It’s time for fashion aficionados to realise that the garments that we dump cost much higher to the environment in contrast to what we paid. Taking this into consideration, Chile’s Atacama Fashion Week 2024 gives us a ‘trash’ course in sustainability by turning a desert into a ramp and trash into trends.
The fashion industry is brimming with brands. Every day we wake up to a new label making history in fashion, and it seems all sunshine and roses, except, that’s an incomplete picture. There is an untapped territory seeking immediate attention that tells us fashion is much more than just ripping off that price tag. The textile waste buildup is proving to have one of the most hazardous effects on the environment lately. To attain a sustainable future, our style needs to take conscious steps too, and it looks like some of us are already on the flight to change. Chile, the country of South America qualifies as one of the subjects on the authority, courtesy of the Atacama Fashion Week. Dubbed as the third largest importer of second-hand clothes and prey to over 50,000 tonnes of used clothing being shipped to the country, Chile has long been in fashion headlines.
The Atacama Fashion Week in Chile is your foolproof guide to waste management
While some of these clothes are sold to second-hand markets others end up in Chile’s Atacama desert, leaving the local population and the environment adversely affected. Dubbed one of the world’s most beautiful tourist destinations, the Atacama desert’s scenic view has been compromised, courtesy of the textile dump making the world look at it otherwise. Us fashion connoisseurs sure dream of drowning our closets with expensive clothes, but it seems like the environment is paying the highest price for our insatiable needs. The garments dumped in the desert are bound to release toxic fumes which in turn damage the ozone layer followed by impacting the environment and the population.
The world outside our closets has been falling apart and acknowledging the same, Desierto Vestido, a non-governmental organisation led by Ángela Astudillo teamed up with Fashion Revolution Brazil and an advertising agency to sow the seed of change. This team of three aimed to urge people to look at what the fashion industry refused to see by putting up a fashion show amidst the Atacama desert dump.
Maya Ramos, stylist and visual designer, designed a collection that was again chosen from the dump. Ramos asked the team to pick pieces resembling the four elements- earth, fire, water and air. The models walked wearing outfits that symbolised the variety of pollutants and their respective impact on the environment. Ironically enough, the chic and beautifully curated show took place amidst that dumpster, hence causing netizens to start a conversion that was long due. Titled Atacama Fashion Week 2024, the initiative by Ángela Astudillo was to highlight how waste could turn into something new. This was Chile’s call to find luxury within and repeat the words ‘reuse, recycle and reduce’ every time we declutter your wardrobes.
All Images : Courtesy desiertovestido_tarapaca/IG
