In her diploma project, Tanja Hildebrandt deals with the mechanisms and effects of consumption in a capitalist economic system such as ours, with a special focus on the fashion industry.
Clothing used to be primarily for protection against external environmental factors, but today it has become the identity carrier of whole generations - with enormous economic and ecological significance. At the same time, a trend towards outsourcing of production processes to low-wage countries has emerged in the fashion industry since the beginning of the 1990s. The fast fashion industry has a massive impact on social and environmental issues. The term "fast fashion" describes a specific production and distribution system for mass-produced fashion goods characterized by short production times, lowest possible costs and high quantities.
Nevertheless, the fast fashion industry is one of the most powerful in the world. Through aesthetics, the core principle of the fashion industry, fashion brands constantly raise consumer needs and project dream images of products that have no material or sentimental value. The negative aspects are hidden on the part of the producers as well as the consumers.
Tanja Hildebrandt set herself the goal of overcoming this discrepancy and conceived a campaign against the fast fashion industry for her diploma project, which was subsequently implemented. In order to reach the consumer group of fast fashion, she imitated a fashion label – completely from appearance to marketing to the products. The clothes themselves became a stage for the catastrophic social and ecological effects. Disguised in the mantle of aesthetics, the garments show patterns of abstract scientific knowledge that represent the negative effects along the textile production chain.
For two months, the fashion label was set up under the name "momus" on social media channels. In doing so, Hildebrandt took over all the principles and strategies of the fast fashion giants and re-interpreted them - thus sneaking into the elitist system of fashion.
The campaign was revealed, disguised as the release and pop-up shop of the label, which were in fact an information event and DIY workshop series. Used clothing brought along by visitors became the starting point for the exchange and upcycling of the pieces. With the help of professional seamstresses and designers from the sustainable fashion industry, the visitors could let off steam creatively and turn their old clothes into new favorite pieces.
Tanja Hildebrandt’s diploma work combines the pedagogical approach of information transfer and education, thereby also creating a chance to get to know the alternatives and to try them out independently.