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HEAL THE INDUSTRY
by showcasing the possibilities of upcycling with brands, shops, corporate, green groups and artists.
SLOW STiTCH NOMAD / SINCE 2020
The virus asks ‘What is home?’
Your answer is not a space full of materials, is it?
Home can be as simple as feeling safe and peaceful.
“Your true home is in the here and the now.
It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea.
It is something you can touch and live in every moment.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Since 2020, amidst a world of uncertainty, Toby Crispy has popped up the tent of Slow Stitch Nomad in unforgettable places. Each gathering creates an intimate space, free from the boundaries of time and place, where slow stitching becomes a gentle act of reconnecting people, hands and stories.
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艹 田 丁 Stitch Our Inner Land - Phase 01 / 2025.09.30 - 2025.10.20
Echigo Tsumari Art Field, Japan
Toby Crispy @SLOW STiTCH NOMAD travelled to Echigo‑Tsumari, where 10 workshops gathered 35 stitched memories onto a grandmother’s bamboo‑leaf yukata from 30 years ago — a quiet reminder of pride held in craft, customs, landscape, and human warmth. Along a length of suspended indigo‑dyed linen echoing the Shinano River, 14 Hong Kong responses on reworked Cha Chaan Teng shirts respond in kind, stitching two places into one flowing conversation. Explore the stories here.
思 念 在 半 空 Miss You in the Air @ Kuk Po / 2024.11.19 - 2025.02.16
Organised by School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Toby Crispy has journeyed to Birmingham and London to visit descendants of Kuk Po, where today only one resident remains, together with migrants from Hong Kong. Their suspended longing was transformed into words and stitched with needle and thread onto old clothes that still carry their warmth. At last, the garments returned to the village, where they swayed gently in the breeze, bringing back a quiet liveliness to Kuk Po.
人 海 編 STiTCH PEOPLE SEA @ Aberdeen Ferry Pier / 2024.08
Project collaborated with Warehouse Teenage Club
18,690 holes were hand-drilled to create a space for connection amid life’s emotional waves. Toby Crispy @ SLOW STiTCH NOMAD collaborated to build huts filled with young voices and upcycled cushions from old school uniforms for comfort and reflection. When 人 represents a person, 人人 signifies everyone. Visitors read, wrote, and stitched together a “Sea of People” polyptych with 1326+人, fluttering in the sea breeze.
穿 起 時 間 DRESS iN TiME @ Oi! / 2023.09.01 - 2024.01.07
Presented by Leisure and Cultural Services Department / Organised by Oi!
139 slow‑stitched stories from the SLOW STiTCH NOMAD @ Oi! project become twelve upcycled wearable works incorporating moving images and lighting to trace the city’s collective memory and the passage of time. Presented at Oil Street Art Space, Hong Kong, the exhibition uses over 90% upcycled materials, with selected pieces later shared with those in need, extending their life cycle beyond the space.
SLOW STiTCH NOMAD @ Oi! / 2022.11.13 - 2023.05.12
Presented by Leisure and Cultural Services Department / Organised by Oi!
A participatory project reconnecting people, hands and stories by gathering Hong Kong narratives and transforming them into embroideries on recycled garment fragments, waiting to be upcycled into the final wearable works. Through 24 weekend workshops, 139 Hong Kong stories became stitched memories, forming a living archive of creativity and belonging.
SLOW STiTCH NOMAD @ Blue House / 2021
Project supported by Design Trust / Viva Blue House
Amid the pandemic, the first SLOW STiTCH NOMAD project documented the Blue House’s century-old history through research and interviews with the indigenous community, slow‑stitched by 38 participants. Their collective stories formed a shared record of heritage and care, finally showcased in the courtyard of the Blue House.
Photography by Kimio Ng @Obscura Magazine
April 2020 marked the beginning of the journey
Old and new faces, they met and connected
Connecting the past and future, stitching up the stories of Hong Kong
Dozens of pieces of old clothes, forty pairs of hands
In a year of time, we sewed, stitch by stitch
We took our time, slowly we sewed
Two spools of threads, creating endless possibilities
A dress, or a tent we created
Fast fashion lasts for a moment
But stories of the Blue House live forever
Listen to the audio stories of the old neighbours in Blue House
SLOW STiTCH / SINCE 2020.05
Column about the inspiring Slow Stitch advocates around the world in the beautiful bilingual Obscura Magazine
SLOW STiTCH NOMAD @ PolyU / 2020.09
A redesign project with MA fashion students of Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Despite the social separation, the virus is pushing us to re-imagine solutions in new ways.
To kick off the academic year of fashion design, Toby Crispy led the MA Fashion students who were staying in different places away from the campus, to make use of their old garments and the simple sewing tools around them to work on the redesign project. We discussed, developed, presented and shared with the world on Instagram with the hashtag #SlowStitchNomad on the Internet about our process of rethinking and redesigning fashion.
Be a Slow Stitch Nomad,
Set up your home at heart anytime, anywhere, and find peace through remaking your preloved clothing.
Recall how our ancestors got here,
Relearn the skills they taught us and
Reserve what we shall pass to the future.
Slow down and stitch through time.
A virus divides us, a needle stitches us together.
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