Can we decolonize fashion? JT Mode talks about the style below on Twitch

Julia Faure and Vincent Frédéric-Colombo, guests of JT Mode on 14 February 2023

Can we decolonize fashion? This is the question we can ask ourselves in front of each new collection when the shadow of the eternal question begins to loom: “cultural appreciation or appropriation? But in a less obvious way, this is also the question we should ask ourselves when faced with the many Western brands that have their garments tailored in countries known as the “Global South” where labor is cheaper and labor and environmental laws are less restrictive standard.

Because it really is a form of neocolonialism that is perpetuated through these current dynamics in such a globalized fashion industry. The countries of the South not only act as a workforce, but they also act as a “dustbin” for the clothes that the so-called Northern countries no longer want, as evidenced by the open-air landfills in Ghana or in the Atacama desert. Chile. Trying to decolonize fashion would therefore mean rethinking and rebuilding everything. This may sound utopian, but that’s what we’ve already started to do Julia Faure and Vincent Frédéric-Colombo, the guests of the next JT Mode to be held on February 14, 2023, from 19:00 to 21:00, on Madmoizelle’s Twitch channel.

Julia Faure and Vincent Frédéric-Colombo, guests of JT Mode on 14 February 2023

In his first collection for his new CREOLE brand, young designer Vincent Frédéric-Colombo made several references to chlordecone. This pesticide has permanently polluted the soils of Guadeloupe and Martinique to the point that its French islands now hold the world record for prostate cancer. There is a sense of a willingness to question the way the media treat this affair as a form of political engagement, and even a decolonial act. By decolonial we mean a current of thought that postulates that relations of domination exist between the West and its former colonies, decades after their independence. This current of thought therefore calls for them to be overcome.

As for Julia Faure, who you may have heard in the episode dedicated to hides of the “Matières Première” podcast, she is a graduate in agronomy and co-founder of Loom (an ethical clothing brand, which aims to do less and better) and member of En Mode Climat (a sort of lobby of companies in the textile sector at the service of the general interest). In particular, you are among the signatories of a petition calling for us to stop treating Africa as the dustbin of Western clothes, which would also lead to further (re)localization of our methods of production, waste treatment and recycling . . Which indirectly contribute to decolonizing our dressing rooms.

Front page photo credit: Julia Faure photographed by Romy Alizée; Vincent Frédéric-Colombo by @julien_faucher / @trentehuitfilms / @_laprediction.