New Fashion Narratives (2019)

As part of the group exhibition New Fashion Narratives at Bureau Europa, As of Nū presented the outcomes of the first round of the As of Nū Wardrobe Methodology. The result was an installation of clothing boxes filled with reclaimed ‘new’ items, ready to be shipped to stores, accompanied by visuals derived from the documentation process.

The presentation also introduced a new participatory intervention using our self-developed alternative Trend Tracking method. Visitors to the FCF were invited to analyse visuals of 80 garments collected through the first phase of research. If a visitor spotted a garment similar to their own, they were asked to contribute their 'trend' data — including when and where they bought it — directly to the visuals.

The result was a continuously expanding trend database built by consumers themselves. This living archive revealed a crucial insight: the “new” is never truly new. What we call trends are often reintroductions, weaker echoes of what already exists.