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LATAM Project Rescues Fashions Dumped in the Desert
Then makes them available for free
We’ve known for ages that retailers would rather discard their unsold goods than—heaven forbid!—give them away. Usually they jettison them in places they think nobody will bother to look.
The Atacama desert in Chile is one such place. 40,000 tons of clothes are dumped there every year. So, Brazilian agency Artplan, activist group Fashion Revolution, nonprofit Desierto Vestido and VTEX joined forces to create the “Atacama RE-commerce” project.
“RE-commerce” uses high fashion-style capsule drops to give away clothes recuperated from the sands. The first drop sold out in five hours, with distribution in 10 countries. Register for the next one. All you pay for is shipping.
There’s so much wit and saltiness to this idea, which feels good-hearted while sticking it to the Man. As the video below archly observes, “Since the fashion industry ‘gave’ us these clothes, we can do whatever we want with them.”
Behind the scenes, this is actually a lot of work. The clothes are recuperated, sanitized, tagged with “RE-commerce” collateral, then packed for shipping. “Help us get them out of the desert,” the campaign implores, before hitting us with a neat, concise farewell: “Don’t buy. RE-scue.”
“We are living in a climate emergency, and the fashion industry needs more robust commitments. This action is a way to draw attention to what lies behind the clothes and provoke new ways of relating to them,” explains Fernanda Simon, executive director of Fashion Revolution Brazil.
This may be a legit instance where consumption helps mitigate the impacts of overconsumption. It’s cool, it’s fun, it cleans crap out of the land. And it’s going to piss off a few people who could use that experience, like, for their health.
“‘RE-commerce’ is not just a reuse project but a way to give a voice to discarded items, to tell the story of these clothes, and at the same time, provoke a more critical look at consumption. The campaign proposes a new meaning for what is considered waste, showing that each piece carries value, memory, and potential for a new beginning,” adds Rodrigo Almeida, CCO of Artplan.
One more time for the kids in the back: You can register for the next drop here.
Angela Natividad is the European markets editor at Muse by Clios. She also writes about gaming and fashion, and whatever else she’s interested in, really. She’s based in Paris and North Italy, so if you’re local, say hi. She might eat all your food.
