A Bit out of Place

Are you one of those people who is bothered by a crooked picture? Seeing symmetrical vases in asymmetrical positions? Things that are a bit out of place, a door that's a bit crooked, a sneaker that's untied, a button that's buttoned differently, wrong. A painting on the wall that's a bit crooked... I think the painting is the most symbolic. Are you one of those people who are bothered by this? There are people who are too bothered by it, who can't see a crooked painting no matter where they are, and they go there to fix it or run away because they can't stand the sight of it. But there are people who look at it and get a bit annoyed, but they move on, it's not such a big deal.

These were the little questions we asked ourselves when we started promoting this new collection, and when I was thinking about what to write for this blog post, I asked Fabi where the inspiration for Abitoff came from and she answered,

When Abitoff's inspiration came to me, it was on a day when I was going from one place to another, and on the street I saw a girl wearing a very crooked T-shirt, but she was very crooked! You know when you get out of bed and put your clothes on? She was still a bit disheveled, walking in a hurry, carrying things... I've got the whole story in my head, right? And her blouse was very crooked. Do you know when you don't even put your blouse on properly and it's crooked? And at that moment I had the idea that this would make a good no.wasTee. A no.wasTee that was a bit out of place... provocative. We end up using zero-waste design to provoke people into thinking a little about the way we produce today. We have a square neckline that goes against what we think is normal nowadays, what we think is normal. There's a small design detail questioning what we produce, and suddenly a collar that's out of place could be a bit more provocative, so that all the people on the street see that we're deliberately trying to bother others, and bother their eyes, bother them, make people think a bit... reflect a bit. And that's very nice to reflect on this week, which is also the week of World Environment Day, right? Because when we talk about the environment, there are people who, like many of us, suffer from climate anxiety, who are extremely worried, who are always thinking about how they are going to change their way of life in order to make their contribution, their way of having less impact on our planet, right? And leave a smaller trail that doesn't hurt so much... But there are also those who don't bother, right? They see a fire, a flood, a landslide and simply think that this is the Earth's natural cycle, that the climate crisis is an exaggeration by scientists and that they don't even bother, they pass it by. And I think that a T-shirt like Abitoff, in order to provoke a little more, to make us feel uncomfortable, suddenly our own body there, us putting ourselves in a different place, having one sleeve out of place, different from the other, a more “not so symmetrical” neckline, that our image, our fashion style could be leading people to think in another way, to question what we have now, right? But why is that? Why be... out of place? Because sometimes we feel a bit out of place there, polluting everything, disturbing everything? So, I think that making people think a bit more, without having to say it... You arrive in a place and the way you're dressed will trigger a reaction in other people. I think it's cool to use zero waste design in this place of discomfort and in this space of visual provocation, design provocation and fashion as a provocation. And going back, the girl I thought was out of time... maybe we don't have any more time to waste either, do we? That's why we use zero waste design, as an attempt to improve our situation on the planet, the situation of what we wear.

She then called Cassi into the conversation with “So, what do you think?” and she said,

I think that's what it is, that it's time people saw things and got upset. It's not just about living there in your own way and with the environment, things have evolved and thinking has evolved. It's time for you to look at things truthfully, not just live in your own world and not care about what happens around you, because the benefit is “living” itself. I think it's time to get upset about what's out of place, as a whole, and do something about it. Abitoff is out of place, but she's in the right place, because she's one of the heroines of reason.

And the reflection, the idea of calling everyone to this movement... it's the collective thing, right? So much so that at Zero Waste we don't have the pattern for a T-shirt, we have the pattern for several T-shirts together. Because nothing is alone, right? We're not alone here, there's no way we can live on this planet alone. We have to live with others, we have to think collectively, everything has to be a collective construction. And that's why we're reinforcing the invitation: come and be part of this movement, we have no time to lose.

Giovanna Wangham, Fabiana Muranaka and Cassiana Portes