Aditi Mayer Of Adimay: Decolonizing fashion and going beyond the tokenism of diversity (podcast interview)
Aditi Mayer (@aditimayer, @aditimayerstudio) is a photographer, journalist, and sustainable fashion blogger whose work explores the intersections of style, sustainability, and social justice. Her platform, Adimay, looks at the fashion industry through a lens of decolonization and intersectional feminism. And for the past two years, she's been working closely with Los Angeles garment workers to address and organize against labor exploitation in LA.
In this podcast episode, Aditi sheds light on how our modern fashion industry reflects its colonial history; what the decolonization of fashion might look like; what the pandemic has revealed of the pre-existing injustices and exploitation embedded within the industry; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Aditi and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Yarrow by Kim Anderson
“When it comes to decolonizing the fashion industry, we have to understand that sustainability in fashion is very much racialized in terms of who has buying power, who gets to represent this movement, and how it intersects with class.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes!
On the colonial values embedded into the fashion industry:
"We know that the fashion industry is one that is predicated on colonial values. When I say colonial values, I'm talking about an industry that's seen extraction and exploitation of resources—whether that's the natural environment or labor—as the means for infinite financial gain.
We have to question why it is that the traditional fashion industry has normalized labor exploitation and the fact that the sustainable fashion movement is an alternative niche industry with a huge price wall influencing who can participate.
So when it comes to decolonizing the fashion industry, we have to understand how sustainability in fashion is very much racialized in terms of who has buying power—the idea of 'voting with your dollar', the idea of who gets to represent this movement (which is often tied to our understanding of beauty ideals that are very euro-centric), and how it intersects with class.
The re-contextualization of sustainability as a western concept has been very damaging.
For me, personally, I've come to understand that sustainability has always been a part of my roots. For people of color and cultures of color globally, this hasn't been a new concept. But re-contextualizing sustainability as a consumer act, I think, is something the west has done, and it can be very damaging in terms of how we see our involvement in this movement and more importantly, how we participate in this movement."
On expanding “sustainable fashion” discourses beyond conscious consumerism:
"Although I am someone that advocates for more conscious consumption, when we reduce the sustainability movement to something we have to buy, it has very dire consequences about who can participate in this movement—because we know that the sustainability movement has had an exclusionary approach when it comes to class and race.
That has become a lot of the predicating values of my work—of decolonizing the fashion industry, and exploring exactly what that means."
Final words of wisdom:
“A return to indigenous wisdom is the first step towards decolonization.”
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