At this point, it’s not exactly controversial to say that the fashion industry is fundamentally broken on many levels – it’s an accepted fact. But what’s also widely accepted is that the ones who broke it are the ones who know best how to fix it. I wouldn’t trust the guy who burnt my house down with the task of rebuilding it, yet western brands have the hubris to position themselves as fashion’s sole saviours. Now, a new exhibition wants us to rethink that narrative and look to other sources for leadership.
The State of Fashion Biennale exists to showcase alternatives to the current fashion system. This year, under the theme ‘Ties that Bind’, the exhibition has turned the lens on the Global South. Usually located in Arnhem, 2024 saw the Biennale unfold across three sister sites in Nairobi, Bengaluru, and São Paulo ahead of its arrival in the Netherlands to decentralise its platform and expand its horizons. While the focus in the sister sites was local, spotlighting regional talent, it’s firmly global in Arnhem, a demonstration to its European visitors of what fashion could be if globalisation wasn’t just shorthand for cheap labour.
The result is an exhibition that feels fresh, hopeful and revolutionary, even when the designs on show are rooted in many generations of tradition. While the productionised, homogenous nature of big fashion as most of us in the west know it has sent the industry into a social and environmental tailspin, this crop of designers from countries across the Global South are making clothes which are rooted in place, craft, and community – elements that should be at the heart of fashion everywhere. Here, we celebrate six designers doing fashion the right way.
NKWO is a Nigerian brand combining traditional craft with textile waste reduction. Designer Nkwo Onwuka describes most countries in Africa as being “on the threshold of a waste crisis” due to inadequate waste management systems and the influx of cheap, mass-produced fast fashion. “There was the need to turn this challenge into an opportunity and it was… looking for a solution to these problems that a system of stripping waste textile and sewing it back together… resulted in a new textile,” the brand says. Made from strips of second-hand denim, a single panel of what’s been named ‘Dakala Cloth’– whether it’s stitched, woven or braided – can take up to six hours to make, and the skilled labour needed to craft it provides opportunities for vulnerable women to learn to weave via the brand’s social initiative, NKWO Transform. The brand’s skill-building, waste-busting collections have been shown at Lagos Fashion Week and featured in Vogue Arabia, worn by Naomi Campbell.
Luna Del Pinal, founded by Gabriela Luna and Corina Del Pinal, designs and makes every collection in Guatemala. The brand works with over 200 artisans from marginalised communities, incorporating traditional textile techniques such as crochet and backstrap loom weaving into contemporary womenswear. Generations of skill and artisanship are embedded in Luna Del Pinal’s textiles, but the pieces are definitively modern – anyone who covets the undulating forms of Sinéad O’Dwyer and Solitude Studios or dips their toes in archival Y2K would be adding this brand to their basket. While many brands either flat out steal artisanal aesthetics or inflict their stringent demands on artisanal communities, Luna Del Pinal works in collaboration with its artisans to develop new textiles. Creativity flourishes when you respect and collaborate with the people who make your clothes.
Bobby Kolade, the Uganda-based designer behind BUZIGAHILL, has become a central voice in the fight against waste colonialism – the practice of exporting low-grade fashion from the Global North to the Global South where it becomes a social and environmental blight. The brand’s Return to Sender collection is based upon the idea of deconstructing and remanufacturing clothing waste into wearable garments and redistributing them back to the Global North. But what’s often overlooked is that BUZIGAHILL is simply a great fashion brand. Working within the constraints of repurposing, it has created a laid back, cut and paste aesthetic that’s become a go-to for upcycling and is now emulated by countless Western brands (ironically, often making stuff from brand new materials).
IAMISIGO describes itself as a “wearable art brand” and it’s not hard to see why. The intricate macrame, beading, handweaving, patchwork, and appliqué demand to be inspected and appreciated like art, and when you learn the context behind each piece – the weeks long artisanal process of making, the ancestral techniques, the unconventional fibres – you’re drawn into the story further still. Exhibited at the Nairobi sister site and now in situ in Arnhem, the IAMISIGO pieces on display are made from barkcloth, an ancient material made from the inner bark of the Mutuba tree found in Kampala, Uganda. “Our work reclaims forgotten historical narratives, converting them into garments and fibres that serve as a form of silent protest against post-colonialism,” the brand says. It doesn’t need western textile ‘innovation’; the knowledge and materials already exist, and they are abundant across Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, where the brand is based, and within the many remote African communities it draws from.
This Argentinian brand’s name translates as ‘we study’. It is in a constant state of research and development as it seeks to push the boundaries of vegan, local, bio-based materials. While many brands’ forays into biomaterials such as mycelium (aka ‘mushroom leather’) have been about mimicking existing materials to make duplicates of best-selling sneakers or luxury bags, Nous Étudions, which was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2020, is more concerned with playing with new possibilities. At the hands of creative director Romina Cardillo, vegetable dyed cannabis fibre, cactus-based ‘leather’ and grape-based bio latex become see-through lime green suits, banana yellow trench coats, and enormous knotted jackets. Made in limited editions, Nous Étudions’ collections are creating a whole new sector rather than simulating an old one.
For Cape Town-based Lukhanyo Mdingi, the design process starts with people. The eponymous designer has forged close relationships with artisans and expert weavers, allowing their ability to drive his concepts – preserving craftsmanship, which is so often diminished and threatened, and providing fair compensation for skilled work. A stand-out example of this is the Burkina Collection which, via a partnership with the Ethical Fashion Initiative, saw the brand collaborate with Cabes, a network of 2,000 artisans weaving traditional cotton textiles in Burkina Faso. Blend the dedication to people and provenance with an impeccably polished vibe that effortlessly combines sportswear, tailoring, and intricately textured knitwear and you have a brand that draws equal praise for design and sustainability. “The spirit of human ingenuity is at the essence of our label, by leaning onto craft and the hands behind it allows us to have a sincere and honest sentiment woven within the fabric of our collaborative creations, it’s exactly this sentiment that brings a sense of integrity within our point of view,” Mdingi says.
State of Fashion 2024, Ties that Bind runs until June 30.