How the impact of fashion reshapes cities and landscapes. From wastefulness to research
This past Sunday, we explored the Inequalities exhibition at Triennale Milano. The 24th International Exhibition tackles one of today’s most pressing issues: the dramatic rise of global inequality. Moving beyond observation, it questions the disparities that shape our existence—economic, ethnic, geographic, and gender-based. And this through powerful installations and events. The project aims to map these complex dynamics and spotlight political ideas for a future where difference becomes a strength, recomposed into vibrant new communities.
As articulated by President Stefano Boeri, the exhibition delves into how “immense wealth is now concentrated in the hands of a few. And how, for millions around the world, being born into poverty has become an irreversible fate.” It also reveals how inequality, “whether inherited at birth, encountered along the way, or shaped by our own actions—impacts life expectancy and health for each of us.” Clearly, it encompasses its most extreme manifestations, from ghettos to wars.
The exhibition frames this complex subject through two distinct lenses: the geopolitics and the biopolitics of inequality.
Inequalities & waste crisis: Your wardrobe is a colonizer
On the ground floor, the focus turns to the geopolitical scale, particularly the world of cities. This section examines the contemporary definitions of “wealth” and “poverty” and the significant roles they play in shaping urban environments. Among the international participants, Togo contributed a striking installation: Out of Fashion, the Waste Lab. Its central, provocative thesis: Your wardrobe is a colonizer. It links the fashion industry’s waste directly to the dynamics of modern-day waste colonialism.
Each year, the fashion industry generates 92 million tons of textile waste. Much of which is exported from the Global North to the Global South. In Africa, this “waste colonialism” exacerbates environmental degradation and social injustice, profoundly impacting landscapes and cities.
The installation Out of Fashion explores the injustices and environmental problems caused by this specific form of waste colonialism.
Using Togo as a case study, the work examines how this fashion excess is reshaping urban environments, focusing on the Hedzranawoe market in Lomé. As a hub for discarded clothing in West Africa, the market has become a microcosm of the informal economies and innovative design practices generated by the global waste crisis. Here, clothing is sold, altered, or transformed into new objects—such as sunscreens made from denim scraps. Thse practices demonstrate a resilient culture of reuse and adaptation.
Culminating in a display built from the very waste it critiques—textile waste from the market—Out of Fashion reframes the narrative. It doesn’t stop at exposing injustice but embodies the principles of regenerative design it advocates. By showcasing the creativity born from necessity in Lomé, it lights a path forward, proving that the shift from wasteful consumption to exploratory creation is not only possible but already underway.
Final thoughts
With Inequalities, the Triennale doesn’t claim to exhaust the subject but acts as a catalyst for thought and potential solutions. The installation Out of Fashion encapsulates this dual mission. Crafted from the waste it denounces, it exposes a deeply unequal system while revealing the creativity that emerges in response. It reminds us that the inequalities we inherit or encounter can also be transformed—into advantages, into gifts, into added value for our future communities.