Second Life for Second Hand: How Artists Are Confronting The Excess Consumption of Fast Fashion

Every year, 92 million tonnes of clothing produced end up in landfills, with the rise of textile waste in landfills correlating to the increase in the popularity of fast fashion. As social media continues to substantially impact how and what we spend our money on, the more our society contributes to and promotes capitalism, the commercialization of fashion trends, and the victimization of workers in developing nations. The rapid consumption of fast fashion consequently endangers the workers as the textiles used are treated with harmful dyes, pesticides, and herbicides, and the increase in the use of synthetic fabrics releases microplastics and pollutes bodies of water. 

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We often believe donating our unwanted garments to organizations like Goodwill is ethical and sustainable. Unfortunately, this belief is shockingly inaccurate. What many of us aren’t aware of is that only 10 to 20 percent of donated clothing is sold by these charities, while 45 percent is resold and exported to nations like Haiti, Ghana, and the Republic of Congo. The introduction of secondhand clothing to these countries has resulted in industries that seemingly aid in their economic development, with organizations like Planet Aid claiming that these “markets are robust centers of economic activity, and people rely on them not only as a source of clothing but as a source of income and employment.” 

But according to The Stern Opportunity, countries like Uganda used to manufacture clothing; the dumping of secondhand clothing has negatively impacted their domestic textile industries as it doesn’t allow them to make their own. The exportation of used clothing to developing nations sustains the exploitation and oppression of cultural minority groups. 

It undercuts existing avenues of income for local citizens and leaves them at the mercy of an influx of unwanted garments from developed countries, proffering more power to these nations. 

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In Ghana, one artist has taken it upon himself to confront and reverse some of the damage committed by fast fashion and the exportation of secondhand garments. Sel Kofiga founded The Slum Studio, a brand that “sources textile offcuts and second-hand clothing waste from markets in the country” and highlights “issues of overconsumption, mass production, and fashion waste.” Kofiga circumvents adding more products to an already saturated market by utilizing items already manufactured and bringing together art and fashion. The brand hand paints its upcycled pieces, taking inspiration from the market spaces at which these garments are typically sold. In these practices, Kofiga confronts the West’s obsession with excess material goods that are purchased at an exceedingly rapid speed.

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Artists have also found a use for secondhand clothing in visual art, creating sculptures that tackle consumption and the politics of fashion and waste. One such artist is Shinique Smith, who began to incorporate used clothing into her work after reading a New York Times article depicting the journey of a used t-shirt from New York City to Uganda. For Smith, utilizing clothing isn’t just about the overabundance of clothing, it’s also a means to examine  the relationship between the packaging technique (in which the clothing is put into four-foot-high bales) and the bales of cotton of enslavement. 

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Yugoslavian-born artist Maja Weiss is another artist who has, throughout her career, employed the use of secondhand clothing in her artwork. In 2016, she participated in the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair, where she exhibited an installation made of 17 tons of used clothing. She states that when it comes to clothing, most people are interested in how clothes are made, but she wants to look at what happens to clothes once they’re released. Through her installation, the question of recycling and sustainability arises. We treat pieces of clothing as recyclable materials yet irresponsibly discard them when they no longer serve us any purpose. We believe that our needs outweigh the overwhelmingly negative impact excess consumerism has on our environment. 

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The work of Weiss, Smith, and Kofiga attempts to interrogate the life cycle of clothing, confronting the addiction we as a society have to the purchase of fast fashion. Through the upcycling of used clothing, they challenge this vacant need and put forth ways of combating this compulsion, questioning if our easy fix of donating is doing more harm than good. 

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