Decolonizing Fashion, Reclaiming Culture - Aditi Mayer

Reseed

Fashion is a connector of land, labour, culture, and personal expression. Through a decades-long project of fast fashion, we have forgotten and become disconnected from regional, regenerative fashion systems that can exist. There have been beneficial fashion systems embraced by many cultures throughout history and today, where clothing is an expression of place. Natural dyes come from the landscape, dressing the wearer in the colours from their home. Natural textiles connect regenerative farmers with makers, and give back to the soil both in their farming at the beginning of their life, and decomposition at the end of their life, as part of a circular fashion system.
We can dream of, imagine, and create this relationship to clothing again.

Aditi Mayer joins Reseed host Alice Irene Whittaker to help reimagine such a fashion system, while also advocating for the reclamation of culture. Aditi is a sustainable fashion blogger, photojournalist, and labour rights activist. A storyteller and creator, she looks at fashion and culture through a lens of intersectionality and decolonization. She approaches her work from multiple domains: from grassroots organizing in Downtown LA’s garment district to educating folks on the importance of diverse perspectives. She is on the council of Intersectional Environmentalist and State of Fashion. Aditi will be spending this year as a National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow, spending one year documenting the social and environmental impacts of fashion in India.

This conversation explores the questions: How do we create an expressive fashion system that fosters well-being for land and people? How do we decolonize fashion, while reclaiming culture?
Visit reseed.ca for show notes and a transcript of this conversation. Follow the host of Reseed on Instagram @AliceIreneWhittaker.