Talking to Vivienne Westwood about cheap labour

Today I was in a park in london doing my usual run, I was thinking about my cheap labour project and feeling frustrated about the lack of support. And then I saw Vivienne Westwood, I've seen her around in the past but never spoke to her. This was an opportunity I coundn't afford to miss, so I stopped her and asked Vivienne Westwood to talk about cheap labour, it was an insightful experience!

Vivienne Westwood told me about her website www.activeresistance.co.uk that has lots of interesting information, and she also told me: it's better to buy few clothes that are expensive, well made, long lasting than buying lots of cheap clothes (this part isn't in the video).

ihtgw interview project 09

I am working on new art work where we are looking to interview people who want to talk about their response to Dan Laidlers video: Our Animalistic System of Respect. Reason why I decided to do this work is because I think Dan Laidler talks about a lot of real issues in this video that are not talked about, and it seems a lot people are ignoring or not acknowledging points of this video. On a human level that we all are on, is it not our responsibility to take care of our environment and surroundings, life will feel more uncomfortable the less attention we pay to details.

We need all sorts of people to get involved, we need to know what you you think of Dan Laidlers's video: Our Animalistic System of Respect. If you are interested in participating: you can participate via email by answering following questions and emailing them to ihtgw@hotmail.com

Your name?

What do you do?

What's your opinion of video: Our Animalistic System of Respect?

Your website or contact details and would you want this information to show in final project?

OR

I also want to do a video interviews, are you interested in participating in video interview?


I am planning put completed project on my website www.samiamalik.co.uk and possibly show in an exhibition space.


You can see Dan Laidler's video below

CHEAP LABOUR

It's the way the world spins round, some people say atleast poor people are being fed this way. Some just don't care and some people pretend they care. 

Last summer I was with a friend talking about cheap labour, and trying to explain to her why I won't conform to that way; how I won't stop trying to boycott products that are related to cheap labour. We were talking about this for a good 50 minutes and she was mainly disagreeing with me. Then we finally got down to the point, when I asked her:

'so would it be awright if you lived in a developing country and earned 20p an hour working in bad conditions and someone on the other side of world was living in a mansion from your labour. How would you feel?' 

my friend said 'it wouldn't be right if that happened to me, but it's ok for person in a developing country to experience that'

i said 'why would it not be right for you'

  

she said 'cause I'm European'

Call it ignorance, call it misfortune of the time we are in, but some people really believe they have more importance in this world than other people because of their nationality or skin colour. 

I firmly believe that we are all equal no matter where anyone comes from, conversation above was an alarming reminder to me of the delusional state we're in. 

ihtgw

By say no to fashion; I'm saying I don't support unethical fashion, manufacturing and mass advertising that often forces people to buy.
Clothes are needed for survival and protection. I do not agree with the way clothes are brought nowadays especially by people who follow fashion; clothes are brought as an asset; when a person wears certain designer garment they think they will be given prestige in life. After studying, working in the fashion industry my description of general fashion is: superficial and artificial.

I also read a book called 'the death of fashion', that graphically explained how fashion and fashion retail system can make fools out of people, by being an extremely manipulative system.

I think a lot of my anti fashion ideas rooted from a lot of fine art work I did before I studied fashion. Art and fashion are very opposite although they are both creative mediums. I was drawn to study fashion from quiet early age, and that was one of the main reason I studied a level art, where I learnt all the classic foundations of fine art. I was interested in fashion because of the way dress styles evolve through culture and society. I'm still interested in fashion in the same way, and now also enjoy design and crafting well made pieces. My references and inspiration are all from reality.