Both Emelie and Christy have a strong interest and are working on different issues concerning sustainable fashion. Emelie, as a fashion designer, have been working on how couture can be made sustainably and ethically in terms of material and production. Christy, as an artist who creates social engaging art, focus on the consumer experience and knowledge towards sustainable fashion and ethical consumption. This collaboration is an attempt for both artists who represent different ends of the global manufacturing cycle to reconnect and visualize the manufacturing cycle to the audiences.

 

"Made For Earth" addresses a specific question: Why are producers starting to make more sustainably in the past decade? Both visual artist Christy Chow and sustainable fashion artist Emeile Bergh came to a realization that consumers are the ultimately driven force in our capitalist society. Consumers push for sustainability from what they see in the news about the dark secrets in the fashion industry regarding environmental and ethical issues. With the idea of “consumers’ psychology drives developing trends”, we believe that the more education and information are provided to the consumers, the faster sustainable fashion can be developed in terms of popularity, accessibility and affordability. In order to educate and empower the audiences, the artists would like to increase the consumers’ awareness of the facts behind the fashion labels by creating a campaign for both designers and the community, an event on the Earth Day, and an installation - the “Made For Earth” concept store. The store is an invitation to the consumers to take an upcycled garment that has been hand tagged and screened by the artists in exchange for a response to a question about the industry. It will also showcase fashion artists who create their own labels. Those labels provide information about source of fabric and time the artists spent to make the garments as a recognition of labor. This collaboration is an attempt for the artists to reconnect and visualize the manufacturing cycle to the MassArt and Boston community.