Making Loved Clothes Last with #ONEDRESSTOIMPRESS
This is a guest blog post by Point Off View, an agency focused on digital communication and sustainable transformation.
Creative director and artivist Marina Testino has launched the #OneDressToImpress challenge to showcase what sustainability means for climate justice and gender equality. All by wearing the same sustainably sourced purple suit for the month of September, fashion month.
The challenge is not much different from her 2018 #OneDressToImpress – yet, the message a bit more complex: Testino aims to raise awareness around conscious consumerism as well as women empowerment. In other words, she is on a mission to cultivate and inspire audiences on how to be conscious with our closets in order to support climate justice and also denounce the existing gender gap within the fashion industry.
Using a forceful visual narrative, she targets what is beneath the surface: the immense 80% of young women working in the fashion world as well as those in the corporate and consumer side that don’t have a voice and are kept in the dark. Purple was chosen for the suit as it is historically associated with the fight for gender equality, representing justice and dignity.
The campaign shows that equality and sustainability are strongly intertwined and that they can only be achieved through a communion of purposes and spirits. It is imperative, now more than ever, that all those involved in the fashion industry, understand the vital importance of their roles and push for a change.
Cheap prices and overproduction of clothing are some of the reasons why the fashion industry is one of the biggest producers of waste in the world. Over 20% of what’s made ends up unconsumed and, therefore, thrown away. As we know, these tons of unused material will not simply disappear from the Earth’s surface but rather, will remain and grow if consumers don’t ask for a change. Because of old patterns and linear practices, fashion still produces higher than its demand, and we cannot afford this way of irresponsible waste anymore.
This Purple Edition tells us that there is no need to treat consumers as simply the destination of a product but rather the essential medium for a real change. Marina reminds us that the time has come for everyone to really start being conscious about what is going on around them, starting from a small milestone such as what we wear every day.
Wearing only this outfit for a whole month, she wants to provoke the fashion industry, raise awareness around its constant consumerist marketing and demonstrate how one suit can have endless uses. This campaign is sending the message that all of us can have our own #OneDressToImpress and that we should all take on this challenge and try to overcome preconceptions, awaken our creativity and remember that #LovedClothesLast.
