Working in collaboration with The ReFashion Hub, Prarthna Singh’s specially commissioned series is a poetic take on consumerism and fast fashion. Singh’s photography practice has been recognised for its exploration of unusual narratives through her distinctive and sensitive style of portraiture. For this series, she turns her lens on 10 articles of clothing, elevating them to sculptural pieces through her black and white portraits of these otherwise ubiquitous items of clothing. The viewer is invited to imagine the multiple narratives of utility, memory, consumption, waste and discarding that are layered within these images.
The images show items we all have around us, yet we are so quick to discard and replace with the next trend or fashion. Presented as a poignant photo essay The ReFashion Hub wants to highlight the damage fast fashion does to the environment.
This photo series by Prarthna Singh is part of a series of creative programmes by The ReFashion Hub. Earlier this month, The ReFashion Hub and YWater launched India’s first fellowship focussing on wastewater reuse and management in the textile industry called the Fashion Forward Fellowship. The on-going 5-week fellowship programme ends in April with one winning sustainable capsule collection.
Talking about the series Prarthna Singh says, “When The Refashion Hub approached me to create a series of images addressing fast-fashion for them, I began noticing the omnipresence of clothes in my personal environment – my favourite pair of shorts out to dry; a pile of clothes waiting to be recycled; my partner’s sports kit back from the cleaners. I hadn’t consciously registered this before and it gave me some pause. I was struck by the ubiquity of clothes and how little we think of how our clothes are made or where they might end up. This series of black and white images communicates a quiet moment of reflection and recognition of these objects of clothing that make up our everyday landscape.”
