In the previous post we mentioned the kente scarves donned by members of the US Congress while honouring George Floyd. Textiles can be used in symbolical ways and we looked at fabrics in connection with symbols in other features in which we mentioned for example Dutch wax fabric company Vlisco.
The latter offers information on its site on fabrics prints, patterns and motifs charged with specific meanings. One of its archival fabrics from the 1970s featured for example "Akplèkan" necklaces. The name refers to a string of 18 beads such as cowry shells or polished palm nuts and wild apple nuts. While the string could be thrown in a certain way and, based on how the beads landed their positions, it could reveal something about a person and their future, the Akplèkan beads connected by woven thread as shown in this textile, symbolise strength in numbers. This concept - strength in numbers - makes us think about what has been happening in the last three weeks with the global mobilization against racism that followed George Floyd's death.
People are globally calling for change and it looks like some companies linked with the fashion industry are listening. Vlisco issued this week a statement by its CEO David Suddens that was published on the social media pages of the company in which Suddens explains how the company - founded in 1846 and now operating three print factories, one in Helmond, The Netherlands, and two in Africa, in Accra and Abidjan - employs 1,650 people across Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the DRC. While the company has pursued diversity and equality among its staff in their African and Dutch headquarters, Suddens explained in his letter that their objective is aiming for a more diverse composition of its staff, especially when it comes to their Executive Committee that has only got three Black members out of eleven.
There are also other goals that the company would like to reach in future: Vlisco has indeed been working towards building a textile park and a textile supply chain in Africa and has been looking for a site in the Ivory Coast to start spinning and weaving Ivorian cotton. In the meantime, it has vested 20 million euros in the company's Abidjan-based factory and built a network of young creative talent across the region, called Vlisco & Co. Local young talents will be able to design their own prints through this network, have them produced in the Abidjan-based print workshop and sold them in a special store, and their works will also be part of a design competition judged by an African jury. This is a sort of new development of another project launched last year in which the women of the City of Joy in Bukavu designed prints in honour of Dr Dennis Mukwege (DRC), who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2018 for his work in treating women who have been gang-raped by rebel forces. Profits from the sales of these prints were then donated to start a fashion and design school in Bukavu.
In future, Suddens stated in his message they would like to keep on supporting women, train more tailors and seamstresses and focus on the concept of "mass bespoke" garment manufacturing in Africa, conceived as a more sustainable option compared to polluting fast fashion.
While one textile company in the massive fashion industry may not be enough to make a tangible change, you wonder if their policy - doing things rather than merely talking about them ("These are things that we do and will continue to do. They are modest but they are what we can do practically with the means we have. We don't talk about it very much; we just want to do it," Suddens states towards the end of his letter) - is more acceptable than the policy of all those more powerful fashion houses and brands hiring Diversity Councils and Forums for diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but still committing the same mistakes over and over again such as releasing a product that may offend consumers or keeping on ignoring diversity on the runway. Perhaps to bring real changes in the fashion industry we have to stop talking about possible changes and more simply start taking action.
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