Garments of Rebellion: Resisting the Manipulative Clutches of the Fashion Industry

Clothing is one of the most powerful tools for self expression. Your choices every morning when you get dressed determine how strangers feel about you as well as how you feel about yourself. Good clothing, powerful clothing can put your attitudes and your interests on display for others to see before they even interact with you. It is human to want to be seen, to be unique but also be part of a group, clothing is one of the many vessels into which we can pour that desire. We use it to rebel and to belong, we use it to feel more like ourselves.

The fashion industry doesn't actually want you to be satisfied, they don't want you to be yourself, they want you to be a consumer. An insecure mindless buyer, who feeds them money and receives plastic garbage that somehow got lost in your closet on its way to a landfill.

Useful clothing is human, it grows and changes just like you, it has the durability to survive misfortune, to take on wear without losing its integrity. Fast fashion is devoid of humanity, it is born of a greed and desire for your money, not with the intent of clothing you and being part of your life. 

This shoot draws on the consequences of our system and culture. A group of people who feel discarded wearing the discarded garments that make them feel like they belong. Those who will try their best not to participate. Our clothing reflects our life, if we need something new every season or are trying to keep up with trends how does that affect our self image? When a stained or ripped piece of clothing is thrown away how does that prepare people to deal with their own imperfections? My request is to love the stains or at the very least live with them, they are a part of you and change is unavoidable. We can nurture and repair our rips but they will never disappear, so show them off, be proud of the journey, show off the care and love it took to repair them. 

I find inspiration in the No Wave music and art scene in 70s New York, and the rebellious community that bloomed in the depravity of the abandoned city. In the broken city a strong community grew, bonded, and found home. I feel we are in the midst of our own apocalyptic destruction of what makes us human, and it's our opportunity to rebel and find solidarity in our shared humanity and expression despite these dire conditions.

Thank you, Henry Drapeau, Nest Intern, @seancedesigns_