Every day some 30 million people around the world are exploited so that we can wear clothes. A long series of factory disasters caused by irresponsible production under dangerous conditions reached an all-time low last year with the tragic disaster at the clothing factory in the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1.100 people. More and more people and consumers feel that things cannot continue like this and are looking for solutions to the problem. That’s why Humanity House is investigating the future of fair fashion in a temporary exhibition entitled Fair Fashion Lab.
A honest and humane future in the fashion industry
Fair Fashion Lab presents six striking approaches that demonstrate the power of design, art and technology in the search for unusual and surprising solutions to problems in the clothing industry. In addition, Humanity House wants to engage in dialogue with the clothing industry and with exhibition visitors. Six renowned and talented designers and artists each occupy a space in the lab where they can trigger visitors and set them to work with solutions for sustainable and fair fashion:
- Artist Arne Hendriks asks the visitors of the exhibition to make a promise that they will always ask under which circumstances and how fair the clothes they are buying are produced.
- The controversial artist TINKEBELL will visit Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April in an attempt to save the world. She will provide daily reports on her progress in the exhibition.
- Fashion designer Monique van Heist enables visitors to call for fairness in the fashion business with her ‘protest coat’. For the first time she will make public her design patterns and reveal what’s involved in making items of clothing.
- Hilde Roothart is among the best-known trend watchers and trend interpreters in the Netherlands. In the exhibition she restores the relation between designer, maker and consumer. Using a loom installation, visitors will jointly create a work of clothing art.
- Architecture firm space&matter presents an installation to show what transparency in the clothing industry can bring about.
- Natascha van der Velden is a researcher at TU Delft and a specialist in sustainable fabrics. Together with her students she is studying how using various fabrics affect society, and she wants to raise awareness about the subject among designers and consumers.
Public programmes
Various public programmes will accompany the exhibition at Humanity House. Also scheduled are a Fair Fashion Festival and educational activities. More information about the programmes and festival will follow very soon.