21 Days of Activism 2023

Today we want to center our attention on fashion sustainability. @aurorajames, is a Canadian activist, and fashion designer. In 2013, she founded the fashion label Brother Vellies, with the goal of promoting traditional African design practices and techniques.

In 2020, James founded the 15 Percent Pledge as a non-profit organization to support Black-owned businesses. The 15 Percent Pledge is a US-based non-profit organization that encourages retailers to pledge at least 15 percent of their shelf-space to Black-owned businesses. The foundation conducts audits, shares its database of Black-owned businesses, and offers business development strategies to participating companies. the initiative was established following the murder of George Floyd.

Image credit: Daily Front Row

Today we pay attention to fast fashion and how to combat it!

Fast fashion is a term used to describe the clothing industry's business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly, while demand is at its highest.

The fashion industry must seek more sustainable methods of producing clothing, but consumers can also combat fast fashion in a variety of ways. One of those ways is to start making more eco-conscious fashion choices. Image: source: unsustainable magazine.

Here are just a few designers doing their part to minimalize their social and environmental impact!

• beRESONANT features brands that create inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable clothes. It doesn’t hold any inventory; rather, every item is made only after purchase, so nothing ends up in landfill or incinerated. Its manufacturing facilities use less dye, water, and raw material than traditional processes, meaning their products have a smaller carbon footprint. In addition to this, the team runs the beRESONANT Accelerator, helping talented, under-represented creators build viable fashion businesses. Instagram @shopberesonant

• Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese. Iconic fashion designer Tracy Reese founded Hope For Flowers in 2019 to create sustainable, feminine, and minimal designs. Her clothes are made of sustainable textiles, such as organic cotton, linen, Tencel, and cupro. Tracy Reese’s conventional designs have been worn by Sarah Jessica Parker, Meghan Markle, Oprah, and even the former First Lady Michelle Obama. Instagram: @hopeforflowersbytracyreese

• Jade Swim is a sustainable swimwear line using both deadstock fibers and ECONYL, regenerated nylon from plastic waste such as fishnets taken out of the ocean and remade into new nylon fabric. Inspired by New York City and made in Los Angeles, the brand combines both minimal and sensual aesthetics that can easily transition into ready-to-wear. Instagram: @jadeswim

• Two Days Off. Founded by climate scientist Gina Stovall, the brand creates made-to-order effortless, minimal designs from deadstock fabric in Los Angeles.  More than $120 billion in unused fabric sits in warehouses around the world. This fabric, the kind that was made, but didn’t get sewn into the clothes it was intended for, is called deadstock fabric. Instagram: @twodaysoffgoods

The Ballroom Scene is an African-American and Latino underground LGBTQ+ subculture that originated in New York City. Beginning in the late 20th century, Black and Latino drag queens began to organize their own pageants in opposition to racism experienced in established drag queen pageant circuits.

While the initial establishment of Ballroom mimicked these drag queen pageants, the inclusion of gay men and trans women would transform the Ballroom scene into what it is today: a multitude of categories that all LGBTQ+ people can participate in.

How does ballroom culture influence fashion? Balls allowed people to discover who they were, often by cross dressing, drag, masquerading, and performance that would have been looked down on elsewhere during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. Arguably, that wouldn't be the case today in fashion or beauty without those who pioneered gender fluidity on the ballroom scene.

Ballroom culture has been the foundation of mainstream fashion for decades, influencing modern TV shows from RuPaul’s Drag Race to the Emmy Award-winning show Pose. It is futuristic and its power lies in the ability to evolve while still maintaining its roots.  Image source: MobileStyles. 

Today we center our focus on Toronto Caribana! This Caribbean tradition of parading through the street was founded in celebration of freedom and emancipation from slavery and is appropriately celebrated on what has been recognized by the Canadian government as Emancipation Day weekend.

The festival is a spectacular display of costume, sound, and colour that moves its way through the city of Toronto.

In 1967, the Caribbean community in Toronto, Ontario, organizes a carnival for the first time under the name Caribana. It has since grown into a major summer event, drawing millions of people to the city every year.

Approximately two-thirds of Canada's West Indian population reside in the Greater Toronto Area. Ten Torontonians, with a common West Indian heritage founded the Caribana festival to display their rich cultural traditions. The festival continues to promote cultural pride, mutual respect, and social unity.

All the people that come out to walk and dance in the parade are divided into mas bands — which means "masquerade group." Each group is headed by the band leader. They design the theme and all the different costumes for everyone in the group. There can be many sections to a mas band, each with their own costumes and sounds.

Each band also has a King and Queen. They wear the biggest, loudest and most beautiful costumes. With so many people participating, some of the bands can have several thousand masqueraders!

The costumes of Carnival are a declaration of love and power; they invoke wonder, often tying in their design with historical and cultural elements of the Caribbean. Based on folklore, the conception of modern Carnival costumes calls upon nature, characters, and symbols. Explosions of feathery plumage, bright, celebratory colors, and intricate patterns of shimmering jewels are among the most common design features. All work together to present striking, unforgettable ensembles that translate fantasy into a physical form.  Image source: torontocarnival.ca.

Appropriation dehumanizes oppressed groups, takes without permission, perpetuates stereotypes, ignores the meaning and stories behind the cultural elements.

Appreciation celebrates cultures in a respectful way, asks permission, provides credit, and offers compensation, elevates the voices and experiences of members of a cultural group, focuses on learning the stories and meanings behind cultural elements.

Separating a cultural element of a minority group from its original meaning

"In the 2010s the rise of music festivals such as Coachella sparked new trends in festival fashion, including Native American warbonnets worn as headdresses. Unlike traditional Native American jewelry, much of which is sold by indigenous artists to customers of all cultures, these feathered headdresses hold a significant cultural purpose. Among Plains Indian communities, warbonnets are worn only by community leaders on special occasions; in other groups, they’re an earned honour not unlike a military medal. Because they separate the warbonnet from its original cultural meaning, non-indigenous festival attendees wearing Native American headdresses are practicing cultural appropriation."

Source: Britannica

Adopting an element of a minority culture without consequences while members of the minority group face backlash for the same cultural element

"Dreadlocks have long been associated with Black culture—though it’s easy to find non-Black people wearing the style as well. Historically, though, Black people have faced discrimination for wearing traditionally Black hairstyles including locs: Black people with locs have been barred from walking at high-school graduations, denied jobs, wrongfully associated with drug use, and otherwise discriminated against. As a result of systemic racism, Black people face consequences for wearing dreadlocks that non-Black people do not."

Source: Britannica

Profiting financially or socially from the culture

"In 1990 Madonna released the music video for her song “Vogue,” which featured a dance (voguing) developed in the gay drag-ball subculture. Though Madonna included drag performers in the video, ostensibly respecting the dance’s origins, she was the one who profited when “Vogue” went double platinum in the United States. Because Madonna gained financial and cultural capital from voguing in a way that its creators did not, her use of the dance was cultural appropriation."

Source: Britannica

Cultural appropriation refers to the use of objects or elements of a non-dominant culture in a way that reinforces stereotypes or contributes to oppression and doesn't respect their original meaning or give credit to their source. It also includes the unauthorized use of parts of their culture (their dress, dance, etc.) without permission.

It can be natural to merge and blend cultures as people from different backgrounds come together and interact. In fact, many wonderful inventions and creations have been born from the merging of such cultures.

However, the line is drawn when a dominant cultural group makes use of elements of a non-dominant group in a way that the non-dominant group views as exploitative.

The balaclava trend

While fashion has taken a keen interest in head coverings, be it through balaclavas or a simple scarf, the implications for Muslim women sporting the same attire are vastly different.

Wearing for fashion or costume, fails to recognize the deep religious or cultural significance behind the piece.

France has banned religious symbols, like the hijab, from state schools and full-faced veils such as the burka is banned from all public spaces.

Donning these as a non-Muslim seems like a privilege when most Muslim women are not able to.

"Educating yourself on the privilege you have to wear it is an important thing… It’s an extreme privilege to wear it without discrimination." Al-Maktari believes that, with education, and conversation, the trend can be used to help people understand the hijab and those who wear them. For her, wearing the hijab is not a form of oppression but connects her to her religion.

“Before the balaclava trend, covering your hair was this foreign notion that everybody was threatened by,” she said. “You feel cute in a balaclava; so do we in our hijabs,” she said. Elaf Al-Maktari, Toronto Resident on the balaclava trend

Sources: Queen's Journal, tdotcommunity.ca

The Dreadlock Debate

"Hair is not just hair, it's identity"

When people say “hair is just hair” they are overlooking the existence of systemic inequalities. Only last year (2019) the State of California brought about a law, known as the Crown Act, to ban workplace or school discrimination based on one’s natural hair.

With the Black Lives Matter movement continuing to gain momentum, people are beginning to look at their own internal prejudices as well as the systems which allow racism to continue. People are highlighting the importance of being actively anti-racist and addressing inequalities. This should include accountability for actions which disadvantage and disempower already marginalised groups. The cultural appropriation of hairstyles which have a complex and meaningful history is integral to this. Being ignorant to these issues, when we live in an age of information at our fingertips, is not acceptable. We need to ensure that differences between cultural groups are not only celebrated but also respected.

Kyle Ring @in.hair.itance

Source: esquire.com

How can we avoid Cultural Appropriation? Ask yourself:

• What is your goal with what you are doing?
• Are you following a trend or exploring the history of a culture?
• Are you using a sacred item (e.g., headdress) in a flippant or fun way?
• Are you wearing a costume that represents a culture?
• Are you ignoring the cultural significance of something in favour of following a trend.

Source: verywellmind.com