After Fashion Panel Discussion
Notes from a conversation about fashion, waste and colonialism
I just came home from a lecture put on at LCF called After Fashion. It was a panel discussion with individuals whose work centres around global fashion waste and waste colonialism including: The Or Foundation, Jeremy Hutchison, Amma Aburam and Ross Barry. Here are some of my notes from the discussion.
What is OR foundation
Non profit based in Accra
Working to educate people on the textiles waste crisis while also providing alternative solutions
Shine light on communities that are making changes to deal with this crisis
Amma Aburam
Style and Sustain magazine - started as a blog, then story became bigger than her so changed to a magazine
“It felt like I had a best friend (fashion) who was lying to me”
The true cost documentary had a profound impact on her career
Started magazine to hold herself accountable with how she consumed fashion personally
Should clothing be considered as waste?
Besides all the nuances and political jargon, whether or not it is clean - if you can’t sell it at value, it is considered waste
Waste colonialism
How do you colonise a person, you take away all their traditional clothes and replace it with your clothes, but your old waste, so they look like you, but a cheap version of you
The domination of the wardrobe
Kantamanto Market in Accra Ghana
A marketplace that sells, resells, recycles, upcycles, reuse etc…
The issue with Fantasy Fashion
Greenwashing - there are brands who understand that they have to profit off of narratives in fashion. If the narrative is that consumers have a desire to be more sustainable, they lean into that but lie about the ways they are doing it
Green hushing - brands are scared about the reaction of their consumers if they aren’t as sustainable as they claim to be
There are cultures already embodying all these sustainable practices but they don’t use the language of the West to describe their processes - it’s more of a lifestyle
Should we be focusing investment in the areas where the waste is created or where it is being deposited?
As a journalist we should be looking for stories that elevate craftsmanship as the definition of luxury
Places in high street fashion - how do they stop producing clothes when they are target and profit driven?
If something was made cool, it can be made uncool
There is no silver bullet, but there are bullets - meaning there is no one right way to solve this, but there are many small things we can do
