than in the Vatican alone. Similarily we could see how fashion base communities
could work hands-on with the existing resources to create their own local scenes
for interpretation, co-design and production. The role of the designer in projects
like these is to help organize base communities and platforms that enable a com-
munity to “talking back” to the system through crafting and designing their own
standpoints on issues brought up in their new “material publics”. Future design
projects can explore further how these participatory platforms can address other
issues through hands-on practice.
Yet, this is not a rage against the hierarchic machine but the emergence of symbio-
sis between hierarchies and bazaars. The intention for base communities is to plug-
in and use energies from within the larger system, but liberating these to be used
freely by the low-level publics, the ones who are usually unseen from within the
system. It is a “bazaarifying” of the coordination between the interacting parts.
This means opening of the “source code” of a belief system, revealing the unknown
potentials under a new light and sharing them freely in order to build a commu-
nity. Unexpectedly the indigent people have been found to own abundant resourc-
es. Be it the neglected memories of discarded clothing, the embroidery skills of
rehabilitation centre clients or just the desire to take part in and comment on what
is going on out there in the fashion world. Even the smallest asset used rightly
within a community can help us become more fashion-able.