Walk-in Wardrobes
Location: Rozet & Showroom Arnhem
We know that to transform the fashion industry we need a wide-scale systems change. To change an entire industrial system with deep roots in exploitation of people and the planet is a daunting task. If we start to see our wardrobes as the entry point to that bewilderingly complex system, we can make a start.
Here, in the Walk-in Wardrobes we encourage individual and collective acts of repairs and reparations, from mending our clothes to fixing our dysfunctional systems. Swapping, sharing, borrowing and loaning voice our dissent against overconsumption. Mending, upcycling, repurposing and reusing become an act of resistance in the face of a system designed for obsolescence and disposal. To keep clothes in circulation is a radical and joyful act. As the fair fashion ambassador Marina Spadafora wisely says, ‘the revolution starts in your wardrobe’.
Through these Walk-in Wardrobes we aim to research systems of civic ownership using existing swap, exchange and clothing library methodologies to test different methods of non-monetary exchange of clothing. We start with the question: What if we see clothing not as something that we buy and own but as something we look after until the next wearer? These wardrobes celebrate clothing as markers of lives lived and place them in transition from one wearer to another, each elaborating on their ongoing story.
We invite not only an exchange of clothes but an exchange of skills from repair and mending to laundering, care and alteration in order to build an alternative fashion economy where clothing stays in circulation for as long as possible. By the end of the biennial all these contributions will inform a proposal for a permanent clothing library for the city.
Share your wardrobe!
Soup Archive
Soup Archive is a trio of designers based in London, Berlin and Shenzhen. Their clothes reflect their humour, finding the odd, the bizarre and the ironic by looking at the clothing and objects they work with as found objects. They work with garment leftovers, off-cuts and repurposed objects encountering them spontaneity and playfulness to make intricately distorted and unusual pieces. Using donations from friends, second-hand shops and even what they can find lying around the house or on the street, the creation of their pieces is a play between materials, technical processes and the body, often using their own bodies to fit and reconstruct items.
For Walk-in Wardrobes Soup Archive invites you on a trash treasure hunt, taking objects from your home and the streets of Arnhem and using them to transform ubiquitous vests and t-shirts. In experimental consultations they will show you rapid and spontaneous methods to mash-up your vests and t-shirts which you can use to play and improvise in your own wardrobe. Through this workshop the Soup Girls imagine upcycling as a walk-in service that could take a place in our local high street alongside getting a haircut or getting your nails done.
Find something to treasure in your trash
Workshop SOUP ARCHIVE:
Trash to Treasure -Found vest mash-up workshop
June 4th, 12:00-14:00, start Rozet,
€2,50 / student free admission, Book your ticket
June 5th, 12:00-14:00, start Rozet,
€2,50 / student free admission, Book your ticket
Garcia Bello
Founded in 2017 by Juliana Garcia Bello, GARCIA_BELLO is a fashion brand exploring systems of reconstruction and upcycling. Originally from Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, and now based in Arnhem, Juliana draws on her Patagonian spirit and the resourceful methods she saw in her community and family to keep clothes in use for as long as possible.
The garments are handmade, reusing dead stock from the textile industry and clothing donations. Part of the raw material GARCIA_BELLO work with is obtained through donations of clothing from the nearby community. For Juliana and her partner Santiago seeking donations from neighbours through posters, notices and social media was a way of getting to know them, a social act. Each donation, whether a shirt, jeans, bed linen or tablecloth come with the story of their owner. Highlighting the intangible connection people have with their clothes. This story travels with the garment as it is deconstructed and upcycled into a new piece, keeping its meaning and history with it as it passes to the next owner.
For Walk-in Wardrobes at State of Fashion 2022, Juliana brings these methods of sharing, reusing, repairing, renewing and recycling existing materials and products to your cupboards and closets. Delving into the back of the wardrobe for your neglected clothes and forgotten stories she revives these simple, everyday items. Giving value to what already exists and is not in use and capturing stories that speak of home, community and shelter.
Remake and renew your clothes
Workshop Garcia Bello: Upcycle your own poncho
17 June 12:00-14:00, €2,50 / student free admission
Book your ticket
18 June 12:00-14:00, €2,50 / student free admission
Book your ticket
Workshop Garcia Bello: Using a Blanket Stitch 3rd floor Rozet
24 June 12:00-14:00, €2,50 / student free admission
Book your ticket
Cedric Mizero
Cedric Mizero is a multidisciplinary artist working across the fields of film, visual art, performance and fashion. He was born and raised in a small village called Gishoma in the Western Province of Rwanda. His work is rooted in the village, its people, natural surroundings and his memories of growing up. His ongoing project Fashion for All puts the men and women of Gishoma at the heart of his fashion collections, inviting people to reflect about the value of each individual and their right to access and enjoy the transformational power of fashion regardless of their age, size, social or economic status.
For his intervention in Walk-in Wardrobes Cedric brings his way of finding inspiration in emotional and sensory experiences with his surroundings and the beauty around the small instants of the day-to-day to the wardrobes of Arnhem. He invites the community to come together to relook at the contents of their wardrobes and to find beauty and wonder in their everyday clothes. By looking through different eyes and working through many hands Cedric encourages us to revalue our clothes, how we wear them and the emotions and memories they hold.
Reimagine your clothes.
Workshop Cedric Mizero
8 July 12:00-14:00, private event
9 July 10:00-17:00, private event
Outfit Library LESS
Outfit Library LESS is a city wardrobe based in Arnhem where all women can enjoy an inclusive, guilt-free, body-positive alternative to shopping. Using a clothing library system with a prepaid borrowing credit members can borrow pieces rather than buying new. Alongside this, the founder Maria offers practical advice on caring for your clothes and a space to be free to be yourself. As she says “All of us need less of something in our lives. Less noise. Less bias. Less judgement. Less worries. Less clutter. Less stress. The sharing economy is a means to reach a balanced state of less.”
For State of Fashion 2022, Maria is sharing her clothing library expertise with us. As our resident Clothing Librarian she has selected vintage and second-hand gems which you can borrow, wear and love throughout the biennial. And if you truly fall in love, you can eventually buy them as well. Outfit Library LESS will also host two clothes swap events where you can swap clothes from your own wardrobe.
Do you want to return clothes? Click here.
Wardrobe × Kledingbieb XL (by outfit library less) Rozet, 3rd Floor
Free admission; no ticket required
June 17th 10:00-22:00
Wardrobe × SWAP (by outfit library less) Showroom Arnhem
Free admission; no ticket required
Wardrobe × SWAP (by outfit library less) Rozet
Free admission; no ticket required
2Switch
2Switch describe themselves as a place where beautiful things can get a new life. It is a social enterprise which has the reuse of goods at its heart but also a mission to create meaningful, accessible work and opportunities for those that need support in this area of the circular economy. Their network of thrift stores employ more than 600 people in the region and make a vital contribution to extending the life of goods. Through this they reduce the mountain of domestic waste we create from TVs and furniture to clothing and of course, wardrobes. Not only do they aim to reduce our ecological footprint but also improve the quality of life in the neighbourhoods they serve.
For State of Fashion 2022, we have collaborated with 2Switch to create Walk-in Wardrobes - a testing ground for establishing a clothing library system for the city of Arnhem. All the wardrobes you see here come from 2Switch and in collaboration with Outfit Library LESS their contents is selected from the donations that 2Switch receives. As these garments are repaired, remade, upcycled and transformed they will go back into circulation at 2Switch’s store in Arnhem. So when you visit 2Switch this summer you may find an upcycled gem from one of the Walk-in Wardrobes resident designers or an item lovingly repaired by your neighbour.