Young girls modelling the FlauraBand, a range of handmade, silk headbands made by migrant women living in Cork, thanks to the support of designer Charlotte Cargin. A PROJECT, and product, designed to show solidarity with migrant women who have fled their home country for a new life in Cork, has been launched here. Called FlauraBand, it’s essentially a range of handmade silk headbands but, according to Kinsale-based designer Charlotte Cargin, who is at the helm of the project, it represents far more. It’s about bringing visibility to these women in the community; creating unity and helping them integrate. Samara Usman and Galnaz Aaquif, showcasing FlauraBand, a range of handmade, silk headbands. Explaining how it all started, she says: “I was contacted last April by Dr Naomi Masheti, a psychologist who runs the ‘safe space’ at the Nano Nagle centre in Cork which aims at promoting wellbeing and integration for women and children in Cork with a focus on residents of direct provision centres. “Maeve Dineen of the City Council Community Arts department organised funding for a 12-week research project on creative arts for these women and Naomi got in touch asking would I run workshops. “Because of my clothing design label, Charlotte and Jane, which I run with my business partner Jane Skovgaard, we have an abundance of gorgeous fabric off-cuts and I decided this was a perfect material to upcycle into a new product I could work on with the migrant women.” From these workshops, FlauraBands was born, so called as it’s as much about creating head pieces as it is banding together. Kinsale based designer Charlotte Cargin, right, who is at the helm of the project, pictured with Deborah Oniah, left. Deborah is a qualified lawyer living in Director Provision. “From the unfortunate circumstances that have brought […]