Wear Is The Love?
A Designer’s Take on Fast Fashion
Clothing has evolved from a necessity and means of shelter to more of a medium for expression. In many ways, it's a canvas that artists use to express their feelings and imaginations called Fashion.
I’m intrigued by how a piece was made, the stitching, the story behind the fabric, how it feels or drapes on the body, which country the raw materials originated from, what the history of that country is and why the designer chose these particular things and put them together in this way and what were they trying to express?
There is so much behind fashion collections and fashion shows are a great opportunity to get a front seat into the designer’s mind. Like a well-put-together Beyonce, Jay-Z or Kendrick Lamar album, you’re taken on a detailed journey through their world at that moment in time. People fxck with it, or they don’t. Like other types of art forms such as painting or sculpture, you’re either tuned in or you’re not. You either get it or you don’t, and you walk away. If you can relate, you buy it for its value and you become a fan of the artist. You can buy separate pieces and put together your own style/outfit or curate your own playlist or be a collector and create your own gallery.
I think Art is becoming an endangered species, especially in Fashion. That’s probably why the MET Gala was created; to preserve the arts in fashion. Like a zoo, let’s save them, preserve them and allow them to procreate before we let them out into the wild. There are three major problems I see in fashion today as it’s fast evolved into mainstream entertainment/demand.
One: There are a lot of copycats/pirated versions of the original. This takes the recognition, reward, and revenue away from the original artist. This issue has been reasonably resolved for other art forms such as music and graphic art where if someone else takes (samples) even a little piece of an artist’s work, they must give credit and pay royalties for as long as the new work exists thanks to organisations like Sony Music, Universal Music group, Warner Music group and others. Now we have NFTs for graphic art. It’s changing the game for the ownership and distribution of graphic art. But what about fashion?
Two: It’s common for artists to feel the pressure to cater to the masses in order to get more sales and therefore more money to fund their passion to make a living, myself included. It’s understandable to an extent but poses the issue of authenticity. One of the greatest musicians ever, Prince said something like you’ve sampled a song which sampled another sample to a different song. Very soon, one song produced in present-day will be all samples mashed together. What percentage/part of the work you’re producing is your personal idea? Are you a curator or an artist?
Is there any meaning left to fashion pieces produced these days or are we solely giving the people what we think they want?
Three: Today, we have more clothes produced with no meaning behind the pieces than ever before. Not for shelter and certainly not as art. It has reduced the esteemed art of fashion to waste. Literally physical waste 🗑 Y’know, like a bad drawing your kid makes of you where you smile and give them a big hug but throw it in the trash when they’re not looking? Yeh, just like that. Clothes produced these days might be cute but they’re short-lived and eventually trashed. Although I could argue that the kid’s drawing is more authentic than what’s being put out here these days, this analogy is about waste. Waste is caused by the mass production of low-quality versions of copied fashion designs that are sold at a fraction of the original price. Unlike music and paintings, it’s causing a massive negative impact on our environment.
See this article by the UN on how much grief fast fashion is costing our world today.
My solution to this crisis is broken down into 2 parts:
PREVENTION
- There should be a centralised and tight-knit distribution network for fashion just like in music distribution and graphic art with NFTs. I predict the metaverse playing a big part in this. We need more Fashion IP lawyers and they need to form an association for intellectual property protection for fashion designers. Elements of Fashion like Fabric blends, print patterns etc should have some sort of registry or patent-able system. An article in Nativemag talks about the gaps within the various forms of intellectual property protection, and as such fashion designers are not offered adequate legal protection for their designs,”. In the ever-evolving fashion industry, the creative expression must be protected through intellectual property (IP) rights which are put in place to protect the “creation of minds” including aspects of design, logos, and more. However, these rights are pointless if they are not enforced, and enforcement is expensive for any brand, let alone small brands.
- This is a complex one for all artists but, nevertheless, remain as original as possible. Keep feeling. Your art is nothing without meaning. When you produce soulless work, the world may not know it, but you do. Money doesn’t wash off the stain fakery leaves in your heart. Dare to be different. Do you! One of my favourite musicians, Labyrinth said “ If you say to yourself, I have to be authentic, you’ve already failed” I read this article in The Atlantic that said “Clothes are a language we use to tell others about ourselves; fashion is a conversation.” and I completely agree. So if your inspiration tank is low, a better thought train could be “How do I feel or what do I want the wearer to feel? And go from there.
- Fast fashion companies have become like the bullies at school that take your lunch and push you in the dirt then force you to do their homework. These companies have ample opportunities to do good but they choose greed instead. For example, they could partner with fashion designers who don’t have the resources to produce their own collections and share the profits from sales. If you don’t want to share the recognition, then pay the designer you were inspired by (copied from). In music, at least ghostwriters sign up to be anonymous and get a handsome one-off payment. I guess they can keep doing it the hard (easy) way and get sued for millions of dollars. Clearly, they can afford it. It’s just unfortunate for the cash-strapped designers they steal from.
CURE
What can we do about the damage that’s already been done?
The damage is so bad that we’re applauding companies for making clothes how they should’ve been making them in the first place. Sustainably! With heart, thoughtfulness, with some meaning. We know some of you are faking it but the end justifies the means I suppose. Nowadays, if you don’t have a ‘Sustainability’ page on your website it raises questions. For a small business, that’s like having to prove you drink water from your mouth. Like duh! 🥴
We’re certainly not employing child labour or producing millions more than people need. If anything, our pieces have sold out too quickly and now our customers have to wait a month for us to restock. In the meantime, they’ve found an identical outfit on BooHoo or PLT for a quarter of the price.
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2. Can we safely dispose of clothes the way we do batteries and hardware? Sure, some of those still end up in landfills but much less now with accredited means of disposal. We should have more companies who specialise in safe and ethical means of clothes disposal.
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3. The government should incentivize clothes recycling more if they aren’t already. Grants or stipends should be given to fashion businesses that recycle clothes or use recycled materials for production. It’s more expensive for small businesses especially to take this route so they should be encouraged to do so. Businesses that generate revenues of over 5M should be penalised for having zero recycling measures.
SUMMARY
Clothing waste management services
Donate or Resell as a whole or for parts. (Gucci buttons anyone?)
Shred and turn them back into yarn to make new clothes.
Mix old and new yarn — recycled cotton/denim/polyester etc.
Blankets, tents or even housing
Originally published at https://gap-toothradio.medium.com on September 27, 2022.
