A Chicago- and L.A.-based group is suggesting a new use for all the Ivanka Trump-brand clothing that's hanging unworn in customers' closets as a sign of protest or hitting the resale market as of late, according to Racked: Turn it into ethically-produced, made-in-the-U.S. jumpsuits.
Under the name Rational Dress Society, Abigail Glaum-Lathbury and Maura Brewer started the project last summer as an intellectual response to the increasingly wasteful consumer culture that's come as a result of fast fashion and faster retail, with a hint of humor, Racked reported. It launched with a manifesto of sorts for utopian dress, channeled into a single garment that was gender-neutral, utilitarian, and made-to-measure: the jumpsuit.
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The plan was to sell enough pieces to take out a full-page ad in Vogue; after that, Jumpsuit would close up "shop" in the most literal sense, as it was never intended to grow into a businesses. "Because we're artists and we don't really run Jumpsuit like a traditional business, a.k.a. we don't really make money, it opens us up to be able to think about things besides the bottom line," Glaum-Lathbury told Racked in 2016. "I think that makes Jumpsuit a really interesting space for economic experimentation." The Rational Dress Society then uploaded the pattern for its signature jumpsuit online, so folks wouldn't have to purchase one in order to engage with the concept behind it.
In the wake of the election and the inconsistencies between President Donald Trump's proposed policies and the way he and his family members run their businesses (specifically, the rate at which Trump-branded products are imported from other countries despite pushing a strong "Buy American" political platform), Glaum Lathbury and Brewer decided to build upon the values that inspired Jumpsuit, such as waste-reduction, ethical production, and egalitarianism, with a more pointed project. And thus, the Make America Rational Again (MARA) clothing drive was born.
"For the next several months, we will be soliciting your gently-used, and emphatically-discarded Ivanka Trump brand garments, to be recycled into new, 100% Made in the USA, Special Edition JUMPSUITS!," the Rational Dress Society writes on its website. The project hopes to collect enough Trump-tagged clothing through July 2017 to then be able to recycle the materials into post-consumer yarn, which will then be woven into fabric and ethically manufactured stateside into the one-pieces And while the group usually rejects anything that's too trend-driven and cursory in fashion, MARA does include a particular sartorial wink in its design: Racked notes that the recycled jumpsuits will be millennial pink. "It’s the line we try to take between being really silly and also deadly serious," Glaum-Lathbury told the publication. "You should be having fun while critiquing. Otherwise, we’d just be weeping into our cornflakes all the time, which we’re all pretty close to anyway."
Because MARA is not about the actual clothing being made and more about creating "a vehicle for wealth redistribution," these jumpsuits will be sold at an auction, with all the proceeds going to fair labor organizations that work on promoting ethical practices in the U.S., according to the website. The Rational Dress Society encourages folks to empty out Ivanka Trump garments from their closets, or thrift old pieces for the purpose of recycling. (Resale site thredUP found that in 2016, Ivanka Trump-brand clothing was being flipped at a rate 223% higher than in previous years.) If you don't have the means to spend money on this, the group is looking for volunteers at drop-off centers — or to simply spread the word about this endeavor.
"Together, we can transform these itchy, plastic blouses, dresses, and pencil skirts into the building blocks of a better future," Brewer said in a video.