Could ‘trash fashion’ save this Nairobi neighbourhood from drowning in discarded western clothes? | Global development

Antony Njoroge paces backwards and forwards, digital camera in hand, as folks bombard him with questions. “What will we do with this? The place ought to I put it? The sunshine’s higher over right here! Tony, one second please.” The film-maker and his co-producer Sally Ngoiri are placing the ultimate touches to an occasion that they by no means imagined would truly come to life once they first thought up the thought again in Could: the primary trend present to be staged in Gikomba, Nairobi, east Africa’s largest secondhand clothes market.“I’m by no means getting myself into one thing like this once more,” Njoroge says with a smile.The Gikomba Vogue Present will characteristic in a documentary known as Wasteland, which addresses the problem of mass importation of secondhand clothes – mitumba in Swahili – to Kenya however focuses on how native stylists and designers are giving these clothes a second life and redefining their makes use of.“The concept comes from my private expertise as a citizen, seeing how my neighbourhood was getting dirtier. I noticed how the Nairobi River typically will get clogged with discarded garments and plastic waste,” says Ngoiri. “I selected to inform this story in Gikomba as a result of it’s the place a lot of the mitumba finally ends up, but in addition to point out locals that there are different methods of doing issues.”Kenya imports greater than 185,000 tonnes of secondhand clothes yearly – but as much as 40% of it’s unwearable, ending up in dumpsites as a substitute of closets. The trailer for Wasteland begins by displaying this “mountain of waste disguised as charity”. It is because of premiere in June on the Alliance Française in Nairobi.The story follows Luca Wakarindi, a younger entrepreneur who owns a secondhand retailer in Gikomba and shares her journey from thrifting to changing into a producer and trend stylist, highlighting the significance of giving garments a brand new life. “I need to present people who these garments are usually not unhealthy. We can not – and we don’t need to – eradicate thrift, so we repurpose them, we refashion them.”Nonetheless, Wakarindi explains, the final word purpose of the mission is to lift consciousness concerning the pressing want for regulation. “If you embody trash garments in what you’re giving to charity, you’re already working towards your self. If out of 5 clothes I can solely use two and should throw away the remaining, then we want a brand new system to regulate what’s being imported into our nation,” she says.To realize this, Njoroge and Ngoiri determined to organise a trend runway within the coronary heart of the market and invited varied stakeholders – together with Romain Boyer of of the French Embassy, , Alliance Française, the UN atmosphere programme, Unicef and the Nationwide Setting Administration Authority – to witness the magnitude of the issue first-hand: “We need to problem them to take motion to attain regulation,” says Ngoiri.The impression will not be restricted to authorities, nevertheless, says Ngoiri. “After I was doing analysis for the documentary, I used to be stunned that folks didn’t know they might recycle and upcycle garments. They had been telling me that typically they might purchase a bale and 80% of it was not sellable, so that they ended up making a loss and throwing it away. With Wasteland we need to present them that they will get artistic too.”David Kimani, a artistic director and stylist who works at Lucarindii – the shop owned by Wakarindi that served as backstage for the runway, and the place native trend designers work for the movie and music trade – says the advantages of thrifting can multiply when creativity is inspired. “I used to be shopping for garments and my mates had been telling me I look recent. You see? I began styling myself, then I styled my homies, and now I model artists and fashions. We’re turning trash into trend.”