- Jun 13
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
"We didn't want kids to just make something. We wanted them to understand why making something from what already exists is the most radical, joyful act they can choose."
Half term. Two words that usually send parents into a mild panic and children into a state of boundless, directionless energy. This year, we channelled all of it — the chaos, the creativity, the noise — into something that genuinely matters. We took ourFashion Upcycle Camp on the road across London, and then, in a finale that still makes us a little emotional, beyond the city entirely, to the Turner Contemporary in Margate.
Here's what happened.
The Idea: A Camp That Travels
Chillie Kids Club was built on a simple belief: every child should have access to creative, hands-on experiences that connect them to the world around them — not just the shiny, new- packaged version of it, but the real, messy, wonderful one full of things waiting to be reimagined. Our Fashion Upcycle Camp is the fullest expression of that belief. This half term, we asked ourselves: what if we didn't just run workshops in one place? What if we brought the camp to the communities where children actually live? So that's exactly what we did. Six locations. Six rooms full of vintage fabric, old buttons, unwanted denim, and kids who had absolutely no idea what they were about to create.
THE HALF TERM TOUR — ALL SIX STOPS: 01 Portobello Road - Our Flagship, Notting Hill 02 Leyton - East London 03 180 Strand - Central London 04 Peckham - South London 05 Walthamstow - North East London 06 Clapton - Hackney
Every session looked different because every community is different. In Peckham, kids raided our vintage haberdashery trays with the focus of seasoned market traders. In Walthamstow, we had a group of eight-year-olds debating colour palettes with a seriousness usually reserved for professional designers. At 180 Strand, surrounded by the building's epic industrial bones, the energy was electric — big space, big ideas, big mess. We loved every second of it.
Why Sustainability Isn't a Buzzword — It's the Point
Let's be honest: the fashion industry has a problem. It's one of the most polluting industries on the planet, and the fast fashion model has trained an entire generation to see clothes as disposable. Buy it. Wear it once. Bin it. Repeat.
At Chillie Kids Club, we think the most powerful thing we can do is interrupt that cycle — and the best time to interrupt it is early. When a seven-year-old spends an afternoon turning a worn-out jacket into something they're genuinely proud to wear, something shifts in them. It's no longer just a jacket. It'sevidence of their own creativity. And once you know you can make something beautiful from what already exists, you start to look at the world differently.
That's not a small thing. That's a whole new relationship with stuff — with materials, with value, with waste. We teach children that things don't have to be new to be worthwhile. That making is more meaningful than buying. That sustainability doesn't mean sacrifice; it means imagination.
We align every session with the school curriculum — Design & Technology, Geography, Science, PSHE — because we believe this work belongs inside children's education, not just as a holiday activity. The world these kids are inheriting needs them to think like this. We're just giving them the tools.
And Then — Margate
T H E G R A N D F I N A L E
A Pop-Up at Turner Contemporary, Margate
We've always known that what we do belongs in cultural
spaces — alongside art, alongside ideas, alongside conversations that matter. So when the opportunity came to close out our half term tour with a pop-up at Turner
Contemporary in Margate, it felt less like a surprise and more
like an inevitability. Turner Contemporary is one of the UK's most beloved galleries, perched at the edge of the sea in a town that's become one of the most creatively alive places in Britain. It was the perfect setting for what Chillie Kids Club is really about: the idea that creativity is not a luxury, not a school subject, not something reserved for the few — it is a right, and it belongs to everyone, everywhere. Children from the local area joined us for a full upcycling session, working with vintage trims, repurposed fabrics, and haberdashery sourced from our collection. The sea light through those gallery windows, the sound of scissors and chatter and the occasional shout of "I've finished mine!" — it was one of those afternoons we'll be talking about for a long time. This wasn't our first connection to Turner Contemporary, and we're very much hoping it won't be our last. Watch this space.
Are We London's Hottest Kids Club
Right Now?
We're going to be modest for approximately one sentence and then stop: we think something genuinely special is happening with Chillie Kids Club, and we're not the only ones who think so.
In one half term, we ran workshops across six London postcodes and closed out at a nationally recognised arts institution on the Kent coast. We worked with kids from Notting Hill to Hackney, from Peckham to the seaside. We made hundreds of one-of-a-kind pieces from things that might otherwise have ended up in landfill. And we did it with a team that believes, deeply and without irony, that what we're building matters.
The hottest kids club in London? We'll let you decide. But we'd argue that a children's workshop that spans postcodes, partners with world-class galleries, and sends kids home with something they made — and something they've learned — is doing something that no screen, no soft play, and no themed party package can touch.
