.

As a Futurist, Educator and Designer I work across the Fashion Industry sector in areas as diverse as fashion, beauty, tech, marketing and innovation. When I started out as a full time forecaster in 2011, it was after being a design director and fashion designer for 11 years. At the time my work was about finding new trends to inform new products.

But now the scale of changes happening in the world, and what is at stake when it comes to our planet, is changing the value and need for fashion. And it is forcing us to bring to an end what I have called the ‘Hyper cycle’.

Deep social transformations have re-occurred these past few weeks and months, since the unfortunate murder of George Floyd. Not that police brutality is a new phenomenon. It has happened several times in the past without necessarily being shown or filmed. The violence and injustice towards Black communities existed prior to those events. Today, the question around institutionalised racism has made its return in the public space and it is hard to ignore the social racial issues it brings to light. - OP-ED BY KOURA ROSY-KANE