tainable and the “holy” myth in the temples of fashion. What would happen in this
meeting?
VakkoVamps could connect the hacktivist approach with high fashion where desir-
able dreams are produced, the dreams that affect consumption patterns in society
at large and not only among visitors to a gallery. Here activist dreams could in-
termesh with fashion dreams, not as a game of illusions but as the serious play on
their common stage, recreating utopias as well as desire. This was an attempt to
find a third locus of activism at the conjunction of multiple forces, fashion and
activism, capitalism and critical interventions, crafting and desire, glamour and
subversion, to name but a few.
In order to realize this, I organized ”homework” for the artists and designers who
came for the Hackers and Haute Couture Heretics exhibition. This was to be a test
of how the work in the exhibition could reach further into high fashion, with the
help of one of turkey’s top up-market brands, Vakko.
For a hacking activity like this, Vakko seemed the perfect partner for it is not only
a distinguished and classic Turkish brand but also a label that embodies the dream-
producing machine of fashion. With its glamorous designs it creates a mythical
substantiation of Mediterranean luxury and it has an established position as up-
market producer of ready-to-wear fabulousness. In short, Vakko is the opposite of
the mass-produced “McFashion”. Vakko acts as a model of aspiration, ubiquitous
within the Istanbul chic circles with the brand’s glossy adverts on large posters
above the streets seductively enchanting the Turkish fashionistas like Sirens’ call.
With this position Vakko embodies the spirit of fashion as a strong force that pro-
duces the imitative rays of allure that at the same time push and pull, dictate and
attract.
In 2006 Vakko started a celebrated collaboration with American designer Zac Posen
to add some extra international credibility to their designs. Indeed, Vakko could be
a very interesting collaborator if they dared to try something unconventional, and
the difference here would be considerable compared to the collection designed by
Zac Posen.
The format of the VakkoVamps was to investigate how fashion hacking can expand
the meanings of fashion. The aim was also to engage in manoeuvres of longevity
enhancement and combine hands-on engagement and limited edition production
with the myth-building processes of fashion. By recycling old garments from the
previous collection, updating them, as well as reconstructing their image, made
this process of becoming into something intersecting with values already existing
in high fashion. This line of practice connects to similar brand strategies and work
processes by Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garcons and their Guerrilla stores, which
mainly retails updated garments from former collections.
The work in VakkoVamps differs from Kawakubo’s example mainly in the open
working process and interface between a multitude of participants, transparent
and open tactics of redesign and reinterpretation of both form and authorship of
the originals. The Vakko brand would surrender control to unknown processes
performed by the hacking designers, and open itself to be reworked outside its
overall strategy, but at the same time participate in an experimental product devel-
opment phase. Although their control would be loosened there would be much to
gain, as they would also get a lot for free. They would attract media attention as a
result of the gallery exhibition, as the gallery works with a PR company and is fre-