Twisted fibers

EDITION

2023, Shortlisted

school

Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière, France

links

@redachoub

“Fashion fades, style is eternal” as Yves Saint-Laurent once said. We now know that fashion does not go away without leaving deep environmental and social marks. 100 billion pieces of clothing are sold each year worldwide, with production doubling between 2000 and 2014. From factory to landfill, is only a small step. In 2022, the contents of a dump truck full of clothes was destroyed every second around the world. Mountains of textile waste are now visible from space. The textile industry represents 4 billion tons of CO2 per year, more than international maritime and air traffic combined. Not to mention the abysmal consumption levels of natural resources, making the textile industry the third consumer of water in the world. At this rate, it will be responsible for a quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. What will life on earth be like then? How can we visually display the risks engendered by these unfathomable, extreme levels of pollution? Eager to explore the boundaries between the glamorous aesthetics of fashion and the grim realities of our world, I brought to life a series of AI-generated images showcasing the collision between the superficial beauty of this universe and the heartbreaking ugliness of pollution. Divine looking models, draped in sumptuous fabrics, but surrounded by an ocean of trash. The contrast between their elegance and the sullied environment underlines the heartbreaking irony of our consumer society. Such seems to be our fate if the dominant paradigm remains unchanged. Behind the disturbing images, however, each shot is an ode to sustainable fashion, an invitation to rethink the way we design and consume clothing.