KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (April 16, 2022) –
Fashion Revolution Week debuts in Malaysia, bringing together the world’s largest global fashion activism movement, campaigning for a fair and clean fashion industry in 90+ countries for seven days of action with its annual campaign from 18th – 24th April.
Fashion Revolution Week will feature a variety of interactive in-person and online events at REXKL from 19th – 24th April, inviting the public to:
- learn new skills and experience circular, conscious and sustainable fashion workshops;
- join in on insightful conversations in expert-led community circles on sustainable fashion topics like ‘Greenwashing’.
- give clothes a second life in clothes swaps; and
- thrift for a cause
while connecting and learning from our community of like-minded sustainable fashionistas and experiencing the week-long art installation by Dhan Illiani.
These activities bring the sustainable fashion community together and invites everyone to be a part of it, with advocates like Seri Mizani and Melissa Tan, advocacy groups like YUFE and FASHINFIDELITY, conscious fashion brands and fashion design schools joining hands with the 100% volunteer-run NGO, Fashion Revolution Malaysia.
“Fast fashion isn’t just destructive to the environment and the people who make our clothes – our relationships with fashion have become toxic in this age of throwaway fashion and overconsumption. Awareness is an important first step, but we want to activate people to question and change their relationship with fashion with the tools and education to take action” says Melissa Tan, the Country Coordinator of Fashion Revolution Malaysia and the EARTHDAY.org Ambassador for Malaysia.
This year’s theme, MONEY FASHION POWER, builds on the knowledge that the mainstream fashion industry relies upon the exploitation of labour and natural resources. Wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, and growth and profit are rewarded above all else. Big brands and retailers produce too much too fast, and manipulate us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption. Meanwhile, the majority of people that make our clothes are not paid enough to meet their basic needs, and already feel the impacts of the climate crisis – which the fashion industry fuels.
As global citizens, we all have the power to take action. Now is the time to rise up together for a regenerative, restorative and revolutionary new fashion system. Now is the time for a Fashion Revolution.
Fashion Revolution Malaysia aims to shift the audience towards a more mindful consumption mindset by providing them the tools and supporting awareness campaigns while demonstrating that reuse and extending the life of fashion are effective tools to enjoying fashion by redistributing the installation at the end of the exhibit through a swap or donation sales.
THE BIG WASTE
Fashion Revolution Malaysia teams up with multi-disciplinary artist Dhan Illiani to bring the reality of the fashion waste crisis to Kuala Lumpur, with a visually compelling installation titled ‘The Big Waste’ showcased at the cultural hub, REXKL until 24th April, built with more than 800kg of textile waste from Kloth Cares, a social enterprise keeping fabric out of landfills.
An interactive installation inspired by the mighty recyclers, the Dung Beetle and the Big Bang, ‘The Big Waste’ frames as the dung beetle, imploring us to question our roles in consumption and waste and the current problematic fashion system. The multi-layered installation is composed of a giant Earth made with a combination of plastic and fabric begging the question ‘What’s In My Clothes’ as we fill our Earth with textile and plastic waste with the fast fashion industry fueled by polyester from the plastic industry; other planets in the solar system as multiple versions of ‘unliveable earths’; and an accompanying clothing landfill in the shape of a mountain range, a realistic portrayal of how humans are replacing natural hilly landscapes with waste, like the recent news headline surrounding the Atacama Desert in Chile now turned into a global dumping ground.
With first hand experience of fabric waste from her background in fashion design, Dhan says “it’s crucial to keep the conversation approachable, we aim to create a space for everyone to learn the reality of clothing production and disposal and how to be a better citizen”
“We will expose the profound inequities and social and environmental abuses in the fashion supply chains. From the uneven distribution of profits, to overproduced, easily discarded fashion, to the imbalances of power that negate inclusion. Meanwhile, inspiring new designers, thinkers and professionals all over the world are challenging the system with solutions and alternative models. Fashion Revolution Week is all of this, scrutinising and celebrating fashion, globally and locally, wherever you are.” – Orsola de Castro, Co-founder and Global Creative Director, Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution calls on citizens to get involved by asking brands #WhoMadeMyClothes and #WhatsInMyClothes, challenging brands and policymakers to take action on living wages. We invite people to tell their fashion love stories to make #LovedClothesLast.
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