ABOUT US
Founded by student and artist, Tamara Bogle, Dress Less Homeless is a charity-supported organisation aiming to raise awareness and make a change. As a young person, you may not even be aware that the clothes you are lushing over are in fact inspired by working class people. Dress Less Homeless is here to call out working-class appropriation and make people aware of this growing issue.
WHAT IS WORKING-CLASS APPROPRIATION?
Your favourite designer has and will be inspired by working-class people. Their attitude, their perseverance and now, their clothes. However, inspiration and appropriation are two different things.
When models are being transformed with hair, makeup and clothing that mimic a homeless person, the ethical lines begin to blur. A designer basing their whole collection around 'homeless chic' is appropriation. Homeless people becoming famous and then harassed because a photographer took a photo of them without their permission is appropriation. Profiting from the inspiration that you get from the vulnerable is appropriation.
"The gentrification of clothing, as I see it, is an appropriation of working-class culture, in which upper-middle-class students see something “funky” in dressing in traditionally working-class clothing.”
Katie Moseley - Student at University of Bristol
OUR MISSION
What We're Doing to Make a Change
TALKING
Let's discuss the issue of working-class appropriation - how it damages the perception of the homeless and dehumanised this vulnerable group in society.
SHOWING
A sculpture created based on this issue will show how people interact differently with the sculpture based on the social context. We will then release a video about our findings.
DOING
We will take action through donations which will be raised to bring awareness to this issue, through our website and exhibition.