I created Cheap Fashion Costs Lives in the Posters for Agitation workshop, we had at ELISAVA. The plan was for each of us to create a poster about something that moved us, that bothered us, that spoke to our hearts. I decided to do it about how defected is the fashion industry, or at least the sweatshop industry. I love fashion, in the same way that I love painting, cinema, music, or design, but I hate the way people get consumed by it, and the way it consumes people.
Taking as a reference the Rana Plaza factory that collapsed in Bangladesh in 20013, I used the clothing care label to express my idea. At first, I was afraid it was too much of a cliché but Raúl Goñi (who was giving the workshop) gave us a print of Philip Thompson’s text published in The Dictionary on Graphic Images. It talked about how clichés are the key to visual communication, even though they are derogatory in the literary context. At the end of the workshop, we’ve invaded La Rambla with our posters!
