This article was not written by me but Andre Walker shared an amazingly beautiful perspective on the current issues in the fashion industry with writer, Katharine Zarrella; therefore, I felt compelled to share it with all of you. I have never re-blogged another writer's article on the site before, so for this to be the first time, you have to know that it's quite significant.
###########
Walker — a 45-year-old Brooklyn-based designer turned
self-proclaimed fashion artist, whose claims to fame include an outré clothing
line he launched in New York’s downtown clubs when he was a teenager,
consulting for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Kim Jones, and publishing a tactile
fashion and arts zine called TIWIMUTA — has a
pretty firm grasp on the definition. And he is concerned that contemporary
culture’s ‘Give me more now’ mentality, as well as its lust for synthetic
materials and overproduction, has thrust the fashion industry into an ethically
questionable downward spiral.
Walker sits down with Katharine Zarrella to voice his views on the
state of the industry and why, in spite of it all, fashion is still “gorge.”
KZ: You once said that, at age nine, reading W magazine was a magical
experience for you. Does fashion mean the same thing to you now as it did then?
AW: No, not
at all. I believe that the infrastructures of fashion have eroded over the
years, and I think the systems need to change. We need to revisit how clothing
is manufactured, how fabrics are made and what kinds of materials are used. In
my opinion, a lot of the top luxury brands are not really making luxury goods.
I can’t look at plastic shoes that cost $3,000 and call that luxury.
KZ: Is manufacturing, in your opinion, the biggest problem?
AW: No,
it’s consumption. Consumption is the new servitude. It affects every
demographic, from the rich to the poor. Everyone is forced or obliged to
purchase something. The extremely wealthy don’t have to think as much about
what they buy as the poor or the middle class, so it’s up to the extremely
wealthy to lead by example. They need to become more conservative in their
behaviour.
KZ: How so?
AW: It
would be really interesting to see how top-tier fashion companies would react
to all of their consumers wanting something biodegradable, for example. I don’t
see the future in clothes made from plastic and latex and nylon and acetate —
not with everything that we know about the world. We need to go beyond this
surface that everyone is so quick to call luxury. These fabrics are outdated.
We need to challenge what we’re actually bringing forth into the world, rather
than just paying homage to these dumb Hello Kitty dolls and having shrines of
junk that are supposedly so cool.
KZ: How did you transform from the little boy reading Wmagazine to Andre Walker,
fashion artist?