“A whole system makes fashions and tastes,” says Salsamendi: “The symbolic aspect of fashion, trends, aesthetic charges and consumption are powerful instruments of patriarchy and capitalism, derived from interests. The sum of the components creates the perfect tool to maintain the order of the hegemonic system”.

She is currently studying Clothing and Patronage in Barcelona. In his words, the unconscious student will work the traditional views and models and commercialize them below: “If a student does not break the rules and questions them on his own, he will repeat the sexist and capitalist values of the fashion sector.” It ensures that the textile and fashion industry can even manipulate consumer tastes. Thus, following some trends and consuming in the same places leads us to have the same tastes: “The fashion tastes that the market imposes and decides govern in society are controlled by an elite.”

Clothing for certain bodies

In addition to styles, what and who makes dressing and dressing interesting? For example, Salsamendi told us that the fashion and textile market is mainly focused on women: “Not because we have more need, but because we have been led to believe that it is our own interest.” It takes a step towards diverting women's interests and keeping them under control.

Women have suffered the aesthetic pressure since childhood. Advertising campaigns broadcast that we are born to be desirable and that we depend on beauty chants. Unwritten rules determine who is desirable and accepted and who is not. The Donostiarra affirms that this message is also spread through clothing. “There are companies that make oversized clothing, but don’t worry, in advertising they’ll make it clear that it’s clothing for people who stay out of the rules.”

On the other hand, although in the textile industry the producers are mainly women, they work in a precarious situation: “Public recognition posts are masculinized and the invisible and precarious are feminized.”

Aware of this, Salsamendi is keen to open new avenues in the textile sector. “We are neatly prepared to produce what we want.” It has taken the traditional textile model out of our head, the companies and it has pointed out to us that there are alternatives such as staging. “I’ve been working in a theater company, wearing dresses for a puppet play and I found it a very interesting field, both from a creative and a political point of view,” he says.

>>> To learn more about the topic, you can read the report published in the number 2560 of ARGIA: Sustainable fashion. Cut tags, sew tags.