Obligatory Making
"PEOPLE KNOW WHEN THEY PICK OBJECTS UP ABOUT WHETHER THINGS HAVE BEEN MADE BECAUSE THEY HAD TO BE MADE." - EDMUND DE WAAL.
Featured Pieces: WOOL DICKIE by BODE, THRIFTED BUTTON UP, ADAGIO PANT by STUDIO NICHOLSON
I struggle a lot with the speed at which trends come and go through the fast fashion cycles. Similar to many of the problems we’re facing in our current world, it feels like fast fashion is hurtling towards this unknown destination without any sign of slowing down. To say it’s overwhelming barely scratches the surface.
I recently listened to an episode of At a Distance where Edmund de Waal, artist and ceramicist, was asked to comment on kind making, the notion that we can tell when objects are made with a certain kindness as opposed to unkindness. He responded with:
People know, when they pick objects up, about whether things have been made because they had to be made.
de Waal is right. This immediately made me think of why we’re so ready to toss a lot of our fast fashion.
The goal of fast fashion is to create an endless need for new through short lived trends. This cycle forces customers to view clothing as disposable because it exists in the service of trendiness and profit. There is no creative undertow at work when the majority of fast fashion is obsolete after a few months flit past. We’ve all experienced that moment where the garment we bought is ripe for disposal: What once seemed so shiny when we bought it now possesses a dullness we didn’t register. Tarnished, it’s shoved it into the third garbage bag donated to Goodwill that year. Personally, I spent a long time trapped in that cycle before I tried to break it.
Slow fashion exists as the antithesis to fast fashion. It imagines a world where clothing production does not tax our planet’s resources in the name of profits and all folks involved in the creation of a garment are ethically compensated with a living wage. The beautiful thing about these slow, independent designers and brands is that you can feel, with a certain degree of confidence, that what they’ve made comes from a well of creativity. Their designs are personal, the references equally so. A culmination of experiences have led to what they’ve produced for us to enjoy.
To avoid having this whole post be abstract, I’d like to use the vest that I purchased from BODE as the perfect example of the kind making that de Waal spoke about — a making that prioritizes passion and values that feeling of small-scale obligatory making over endless collections of mass-produced clothing. I adore BODE because of their efforts to rework unique textiles into wearable pieces.
They take something utilitarian and transform into something equally utilitarian with brand new context: This textile was hand-selected by the BODE team to be reworked into a design unique to the brand’s own DNA, modeled after a 1960s sports Dickie rather than a traditional vest. The design spoke to me immediately, especially the generous fabric ties that secure the vest hold no practical value. Owning it feels like I’ve broken the cardinal rules of building an ‘intentional’ wardrobe, filled with ‘timeless’ investment ‘staples’ inspired by ‘classic’ design. However, I’m convinced that in the realm of obligatory making, the slow fashion drinking game (How many shots would that be?) can be tossed aside in favor of pieces that speak our language from the moment we lay our eyes on them.
While secondhand clothing will be one of the most sustainable options that exist since there is no new clothes being made, we can’t ignore the fact that many independent designers will never touch the volume being produced by the fast fashion giants of the world. I’d like to argue that we should still be mindful of the consumption of new materials and be eager to support those small designers. If you own something that you can sense had to be made, then it’ll turn itself into an instant classic.
Inevitably, fashion will shift and change, as will all of our personal styles because they will reflect the unique stages of our lives. However, slow fashion does not just have to be about these simple ‘staples’ that are marketed to us — we can invest in pieces that are different, exciting, and interesting because they speak to us. We can invest in obligatory making.