In the fast-moving fashion industry, unsold clothes are often simply dumped. One of the main hubs worldwide? Ghana. An artist from Vienna is using his label to draw attention to the global problem of overproduction.
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00:00These clothes have traveled halfway around the world, twice.
00:04They were once worn by dead white guys.
00:06At least that's what the label says, dead white men's clothes.
00:10The brand's founder is this man.
00:13He takes secondhand clothing from Europe and elsewhere
00:16that's sent to Africa by the ton and uses it in his creations.
00:20Jojo Gronostai wants his fashions to send a political message.
00:25The work is addressed to the global north, just to point out the waste problem
00:31and also these hierarchies that are still embedded in our world.
00:36A German Ghanaian who lives in Vienna, Austria, Jojo started his art project and fashion label in 2017.
00:43He re-imports secondhand clothes from Ghana and up-cycles them.
00:47This shirt is to be part of an exhibition at the Museum for Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg this summer.
00:53Chun, a fellow artist and colleague, embroideres the shirt with the label's logo.
00:58What I like about that white man's clothes is that how value are being created out of old textile.
01:09Other pieces are printed, dyed or get new buttons, though they all sport the label's signature lettering.
01:16The former art and photography student is pleased.
01:19For me it was important that it isn't the exact color, like the one that is in the t-shirt, but it's a bit off maybe.
01:28So one can see that it's not originally part of the t-shirt, but could be something new in a way.
01:37During his first visit to Ghana's Cantamanto market in 2017, he decided to buy a dozen garments and turn them into works of art using his own designs.
01:46I was still studying at the time and I was very much interested in replica clothes and fake clothing.
01:56And somehow I stumbled around this place. I think it was a process of five minutes.
02:01I thought, okay, I guess I should do a clothing label from there.
02:07And I also have roots in Ghana. My dad is Ghanaian, so it was kind of fitting.
02:15The Cantamanto market in Ghana's capital, Accra, is one of the world's largest trading places for second-hand clothing.
02:22Around 15 million items land here each week. Some appear to have rarely, if ever, been worn.
02:29That's why in the 1970s, when the market began, vendors and visitors assumed that the clothes' former owners must have died.
02:36So they called these garments, dead white men's clothes.
02:41Each year, Jojo travels to Ghana to buy textiles for his label.
02:45But this year might be different. In January 2025, a fire destroyed the market and the clothes along with it.
02:52In January, this big fire broke out, which was really a disaster.
02:59And I think also two people died. So it's a really big tragedy.
03:03Hopefully it will be possible to recover from that and that they build up the market as fast as possible.
03:13The disaster and the resulting trade disruptions exposed a troubling economic relationship between Africa and the West.
03:20Africa is very important for the West. I would also say it's something like a dumping ground for a lot of second-hand items, not only clothes.
03:31And you can see that these are somehow neo-colonialist structures that are still in place and that really show the hierarchy
03:43because the West couldn't deal with their own waste problem on their own.
03:48The market is quickly being rebuilt, so Jojo could well get to see the merchants again and replenish his used clothing supply.
03:57And keep raising awareness about where fast fashion ends up.
04:01Back in Vienna, photographer Nicole is shooting pictures of the now fully embroidered shirt.
04:07Jojo also regularly produces videos of his creations.
04:14I'm doing a lot of video work with it. I'm doing performances and often I would like to do things that maybe question the post-colonial discourse and also hierarchies and how value is created.
04:31Jojo's creations are more than clothes. They're pieces of art critiquing consumerism and making us reflect on our buying habits.
04:40Because fashion isn't just about style, it's also a question of responsibility.
04:45than P&T.
04:46.