February 8, 2018 |
Walk past the Harrods shop window on Brompton Road this afternoon and you may be in for a slight surprise. Piled high into a considerable summit is a multicoloured mountain of second hand clothing, a landfill microcosm envisioned by Guram Gvasalia to raise awareness of waste and overproduction that we as producers and consumers are equally culpable of. The public installation, which remains until March 2nd, celebrates the joyous arrival of Vetements at Harrods this year, and is made from second hand clothes donated by Harrods employees that will then be given to NSPCC.
But the message here is an ominous one, brace yourself for this eye-rubbingly astounding fact… “After the oil-industry, fashion is the 2nd biggest polluting industry in the world and overproduction is one of the biggest problems of today” says Guram Gvasalia, CEO of Vetements. “Over 30% of merchandise produced by fashion brands are never sold and end up in landfills”. This is about a cultural change, as Guram points out, “in a very fast world, the fashion tends to be fast too. We like the idea of slowing down”. Smarten up people, slow it down, curb your boundless consumerism and start sending us more of those unsold clothes!
