The Fashion Revolution USA competition that encouraged students to rethink fashion
By Dhivyaa Thamil Chelvan
Recognizing that education plays a key role in bringing new attitudes towards sustainability in the fashion economy, Fashion Revolution USA set forth a high school beta competition that encouraged students to cultivate awareness toward a revolution of transparency, fashion, design, empathy and (re)use. The goal of this competition was for students to learn ways of (re)creating clothing and making their closet a source of reinvention.
We invited groups of high school students from across the United States with a passion for (re)fashion to bring their creativity, curiosity and willingness to (re)style one garment in three stages. The student group, along with an adult mentor, met once a week to complete seven objectives as instructed in the brief. They included a visit to cultural setting (museum, art gallery, or designer showcase), visit to an antique or thrift store, selecting a category of clothing to be remade, research and demonstration of zero waste, deconstruction and reconstruction using either a short video or collage or blog post, and documenting the group’s entire process.
They key evaluation criteria was the documentation. FR USA expected the groups to capture the moments such as the group talking, quoting, making something unexpected and perhaps an aha moment or two. At the end of each meeting, students were to use the last 15 mins to reflect, film, quote- whatever works best with the group to capture insights, attitudes and what that workshop event meant to them individually or as a group.
Our winner is the GCM (re)Fashion group from Falls Church, Virginia. The group of eight including Alicia González, Ali Mirani, Zoe Belland, Marisa Jackson, Anna-Lena Woermer, Claudia Gonzalez, and Swetha Sathishkumar did an extraordinary work in comparing the thrift store blazer to a Forever 21 blazer, created an inspiration collage board, and recorded a short film of their visit to Smithsonian Museum of American history. Their final presentation clearly elucidated the groups thought process from brainstorming sessions, finding inspirations, quotes from each person that documented both their excitement and struggles and ultimately learning through the process that led them to create four different remake garments.
Fashion Revolution USA awarded the GCM (re)Fashion students’ group with a certificate award, Copy of 27 Dresses by Born Again Vintage, Fanzine #003: A-Z: Fashion Environment Change and social media spotlight on our @Fash_RevUSA accounts.
It is with great pleasure we acknowledge that each person in the group remade their confidence, attitude, understanding, awareness and ability to make and contribute towards sustainable fashion.
