In a strategic effort to raise awareness during New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and the upcoming Climate Week, The Or Foundation, based in Accra, Ghana, unveiled a series of giant billboards in Times Square. Positioned across from the bleachers and above the Forever21 store, these billboards aim to highlight the impact of fast fashion’s waste and prompt public reflection on overconsumption —in the epicenter of overconsumption, Times Square.
In the usual mid-morning frenzy of the area, it would not appear that anyone is really thinking about textile waste. Surrounded by a barrage of advertisements from the Gap, Fjallraven, Sketchers, Tissot, Rhone, Lids, Old Navy, Swatch, Levi’s, American Eagle & Aerie, US Polo Assn., the empty Express store, Snapchat, Sephora, Disney and more, it seems the last thing on anyone’s mind.
But then, every 12 minutes, a giant banner takes over with the words:
“Who’s responsible for fast fashion’s waste?” and “Demand that brands disclose their production volumes.”
The images are of the insurmountable and endless piles of textile trash on Ghana’s beaches, and of Ghanaians trudging through the knots and sand to clean them up. Another cycles through with The Or’s main slogan, “Too much clothing. Not enough honesty.” A final encourages viewers to “Take Action! #SpeakVolumes.”
The OR’s billboards in Times Square with the clothing zombie. Images courtesy the OR Foundation
The hope is that the long line of TKTS hopefuls may glance up. Will they scan the QR code? Sign the petition? Stop buying too many cheap new clothes? Will anyone who sees these temporary signs help speak volumes?
It is the first of this messaging to counterbalance the blinding lights of consumption of Times Square.
Accompanying the billboards, and attending some fashion shows, was an 8-foot-tall clothing ‘zombie’ made from huge piles of discarded clothes created by artist Jeremy Hutchison. The figure is burdened by piles of clothing, more than it can wear. In microcosm, it represents the markets and beaches and deserts and other landscapes of the Global South which shoulder the burden of fashion industry overproduction and the Global North’s rampant consumption of disposable clothing. We’re reminded of that Vinted ad that asks, what if you had to wear your overconsumption?
This Ghanaian wears our overconsumption, to say the least.
Attention-grabbing, at last. Can one clothing zombie shout over the noise of these cross streets? The Or will keep speaking volumes until the demands of its Speak Volumes campaign are met.
“The first step to cleaning up fashion’s waste crisis is understanding the number of garments produced every year, yet this data is rarely revealed,” says The Or Foundation about its Speak Volumes campaign, a division of its Stop Waste Colonialism initiative that is calling on fast fashion companies to disclose how much clothing they produce, and sell. This will help everyone understand how much they don’t sell, and how much therefore becomes waste almost immediately.
This overproduction practice is destroying the environment and living conditions of communities in the Global South. In Accra, where The Or is based, Kantamanto Market receives 15 million garments from the Global North every week. Much of this clothing ends up leaving the market as waste, ending up not just in the streets but in the precious water sources of the city’s more vulnerable communities.
If they say Times Square is a bit trashy, well, this messaging makes it even trashier. Consider how buying clothes from all the advertising brands contributes to the even-more trashy problem of garbage exportation, i.e. waste colonialism, in communities that don’t even get to enjoy lit-up the spectacle of the shopping first hand. Don’t forget: everything becomes garbage. Let’s stop making so much of it.
See the sign, open your eyes. The billboards are on view until Sept. 22.
But The Or Foundation needs us all to continue to use our voice / echo. Join the social media campaign and encourage consumers to call on their favorite brands to share their production volumes.
Go to the Website to SPEAK VOLUMES and learn what you can do to help create change.
–Anne Elizabeth Whiting
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