#whomademyclothes

Last Friday, on April 24th marked the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse resulting in 1133 deaths. Fashion social entrepreneur Marianne Hughes, had the idea to encourage people to cut out their clothing labels and create an installation to highlight the importance of ethical sourcing. I had the great pleasure to see this come together at FRD Cut Out: 'Who do the labels on your clothes cut out?' event at the The Cube in Shoreditch.

Often as consumers, we simply purchase what we see on the shop windows or clothing racks but we never think about what goes on behind the scenes. For example, how does a piece of clothing end up on the racks of H&M or Primark? Why is it as consumers, we take this for granted and therefore disregard how a product is sourced and made?

Evidently, labels inside our clothing don’t give us the information we want, thus does not create transparency to the consumer. The fashion industry attempts to tackle this issue by integrating social labels such as Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Fair-Wear-Foundation, Fairtrade, and the EU Eco-Label.

However, there is still low recognition of these labels in the UK’s Generation Z (aged 18-25). As a consumer, we still have a great challenge to tackle this issue. It is our responsibility as the future generation to create a sustainable future and ensure our clothing is produced ethically and creating a positive impact on our world.

Fashion Revolution Day is a huge step to tackling this issue and the installation sent a powerful message of thanks to the people who made our clothes, and show support for greater transparency throughout the fashion supply chain. We want the fashion industry to cut out unethical and unsustainable practices because at the end of the day, I want to know #whomademyclothes?

Plakinger SS15

This mother and daughter duo behind PLAKINGER offers a line of clothing that is highly luxurious with undertones of easiness. Their vision is to create silhouettes that bring together feminine classics and elements of traditional men tailoring, catering to women who are daring but with class, which comes through from their choice of palette and cut details.

"Power is like a lady ... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

Molly Goddard AW15

Girly tulle and diaphanous fantasy is embodied in the designs by East London British designer Molly Goddard who once again melted out hearts as she shined through the BFC courtyard show space at Somerset House during London Fashion Week. Her work thematically describes coming of age and nostalgia taking inspiration from party dresses and Sunday best through clothes that are conflicted with the beauty of her delicate technique and a charming awkwardness of her fabric combinations and poofy silhouettes.

She is a young bright thing, only just graduating from an MA at Central Saint Martins in 2012 and loves to show off her arts heritage. For her AW15 presentation, we were treated to models clad in beautiful ball gowns in the middle of a life drawing session. The street-cast gang of girls actively being creative and generally just having fun is a truly refreshing mode of positive fashion display. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

SS15: The Swimmers

Dina Khalife’s line of clothing and accessories speak to individuals who are looking for a different kind of sex appeal. That certain confidence that women usually associate with plunging necklines and side cut-outs, are interpreted into colourful hand drawn textiles. It could be quite unforgiving, but her prints seem to flatter different body types, which some designers might be reclusive of.

The great thing about The Swimmers collection is that it's not entirely all dresses. To introduce separates makes it more versatile and less retro.

Ying Gao

The garments designed by Ying Gao are situated in the technological rather than textile realm. She creates fashion that is interactive and conceptual, challenging hierarchical boundaries within the art world and developing hybrid discourses of culture.

‘[No]where [Now]here’ is a project featuring two interactive dresses using photoluminescent thread and imbedded eye tracking technology, is activated by spectators' gaze, inspired by the essay entitled "Esthétique de la disparition" (The aesthetic of disappearance), by Paul Virilio (1979):

"Absence often occurs at breakfast time – the tea cup dropped, then spilled on the table being one of its most common consequences. Absence lasts but a few seconds, its beginning and end are sudden. However closed to outside impressions, the senses are awake. The return is as immediate as the departure, the suspended word or movement is picked up where it was left off as conscious time automatically reconstructs itself, thus becoming continuous and free of any apparent interruption."

A photograph is said to be “spoiled” by blinking eyes – here however, the concept of presence and of disappearance are questioned, as the experience of chiaroscuro (clarity/obscurity) is achieved through an unfixed gaze.

These are dresses and art objects existing in the real world, transforming the wearer’s waking and walking life into an artistic statement.

Women in Clothes

So often are we told by fashion and lifestyle magazines the 'rules' on how to dress appropriately for our body shapes.

It can be both a confusing and intimidating experience but new book ‘Women in Clothes’ aims to change this by embracing the complexity of women’s style decisions in a contemporary zine-like conversational tone spanning hundreds of voices, movers and shakers whom contributed include Tavi Gevison, Lena Dunham and Molly Ringwald.

Using photography, interviews, illustrations and personal testimonies, we are led through fashion journeys that are insightful, sometimes strange, often funny and completely relatable turning style into a truly open dialogue.

Mag + Art

Tumblr project magplusart by Eisen Bernardo appropriates paintings from the past by perfectly inserting fashion and celebrity magazine covers from the now into the aged compositions. 

Each magazine photo and painting are chosen with delicate precision so that colours, angles and patterns match the illusion.  Often images reinsert celebrity faces into the paintings of an artist's muse indicating a long evolving history of celebrity culture. Sometimes the images forge bridges between icons throughout the ages including a clever linkage between the iconic portrait of power, Hyacinthe Riguard's 'Louis XIV' painted in 1701 and a contemporary Vogue cover of an androgynous female model wearing designs from legendary fashion house, Coco Chanel who both paved the way for female fashion designers and helped bring trousers into the world of womenswear: "I gave women a sense of freedom," she once said. "I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding.".

These reinterpretations remind us of the unbreakable bonds between popular culture, fine art and history. Here our fascinations and obsessions throughout time are literally translated into an overlap of generations, eras and movements.