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In recent years, contemporary fashion designers have been exploring cultural issues, as well as how cultural bonds are sustained and the role that fashion plays to challenge these. Contemporary fashion designers are spearheading a new critical practice of fashion.

Social Fabric brings together a group of contemporary fashion designers and artists that work with garments in ways that deal with the social and cultural fabric of fashion. 

Aalto University students are participating in the exhibition with a collective installation as well as two individual works. 

The works are:

Aalto University team: Traces, 2025
Team: Apollo Da Costa Doria, Nhung Huynh, Y Kiili, Kuutti Lemmetyinen, Ruusa Vuori
Group mentor: Elina Määttänen
All installation materials are from Kierrätyskeskus secondhand shop

Idaliina Friman, Kursu, 2023

Lauri Greis, Karelian Sportlore, 2024

Commissioned installation by five Aalto University students 

Apollo Da Costa Doria, Nhung Huynh, Y Kiili, Kuutti Lemmetyinen and Ruusa Vuori have been working behind the scenes at EMMA, creating a commissioned piece ‘Traces’.

The material used for the work consists of clothing donated by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Recycling Center (Kierrätyskeskus) – garments in such poor condition that they can no longer be re-sold. The installation will greet visitors at the entrance to the exhibition, highlighting two of its central themes: the throwaway culture surrounding fashion and the artistic value of clothing.

The team describes: "The work is a reminder that even if the lifecycle of a garment ends in your closet, it doesn't disappear. Not everything can be recycled. Many people donate in good faith, but much of the material ends up in the trash or is moved out of sight, to other countries. It's not sustainable and it's not fair. The material is collected from the waste that comes into the recycling centre, which is not saleable.

“We only wanted to use material that no longer has any other use - not take away something that someone would still really need. Most of the clothes used in the piece were dirty, in poor condition or from fast fashion and ultra-fast brands like Shein, whose clothes are no longer put up for sale by the Recycling Centre.

“The work does not offer a solution, but a question: what happens to all the excess? It is not a proposal to use clothes on walls or in art so that we can continue to consume as before. The problem is not just what we do with the surplus, but that more surplus is being created all the time. The work overflows, like our system. It shows what is usually hidden. A garment doesn't always continue its journey to another's closet. Often it becomes waste."

The Social Fabric exhibition is curated and conceptualized by Ane Lynge-Jorlén from ALPHA and co-curated by Reetta Kalajo from EMMA. 

The exhibition is open: 
23.05.2025 - 07.12.2025