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SLOW FASHION

By Eme EIDSON

Documentary - Completed 2022

Slow Fashion, a documentary about the need for fashion designers to stop appropriating traditional designs and be inclusive, giving back to communities of origin, who have long been marginalized by colonial models of oppression.

Festivals
& Awards

International Human Rights Film Festival: this human world 2022

Manhattan Film Festival 2023

Impact Docs 2023

Human rights/Raising awareness

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- USA, MEXICO, LAOS, INDIA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES, SPANISH, HINDI
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 56 mn
- Director(s)
- Eme EIDSON
- Producer(s)
- Eme EIDSON (Eme Studio)
- Synopsis
- Slow Fashion is a documentary that explores cultural appropriation of indigenous designs in Mexico by an international fashion designer and the way weavers and block printers in Laos and India are working with new sustainable designers, whose principals and practices are based on equality, not hierarchy.
  
  From the director of El Barrio (Best Documentary at New York and LA International Film Festivals) and No Son Invisibles/They Are Not Invisible: Maya Women and Microfinance featuring Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus(Oscar Nominated, Washington
  DC FF)
  
  A major fashion designer from Paris has been appropriating traditional designs in the community of Tlahuitoltepec in the highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. In response to this and other instances of global appropriation, Mexico's Ministry of Culture has asked global fashion brands for “a public explanation on what basis it could privatize collective property". Can credit and compensation be given to indigenous communities where the designs come from? Given the vast economic disparity between local communities of origin and the global companies, who are appropriating their designs; it becomes a matter of not only collective property rights, but also human and cultural rights.
  
  In Laos, craftmanship and the value of culture is examined by Nanci Takayama, professor/sustainable fashion activist. Working with communities of Laotian weavers, she raises the subject of empowerment of women artisans and weavers and explores alternative socially conscious ways of working with them in collaboration. She focuses on how designers should respect culture and not just take the artisans’ heritage, their designs, but also to give something back in return.
  
  In Jaipur, India; Mireia Lopez, a New York City progressive eco-designer, demonstrates how to respect artisans by working in a just and fair manner. Hierarchies disappear and true collaboration occurs, as a people-over-profit philosophy is practiced. Mirea, demonstrates how a fashion designer can practice fairness and collaboration. Metamorphosis is possible and real solutions occur as sustainable practices are chosen. Ultimately, fashion designers must be inclusive and rooted in local needs, resources, and culture. It must include women and give voice to communities, who have been long marginalized by colonial models.

SLOW FASHION

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards