‘ট্র্যাশ ফ্যাশন’ কি নাইরোবি পাড়াটিকে ফেলে দেওয়া পশ্চিমা পোশাকগুলিতে ডুবে যাওয়া থেকে বাঁচাতে পারে?
Antony Njoroge paces back and forth with a camera in his hand as people bombard him with questions. “আমরা এটি দিয়ে কী করব? আমি কোথায় রাখব? এখানে আরও ভাল আলো আছে! টনি, এক সেকেন্ড, দয়া করে।” The director and his co-producer, Sally Njoroge, are putting the finishing touches on an event they never dreamed of when they came up with the idea in May: the first fashion show to be held in Gikomba, Nairobi, East Africa’s largest second-hand clothing market. “I’ll never be this stressed again,” Njoroge says, laughing. The Gikomba fashion show will feature in a documentary film titled Westlands, which addresses the mass importation of Mitumba—second-hand clothes in Swahili—to Kenya, but focuses on how local stylists and designers are giving these clothes a second life and redefining their use. “The idea came from my personal experience as a citizen, when I saw my neighborhood becoming dirtier and dirtier. I saw that the Nairobi River was often clogged with discarded clothing and plastic waste,” Njoroge says. “I decided to tell this story in Gikomba because that’s where most Mitumba ends up, but also to show locals that it can be done differently.” Kenya imports 185,000 tons of used clothing every year, but more than 40% of it is unsellable and ends up in landfills instead of wardrobes. The documentary trailer begins by showing “mountains of garbage disguised as charity.” The premiere will be held in June at the Alliance Française in Nairobi. The story tells of Lucy Wakarindi, a second-hand clothing shop owner in Gikomba, and her journey from selling clothes to becoming a fashion manufacturer and stylist, emphasizing the importance of giving clothes new life. “I want to show people that these clothes are not bad. We want to eliminate the stigma—and we want to rebuild and remodel them.” However, as Wakarindi explains, the ultimate goal of the project is to raise awareness of the urgent need for regulation. “When you add garbage to what you donate to charity, you’re already working against yourself. If I can only use two out of five clothes and the rest has to be thrown away, we need a new system to regulate what is imported into our country,” she said. To achieve this, Njoroge and Njoroge decided to organize a fashion catwalk in the heart of the market and invite various stakeholders, including Romain Bayer of the French Embassy, Alliance Française, the United Nations Environment Programme, UNICEF, and the National Environment Management Authority—asking them to witness this strategy for themselves, “We want to challenge them.” But the impact is not limited to authorities, Njoroge says. “When I was researching for the documentary, I was surprised that people didn’t know that clothes can be recycled and upcycled. They told me that sometimes they buy a bale that is 80% unsellable, so they make a loss and throw it away. We also want to show them that they can be creative and stylish.” Director: “Local fashion designers work for the film and music industry—the benefits of thrift can be multiplied if creativity is encouraged, and my friends told me I looked fresh. You see? I started styling myself, then I styled my homies, and now I style artists and models. We turn trash into fashion.”
(TagstoTranslate) বাংলাদেশ (টি) খবর
প্রকাশিত: 2025-10-14 10:00:00
উৎস: www.theguardian.com
