Aditi Mayer, fashion activist in Los Angeles, provided the longread for the second Whataboutery in the State of Fashion ‘This is an Intervention’ series, this one entitled ‘Origins’. The road to a better way of understanding and performing fashion needs to be carefully constructed. It will be innovative and based on listening carefully, including and especially, those inhabiting the sacrifice zones of fashion. For this edition, State of Fashion shifted to the culture and people of South Asia to listen intently to issues of sustainability and cultural erasure as they are being thought and experienced by the people there.
The second Whataboutery had a different format from the first one. Aditi Mayer hosted three extraordinary “Indian decolonial leaders Dr. Vandana Shiva, Nishanth Chopra (Oshadi Collective) and Rupsi Garg (Kheti Virisat Mission). With the rise of farmer protests across India, the panelists provided the necessary context and history regarding other issues India has faced, from the impacts of colonization, the Green Revolution, and on-going attempts of privatization.”
A record of the event is available on the State of Fashion website.
Sandra Niessen is a cultural anthropologist and one of the founding members of RCDF. Her primary research focus has been the weaving arts of the Batak people of North Sumatra. She is freelance and lives in The Netherlands.
Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion 