I’m growing more and more disillusioned with the fashion industry.
If the world had come to its sad end last week, many players in the fashion industry would have never realised it since they were too busy raving and ranting about the Lanvin x H&M collaboration, the ultimate collection that should allegedly turn all of us – or at least those who will manage to put their hands on some items from the collection – from ordinary and common pariahs into elegant and chic stars.
Yet, while this clever marketing ploy scored another point in favour of H&M making the just released Valentino capsule collection for Gap look like the Cinderella of the situation, I’m left wondering if it would be possible for the fashion industry to go beyond the mere commercial collaboration and truly create something useful, stimulating and lasting to enhance the quality of people’s lives.
In the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about projects such as the “Vacant NL” installation created by Rietveld Landscape for the 12th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (on until today).
The project moved from a critique of the Dutch government that failed to make use of the enormous potential of vacant buildings and suggested to employ them as spaces to create complex collaborations between professionals working in different fields, such as architecture, design, digital media, fashion, science and technology.
Collaborating together in these experimental labs, creative initiators and pioneers could originate new responses to the needs of our society, while sharing their knowledge and ideas.
Such projects would generate dynamic inspirations, helping to develop lasting cultural activities that could combine art and media, producing innovative urban and technological achievements.
I really wish the principle behind this project could be applied to the fashion industry as well. If you have been following this blog for a while, you may have realised that there are quite a few posts on architecture and science, disciplines in which teams of people are usually at work together.
So far in fashion we have mainly seen two entities - that is a fashion designer and a retailer - working to produce something commercial. There are indeed very few examples of artistic projects involving fashion or launched by fashion companies that do not have any major second aims like selling us something.
Yes, you're right, the fashion industry is not a charity and to sustain itself it must sell things. But, at the same time, I think the moment has come for it to change and transform itself radically by opening up to new forces, that is cultural entrepreneurs, engineers and programmers, able to create urban labs in which interdisciplinary work can be carried out.
I do think that, despite what they want us to believe, the future is definitely not in the umpteenth commercial collaboration (though Henry Holland doesn't think so...).
A collaboration generates money and interest for a fashion house and a retailer, but it doesn’t enrich any of us in the long term (and makes young fashion students erroneously believe a collaboration will grant their fashion house financial salvation one day...).
I strongly believe that genuine cross-fertilisation between different creative forces will eventually become the crucial way towards the most relevant contribution the fashion industry could give to society and, eventually, it will even get us out of the impasse of the current economic crisis by creating new jobs and unleashing the enormous potential within us.
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