The Untitled/ Entitled collection It's a play on words where Untitled comes from the definition of not having a name, not having a title, and Entitled comes from the definition of “believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.” During the process of studying the business of fashion and experiencing how it wall worked in the industry, I got to a point where my love relationship with Fashion became a frustration. All the notions of Fashion as freedom of expression and creativity that I had cultivated in my mind, crashed with the reality of how clothes have been made since the industrial revolution. The way most of the clothes are produced, used, and discarded nowadays, with little to no regard to the people and nature felt opposite to everything I had cultivated. It felt empty, entitled, selfish, greedy, and in captivity.
During the research and development of this collection, I saw this article of the New York times with an image of a bull on the run. The article talked about this bull who escaped from a slaughterhouse in Queens, NY for a few hours “before being brought down by tranquilizer darts”. I felt deeply related to the bull, that I was getting in an industry that corrupted all my core values of care for humans and nature. I felt that I was trying to run away from the system that is ultimately inescapable. The Entitled imply the voracious consumerism practiced by most people, (including me) and Untitled symbolize the animals, nature, and human beings that work in this industry with no voice or care.
I also could see in this dichotomy a possibility to rehabilitate, and come back to what we were before greediness took over. We cared in the past, about the environment, people, and animals, as we can still see this relationship in the indigenous ethnic groups that still exist today. We once lived in harmony and with sustainability because we were aware that resources are scarce. I remember how my grandma would recycle everything she could, and she is still like this today. Everything has multiple purposes, leftover food became food for animals and ingredients to the earth, old clothes after passed down between all her kids many times, became rugs and other things. My grandmother with my grandfather came from very humble beginnings in farming before moving to the city, and that forged this deep respect for all living things. The generation like mine that suffered less with scarcity many times doesn’t give value to things as we should.
Lots of people think that sustainability is NEW and in fashion now, but the truth is that sustainability is a necessity. It's something that previous generations, that weren’t part of the nobility, practiced throughout centuries. It's something that is still practiced today by indigenous ethnic groups. Sustainability is a recognition that everything has an impact, and should be treated as a full cycle.
If a bull that we consider less mentally developed than the human brain had a notion of danger and ran away for his life, and was able to escape, even that was for a few hours from a slaughterhouse. Why can’t we see our impact in the world the way we eat, produce, discard, and treat everyone around? What are we so entitled of that others are not?
I am hopeful that the changes that we are seeing slowly in the fashion industry will become a norm, a way of life as it was in the past.
Wake up from the tranquilizer darts that you have been living on it. If you can see your impact, act on it, knowledge is power. Consume, eat, discard, and live with consciousness, like if your life depends on it.
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The visual part of the collection draws from streetwear culture, a growing market that now expands to high end houses, and mix of patchwork created by nature and its interaction with the men. All of that is weaved together in a playful way materializing the possibilities of materials explorations, and our preconceptions of what means: sustainable + recyclable+ high-end + exclusivity
Is it streetwear a bull that escaped of the traditional way of fashion dominance and made its way to freedom?
Recycled materials (fabrics, leather, yarns) scraps, up-cycled clothing, leftovers pieces of test fabrics, from previous projects, and companies I interned, donations, swatch cards, trims cards, all found in the trash or considered trash
- to replicate such materials, I would search for sustainable sources to find similar and comparable materials, for example Fabscrap, Queen of Raw, that recycles old materials from fashion brands, as well as up-cycling discarded fit garments from companies or goodwill and others stores alike
- making each garment unique -
