The Conversations on Decoloniality & Fashion is an online series initiated by the Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion in February 2021. This virtual platform beyond institutional, disciplinary and geographical boundaries aims to experiment with decolonial and decentral ways of knowledge-creation and sharing regarding fashion – through the relational and conversational, the communal and coalitional, and through a radical act of listening across multiple differences. Transcending academe, its main aim is to disrupt stubbornly persistent Eurocentric underpinnings of dominant fashion and encourage critical analysis and dialogue into an erased and denied diversity.
May 2023: On ‘Environmental Damage of Cotton Production in Pakistan by the Colonial Project,’ convened by the Pakistan Collective for Decolonial Practice
Many factors have contributed to the change in how Pakistan produces cotton among other crops. The effects on the clothing industry at large, and especially the local, indigenous hand-produced fabrics are grave yet ignored. Pakistan will not be growing any cotton in the province of Sindh this year. This results from short- sighted British policies that aimed to produce abundant amounts of cotton for export, but did not evaluate the effects of these policies in the long term. The conversation will cover the story of Pakistan’s rivers, water distribution systems, the seeds being used, and their effects.
Sonya Battla has been a fashion designer under her own label since 1999 based in Karachi, Pakistan. She is a strong supporter of local crafts and indigenous produce and in 2022, she initiated the Pakistan Collective for Decolonial Practices, a not for profit group that aims to explore decolonial approaches on Pakistani history, local positionalities and perspectives on doctrines of discrimination based on principles of othering:civilisations, racial groups and religious differences.
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