Should Old Sequins Be Forgot?
For a season of holidays all about catching the light, Sequins can feel like a perfect metaphor. Shiny disks cover the fabric so as to give the illusion that the wearer is shimmering, glowing from the inside out. This luminous ornamentation has long been beloved by performance artists, stylists & lighting designers for the way they can amplify presence, movement, and even emotion. In recent years, their popularity has exploded well off the stage. Especially since the beloved innovation of flip sequins.
Various practices of attaching coins, metals or shells can be found throughout history & across the globe, but the story of their modern popularity comes from opening King Tuts tomb “revealing splendid garments embellished with tiny disks made of pure gold”.
It seems as though, whichever origin you trace to; there is a beautiful story to who wore what shiny bits, how they were prepared & arranged, why and for which occasions.
In modern fashion, we try to unlock the origins of certain styles, often with the intention to return what turns out to be stolen, from people simultaneously harmed for wearing the same things non-ironically. Although their popularity was invigorated by grave-robbing, sequins can bring some relief in that, whatever they adorn is a beacon of something shared throughout human history; a fascination with the natural world, the spiritual nature and natural spirit of all things, unique qualities of precious resources, the powers of intentioned craft.
Much like Aldous Huxley noting the divine qualities of ancient holy buildings in “Heaven & Hell”, “These things are self-luminous, exhibit a preternatural brilliance of colour and possess a preternatural significance”….
“And here we may note that, by its amazing capacity to give us too much of the best things, modern technology has tended to devaluate the traditional vision-inducing materials.”
While our modern sequins are reminiscent of these traditions and beliefs, the modern practices of their production and use are often too far from their point;
If precious materials were to protect us, guide us, illuminate our path, what do we manifest by buying single-use polyester, covered in plastic disks, made by exploited people, poisoning the natural resources they imitate, shipped from countries suffering thirst for processes that require gallons on the pound to produce?
Doesn’t feel so magical when we put it that way, does it?
A 2019 UK study that projected that women from 18-55 would purchase over 33 million sequinned garments & accessories that holiday season. With 5% of those women admitting they would bin those items in the new year - that looks like 1.7 million items covered in shiny little turtle chokers hitting landfills - from just one island. Sequins are incredibly toxic in their production, often releasing nasty chemicals into waterways, harming the hands of workers, interfering with marine biodiversity. Their shimmer, like glitter, makes them more attractive to unsuspecting marine life. More on “Why Sequins and Glitter Are Terrible for the Environment”
Upon searching for companies seeking to recycle sequins, there were but a few artisans reusing them on Etsy. It can be hard to imagine cheap sequins being worth the work they require a second time around. There are some people on the cutting edge of producing sustainable sequins, Elissa Brunato developed a way to grow iridescent sequins from tree cellulose.
The Sustainable Sequin Co Has been producing partially recycled sequins & according to the Future Fashion Factory, they plan to develop their own natural polymer sequin.
And we’re grateful. We need innovators changing the production game, because let’s face it, the market has been keeping the bar real low...
As we live by thrift, we seek plenty of well made beaded & sequinned vintage pieces for us to shine in, monuments of traditional values we work to bring with us into the future. Valuing craftsmanship, quality, meaning, impact & origin. Where we appreciate what it must have taken to make *this*.
If fashion were a religion, unethically sourced clothes would be blasphemy, cheap idolatry with damning repercussions. Thank Dog, it’s not a religion, and there’s nobody counting the sins of the producer against the wearer. Accessing ethical clothing without adequate thrift resources, with harder to find sizes, or whatever myriad of accessibility issues arise with ethical clothing in a greenwashed market, can be hard if not impossible for some.
With the countless Shein Dresses that will hit thrift shops in the new year, it would actually be a shame if people thought it was shameful to wear one. It would discourage the re-use-it mindset we want to see in the world and cut a little close to classism. Use what you have & make it last. Maybe if you can, just reign in direct purchasing from companies that are supplied by sweatshops that find Children’s hands ideal for finishing work (like sequins); If it benefits some low-income people in richer countries, but, at the expense of others, it’s not good enough.
When wearing clothing that is in origin unethical, but in utility and appearance, a simply functioning item, I tell myself,
“This is a part of change. I am owning that this has been a part of my culture, that prices were paid for this to exist, and I will not perpetuate a wasteful mindset for the sake of appearance.”
Avoiding the truth is not how we change or feign positivity. We still need to get dressed and want to feel fabulous. The deeds in your closet have already been done. We can’t keep up with the hyper-vigilance required to know it all, and yet, through work and learning, we can do better.
Good & Bad are not mutually exclusive. We can move forward with recognition and honour to both. That sometimes we mistake trickery for treasures. Still trusting we’re working toward the real thing.
May your path into 2022 be luminous.
However you catch your glow,
Happy New Years Babies.
