'Artefacts of mass production: Swatch of Luxury'

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Background: In the context of a luxury fashion industry in upheaval to the extent that it is difficult to differentiate that traditional boundaries of ‘luxury’ and ‘mass production’ (Cantista & Sádaba, 2019). Emerging practice-based approaches are questioning these commercial systems and traditions of this industry under the banner of ‘critical fashion practice’. Key practitioners and projects in this area include: JOIN Collective, Warehouse, Elisa van Joolen, Tenant of Culture and Shanzhai Lyric.

Contribution: 'Artefacts of mass production: Swatch of Luxury' speculated on the material constructions of luxury through a participatory project model to explore the question, ‘how do we now define luxury and/or mass production?’. A collaboration between RMIT University and the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras, led by Ricarda Bigolin, Chantal Kirby, Professor Clemens Thornquist and Anna Lidstrom, the project asked contributors to make a ‘swatch of luxury’ from a mass-produced item and in doing so encouraged 40 participants to reconsider traditional material definitions on luxury and mass-produced fashion. The final installation was curated by Bigolin and Kirby as chief investigators on the project.

Significance: The State of Fashion is a an ongoing initiative organised by Foundation Sonsbeek, based on the Arnhem Fashion Biennale, an initiative of ArtEZ Fashion and the City of Arnhem. The project was commissioned through a competitive peer-review process and was installed at Musis, Arnhem as part of the colloquium ‘Fashion Colloquium: Searching for the New Luxury’. As part of the event, Bigolin & Kirby were also invited by Professor José Teunissen to participate in the conference program (other speakers included Pascale Gatzen, Luca Marchetti, Otto von Busch) presenting on ‘Artefacts of Mass Production’. The project also led to the invitation for Bigolin and Kirby to participate in the panel discussion ‘Is jewellery a luxury?’ at RMIT Design Hub in 2019.