Influencers constantly promote new outfits and discard them after just one use. Norwegian clothing brand, Northern Playground, and creative agency, TRY, confronted the biggest personalities driving overconsumption at their annual award show.
Over six months, TRY secretly bought back influencers’ worn-once clothes from second-hand markets, and awarded designer, Siri Øverland Eriksen, and turned them into a spectacular gown sewn from their discarded clothes. These perfectly good garments had only been used for a single red carpet event, TV premiere, or a paid Instagram post, as described by the influencers themselves.
Norwegians buy over 70,000 tons of clothing each year and own an average of 350 different garments. Northern Playground creates and sells clothes designed to reduce clothing consumption. To ensure the message reached Norway’s most prominent influencers, Northern Playground strategically entered as a sponsor of this year’s Vixen Influencer Awards, giving St. Sunniva the perfect opportunity to show off the dress to a packed hall of influencers.
The campaign kicked off when all of Norway’s paparazzi and celebrity journalists lined up on the red carpet, waiting for the influencers to enter at the award event. The dress, worn by influencer and comedian, St. Sunniva, arrived showing its repurposed pieces and attracted news coverage in the country’s biggest newspapers. Fitness influencer, Hedda Skaug, recognised her top live on TV2, Norway’s largest commercial TV channel.
“Influencers constantly promote new outfits and discard them after just one use. With The Worn Once Dress, we aim to encourage the country’s top influencers to rethink their overconsumption and inspire both them and their followers to wear their clothes more than once,” stated Pardis Molavi, marketing manager at Northern Playground.
“Worn Once has become a quality stamp in the second-hand market, but it’s also proof of the fashion industry’s biggest problem: overconsumption. Influencers getting rid of clothes after just one use creates an attitude towards our clothes as disposables,” stated Try creatives, Hallvard Vaaland and Mathias Sandvik.
The Worn Once Dress won’t become a disposable item. It is now displayed in Northern Playground’s store and can be borrowed free of charge by anyone wanting to raise awareness about the topic at events, award shows, parties, or on social media. The dress is also designed to be taken apart and reused.
“Influencers are more than welcome to retrieve their garments. They just need to promise to wear them multiple times,” Molavi noted.
Credits
Creative Agency: TRY
Creatives: Hallvard Vaaland & Mathias Sandvik
Account Manager: Lene Vintervoll
Project Manager: Natt Scheel
PR Consultants: Thea Rustad & Jalila Bouzaida
Intern & Second-Hand Detective: Thea Eikenes Søresen
Client: Northern Playground
Fashion Designer: Siri Øverland Eriksen
Comedian & Influencer: St. Sunniva
Marketing Manager: Pardis Molavi
Creative Director: Kristoffer Hunstad
CEO: Jo Egil Tobiassen
Production Company: ONZONZ
Director: Martin Bremnes
DOP: Jørgen Klüver
Gaffer: Tobias Johnsgaard
Sound: ONZONZ
