Expert Guest
Marina Testino
Sustainable Fashion Activist and Creative Director
Marina Testino was born in New York and raised in Barcelona, Spain. The niece of famed fashion photographer Mario Testino, Marina has created a series of capsule collections featured under her new brand, Point Off View, a cross-pollination of art and fashion. Marina is signed with The Society Management’s creative roster and travels between Peru and New York to work on her collection. Marina has lived and studied in Barcelona, Paris, London, Boston and New York. She graduated from The New School’s Parsons School of Design with a degree in Fashion Marketing.
She is the founder of her brand Point Off View, featuring a series of limited quantity capsule collections designed by different artists. She has worked with international fashion and beauty houses such as Chanel, POLO Ralph Lauren, Rag & Bone and Free People. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, WWD, Vogue and CR Fashion Book.
Introduction
Our third installment of Master Talks from our Executive Education in Sustainable Fashion series, WeDesign CEO Simon Collins speaks with sustainable fashion “artivist,” creative director and model, Marina Testino about her campaigns, creative direction work and guiding philosophy in promoting and advancing sustainability within fashion. She discusses how she raises awareness, garners inspiration for new campaigns, and her ethical standards when approaching business and creative operations.
Main Topic
SUSTAINABILITY + FASHION CAMPAIGNS
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#OneDressToImpress
In our Master Talks in Executive Education in Sustainable Fashion, Marina Testino discusses her #OneDressToImpress as her very first campaign to raise awareness for sustainability in fashion. A response to the exhaustion and overwhelm she felt around her first fashion week in the number of outfits she was “consuming” or wearing each day, Testino had the idea for her first large-scale campaign. In response to her experience at Fashion Week, Testino personally challenged herself to wear the same tailored suit every day for one month. She chose red because of its boldness as a color and its ability to garner attention and impact. After a successful first month of wearing this signature suit, her following showed an outpouring of support and encouraged Testino to wear the suit a second month, which she did. She wanted to showcase that sustainable choices in fashion can be easy. She says, “Look, these are the baby steps. These are the things you can do to be more sustainable.”
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#YellowLikeALemon
After the success of #OneDressToImpress, Testino realized she had a passion, voice and following which could encourage a community of people in fashion and beyond to advocate for sustainability. Her next campaign she entitled #YellowLikeALemon. For one month she would wear only yellow clothing, a notoriously hard color to style and pair, which had to be acquired either via the rental, second hand, borrowing markets or from a sustainable fashion brand. The idea, she said, “was to showcase alternatives. How can you be sustainable in the fashion market [with limited choices]? If I can do yellow, someone can definitely do black.”
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#CarryOnSummer
This past summer 2019, Testino launched a new campaign called #CarryOnSummer to inspire travelers to pack less clothing. Traveling over two months in Europe, Testino challenged herself to only pack one single carry-on luggage to house all of her travel needs (clothing, shoes, accessories, and beauty products). In this she hoped to support the idea of quality of items over quantity of items, a key message in the fashion and sustainability conversation.
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#WeSeaThrough
Testino’s campaign #WeSeaThrough is a digital campaign to raise awareness around microplastics. Partnering with video artist Danilo, Testino committed to posting a provocative photo on Instagram every day for 30 days in August 2019. In preparation for the campaign, Testino was advised by representatives at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and learned that 5.25 trillion tonnes of plastic are estimated to be currently in our oceans, and a third of those come from synthetic fibres, often used in clothing. The campaign encourages viewers and participants to commit to change one daily habit which can alleviate the environmental harm caused by plastic-- such as avoiding plastic packaging or avoiding new purchases of clothing constructed using plastic.
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#HighTiesDontLie
In Testino’s most recent Instagram campaign from February 2020, she draws attention to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations and the critical issues it seeks to address-- among them, raising awareness of global issues such as climate change, poverty, inequality and many others. #HighTiesDontLie encourages her following and community to learn about each of the SDGs and to highlight where the fashion industry can improve its involvement. By wearing a business suit and a colorful tie which corresponds to the color card of one Sustainable Development Goal, Testino is posting one image in support of each goal.
“There is a point where [you have to ask yourself] ‘how can you wear a different outfit every day and be a conscious consumer?’
“You can rent, you can borrow, you can buy in the secondary market. There are so many options now that it is [more about] really promoting the options instead of buy this, buy this, buy this.”
Reference
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Why Marina Testino Wore One Dress to Impress for Two Months
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Marina Testino Has a Pocket Full of Sunshine and Sustainability
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https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/marina-testino-yellow-like-a-lemon-2019
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Marina Testino Launches #WeSeaThrough Campaign
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https://eco-age.com/news/marina-testino-launches-weseathrough-campaign
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Fashion Activist Marina Testino: How to Rethink Consumerism
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Marina Testino Instagram
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
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What are some of the ways art and activism can create meaningful change in fashion and sustainability?
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How have social media accounts influenced your personal sustainability knowledge and action?
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What did you feel were some of the most interesting or inspiring approaches Marina Testino took in her work?
Q&A
Q: How do you get inspired to create environmental awareness campaigns? How do you find your passion for certain environmental topics?
A: My family has been very conscious and sustainable and this has inspired me. I was inspired after school to do campaigns on sustainability because I saw there was a lot of opportunity to become a voice for sustainability in the industry. It’s an industry that contaminates a lot, and there are so many things we can do to improve it.
Q: How has your fashion marketing training/degree helped you craft your the campaigns such as #YellowLikeALemon, #OneDressToImpress and #WeSeaThrough?
A: Studying fashion from so many different perspectives, what struck me most was how creativity and communication have become such a collaborative and open process. The reason I started doing campaigns was that I have a voice and a following. And that I am working in an industry that wants to change and doesn't know how to change. I want to showcase that it is more approachable than that-- to present things which you can do to be more sustainable. The idea for campaigns is to do something shocking-to put myself out there but also to highlight important environmental issues I have learned about.
Q: You use Instagram as a platform to harness the power of the image to communicate your environmental commitment and priorities. How have you been inspired by this platform to effect change?
A: As an ‘artivist,’ I mix art and activism. I believe art is a universal language and a cool different way to spread the word. But there is a point where if you care about sustainability you have to ask how can you wear different outfits everyday and be a conscious consumer,? There are so many options now to be more conscious, so for me it’s about using the platform to promote the options. You don’t have to consume something to post a picture.
