Customisation as an art form at Esentai Gallery

At Esentai Gallery, the Kyrgyz clothing brand called CUT A DASH, together with the Vector printing company, showed how old things can reborn to have new meanings through traditions and new customisation technologies, the correspondent of Art of Her reports.

The event was held within the framework of the exhibition "Time of Prophetic Dreams"in which the Kyrgyz clothing brand CUT A DASH took a part. Anyone could bring their old clothes and customise them using the silkscreen printing technique, choosing one of the three suggested print options in the traditional Kyrgyz style.

The goal of the project is to give a second life to old things. We really want people to reduce their clothing consumption and learn how to customise old clothes. Usually, people throw away their old clothes, and we show how old clothes can be given a second life," — said Aiza Zheldenbaeva, assistant designer.

Eco friendliness is the main trend of the 21st century, especially in the fashion industry. The huge consumption of clothing causes great harm to the environment and humanity (excessive consumption of water, killing of animals, child labour, etc.). The CUT A DASH team has been raising these issues socially in Kyrgyzstan for several years.

Since 2017, CUT A DASH has been organising exhibitions on environmental topics. This time we came to Almaty with an exhibition and decided to hold an additional event so that the audience would be more involved in the topic of ecology and remember our message. In Bishkek, we quite often carry out mobile upcycling and customisation, — shared Aiza Zheldenbaeva, assistant designer.