9/25/2023 0 Comments Fashion faux pas 2013One woman says “Western women are so respected, God has given them such a good life,” as they wonder about who wears these “lovely” clothes. They talk about what happens “abroad” wishing that they could go there with the clothes. “Maybe they don’t like washing their clothes,” one of them speculates. They discuss the clothes they see marvelling at the newness of them, they wonder why they have been given away. The exhibition includes a video of women who process second-hand clothes from Europe and America to be recycled. The sweaters bridge the distance between victim and consumer. In doing this, the artist links the production of the garment to the garment itself, forcing the consumer to consider the brutal reality of fast fashion production. Washaus’s sweaters have the press photos printed on them. Manu Washaus describes the press photos from the collapsed Rana Plaza as an “aesthetic, recurring pattern, which the media provides us.” Describing the photos as a “pattern” exemplifies how these images of devastation can seem so distant from the Western consumer and yet the clothing touching our skin comes directly from these sites. With the collapse of the Rana Plaza, 1,134 dreams died with their dreamers. Taslima Akhter’s photo series portrays the narrative of the ‘Death of A Thousand Dreams.’ Many people move from villages to live in shared workers’ barracks with the dream of a better life. The collapse of the building raised questions about the responsibility of allowing such devastating working conditions to transpire. On April 24th, 2013 at 9am, a nine-story commercial garment factory-the Rana Plaza-collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,134 workers and leaving hundreds more missing and wounded. The exhibition offers a stark comparison between the glamourous fashion world and the consumer viewpoint, and the harsh realities of the labourer’s experience. The next scenes show the exploitative labour of garment factories: workers collapsed and exhausted, sleeping among piles of clothes. A projected video on a nearby wall begins with a catwalk of high-end fashion, showing beautiful clothes and beautiful people – the glamour that one might easily associate with the fashion world. ![]() They talk us through each piece and why they bought it, saying things like “it was only 2 Euros” or “I just had to buy it.” It is light-hearted and demonstrates how common it is not to consider where our clothes come from when buying them. The exhibition takes a timely, critical look at the fast fashion industry.Ī video of a YouTube-style “clothes haul,” in which two young people unpack their purchases from a shopping spree, is presented at the entrance to the exhibition. We catch glimpses on the news, but the reality is they don’t cross our television screens or social media feeds as often as the next sale or this season’s ‘must-haves’ do. ![]() What transpires is that “the biggest ‘fashion sins’ are committed even before the garments reach the store.” However, instead of just telling you the problems and making you feel defeated and guilty every time you put on your favourite high-street jumper, the exhibition has a section on ‘Slow Fashion’ to inspire the viewer to make positive steps toward becoming a more conscious consumer.Ĭonsumers often have little to no idea about the realities of how garments are produced. The new exhibition at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (MEK), ‘Fast Fashion, The Dark Sides of Fashion’ is a hard-hitting and thought-provoking blend of art, photo, video, installation and fact.
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