quently written about in the Dailies as well as the design journals. They would get
international artists to experiment with their outlet garments of last season and
their garments would be exhibited and become parts of other narratives and dis-
cussions within the art and design world. If the project turned out to be successful
they might well have added to the discussion about the future of fashion, perhaps
later referenced, adding to the image of their brand. As Vakko has its own art de-
partment and supports art events, they could easily put this collaboration under
that umbrella if they felt too uncertain of the outcome and the adventure could
then still be guided through their own communication channels. These were some
of the point I took up at our initial meeting.
The artists, on the other hand, would try out new methods and channels for their
works. They would engage in hacking, co-design, and refashioning, and inject their
results back into the fashion system, with Vakko as a powerful vector. They would
be given exclusive material for free, have their prototypes produced in a limited
edition, and be paid for the work on top of the trip and per diem of the gallery
exhibition and workshops. It would be a process of hands-on production of new
objects of desire that would appear in the shiny shops of Vakko. It is in their fitting
cubicles that fresh identities and hopes are launched for their risky odysseys
through life and there customers who were not the type of customer who would
normally visit the gallery would try on new hacktivist fashions.
The proposed working process of VakkoVamps was as follows:
- Vakko would select garments from their last season to be transformed, one
or two items per artist. - Vakko sent the selected garment to the artists as “homework”. The artists
had a month to remake them and document the process. The documentation
would be a form of manual for Vakko, so that they could easily follow the
process. The prototype and manual would then be sent back to Vakko. - Vakko would produce the reformed or “hacked” garment prototype in a
limited edition of 10 copies, using their stock of outlet copies and following
the instructions in the manual. - The garment would be styled, photographed, and advertised as a “real”
garment from Vakko. - The new copies would be sold in the Vakko boutiques while the original
prototypes would be exhibited at Garanti Gallery together with the instructions
of how to make the garments.
However, these kinds of collaborative processes are always a matter for negotiation
and compromises, and unfortunately the full concept of the VakkoVamps process
could not be completed. In the beginning the collaboration went well, but a week
before the exhibition opening, when the new reproductions of the prototypes were
supposed to arrive we got the message that Vakko had pulled out without giving
any explanation. This move could have had a number of reasons. It became clear
that Vakko had misunderstood parts of the process. They did not have ten copies
of the old garments that were going to be remade, so they would have to produce
new ones. Perhaps they also felt that they lost too much control of the project and
The VakkoVamps method aimed to
get the hacked prototypes from the exhibition
contributors to be reproduced in ten copies by
Vakko. These would also be photographed
and included in Vakko advertising as well
as sold in Vakko stores -possibly to the
beautiful people.