Discarded clothes catwalk

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Age group: 14+
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Number of participants: 4-15
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Timeframe: 90-120
Keywords: group activity, activism

Objectives:

  • Raise awareness of clothes short life cycle and fast fashion. Start discussion (within the group, with external audience) about the ways how to reduce, reuse or recycle clothes.

Preparation: Collect clothes in different sizes, measure that they weigh at least 11 kg, the amount of clothes thrown away annually in EU. Or the amount of clothes thrown away annually in your country.

Find out public events and spaces near by to suggest to the group.

Tools needed: Clothes, cardboard, markers, paper etc to make signs and leaflets

Description

Prepare the context: where in public the performance will take place, is it ad hoc spot or part of some festival etc?

Discussion with the group about life cycle of textiles and the production process, the needs/wants behind buying clothes, fast fashion, maintaining and mending clothes etc. Gathering information about the topic and facts. Prepare posts and signs, leaflets or other info material, make sure participants can answer the questions from the audience.

The group shares the roles. Someone wears the whole 11 kg of clothes. Pay attention to the temperature, it gets unbearably hot inside the multiple layers! Provide them with water and time the event quite short.

Perform a "cat walk" in a public space, the person wearing 11 kg of clothes walks in the space followed by other participants with the signs. They engage with the audience, asking them to guess what is going on and explain the situation. Audience can also guess how much the clothes weight.

Roles:
performer(s)
info collector(s)
sign/post bearer(s), leaflet deliverer(s)
the one(s) to engage audience with questions
media responsible(s)

Reflection: Look together the media capture of the event, debrief how it felt and how was the reception? Did the particiants feel the performance can make a change? Who should the video and info material be sent to? Where else the performance should take place? Plan the next event or discard the clothes properly, if needed.

Variations

The amount of clothes is carried in a bag, the audience can lift the bag and guess its weight. Not so powerful.

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