What is the Cost?
What is the Cost? uses installation to address the human cost of fast fashion.
This body of work is inspired by the 2012 Dhaka garment factory fire in Bangladesh which killed over 100 workers including many children. In order to feed retailer’s and consumer’s addiction to low prices, fast fashion brands minimize costs and maximize profits leading to unsafe working conditions in factories. When we see cheap garments in the store we do not know the story of the low wages or conditions of workers.
What is the Cost? recreates a clothing store with pretty designs displayed on mannequins. As you get closer, the details of the stories behind the clothes become evident. The deeper you move into the exhibition, more of the backstory is revealed. What is the Cost? encourages viewers stop and look at the true cost of the fast fashion industry and the human cost to create cheap clothing.
