Fashion4Change initiative says it plans to use its annual fashion expo platform to encourage recycling in the creation of fashion designs to promote environmental conservation.
The initiative, introduced in 2017, stands on the pillar of the promotion of fashion and artistic expressions to leave a lasting global impact, especially in restoring the environment by encouraging reuse of waste materials.
During this year’s expo, to be held on Saturday at Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre, the project will host 10 of Malawi’s best apparel makers and six international designers to raise awareness on recycling.
Fashion4Change managing director Ausa Tinyade Kamanga said they are calling upon companies that use billboards for advertising to give them vinyls which are left after making billboards.
He said such material will be donated to Mbayani Primary School for recycling.
“You will appreciate that we have many companies that use billboards in their advertising. After they are done, the vinyl is just dumped since it cannot be reused for similar purposes. We want to use this resource artistically to prevent a possible injury to the environment,” she said.
Kamanga said their passion for fashion is matched by their hunger for a cleaner environment; hence, their deliberate tactic to use the platform to raise awareness and rally voices on environmental issues.
So far, the group has earned a partnership with JC Decaux, a company which is responsible for close to 80 percent of billboards in the country. The company has provided them with vinyl whose bags will be exhibited during the fashion expo on Saturday.
Apart from showcasing designs from local designers, other works to be exhibited on the day will be by designers from Namibia, Zambia and Botswana.
One of the local designers, Godfrey Jiah Jnr, said minus playing a part in the promotion of environmental conservation, the bags made from vinyl are durable and cheap.
Jiah said: “The material is very thick and strong. If you make a bag out of that you are assured of using it for not less than two years. So for school-going kids it is a serious saving on the part of parents. And besides that they are fashionable.”
The first event which the initiative hosted focused on the environment, with an emphasis on deforestation.They partnered United Purpose’s ‘Chitetezo Mbaula’ product which has proven to reduce carbon emissions. n
