Guest Blog post by Kathleen Rimmer

Every day we dress ourselves in the clothes we like to think say something about us, our personality, our job, our status, but have you ever wondered how someone would perceive you from the clothes you throw away?

In one small cog of the great global textiles industry Reshma from Panipat in Northern India dreams of visiting America to see the wealthy beautiful women who wear the clothes she has been sorting through for the past 15 years.

In this beautifully constructed 14 minute film Unravel by Meghna Gupta our eyes are opened to how the clothes we discard daily narrate an interpretation of the worldwide consumers of fashion, as one woman remarks, “Water is as expensive as clothes, that’s why they wear their clothes a couple of times then throw them away,” while others discuss knickers adorned with pearls and beads “Some poor helpless thing must be forced to wear them abroad”.

The film is a fascinating insight into the wonderfully circular route textiles take, many of our garments are manufactured in India, shipped globally, then return to be recycled back into yarn (in this case woven into blankets that are then sold back to the West.)  This documentary speaks volumes about two very different cultures and provokes thoughtful discussion and appraisal of our contemporary lifestyle through just one facet, the life-cycle of our clothes and what worth we give the textiles we use more than any others.

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