The Parisian creative laboratory Collectivo has announced the launch of its latest documentary and artistic project. The work was shot in Accra, Ghana, in collaboration with Nigerian photographer Oye Wole Ayal and The Or Foundation, and confronts the reality of “waste colonialism” and presents upcycling as the only viable industrial and creative response to the textile industry’s environmental collapse.

To document the scale of the global textile crisis, Collectivo traveled to Accra. The city is currently overwhelmed by the arrival of 15 million second-hand garments every week from Western nations, especially Europe. Under the lens of Oye Wole Ayal, a Nigerian photographer who documents environmental impacts across the continent, the collective captured the reality on the ground. The images show mountains of textile waste rising in the heart of the capital, beaches covered in discarded clothing, and the Accra River turned black by chemical pollution.

The project moves beyond traditional fashion photography to serve as a reminder of the health and environmental consequences borne by local populations. By documenting these scenes, Collectivo aims to bridge the gap between Western consumption and its tangible destruction in the Global South.

For Collectivo, the journey to Ghana reaffirms a core belief: upcycling is not a niche alternative but the inevitable future of fashion. As the cost of raw materials continues to rise and textile waste accumulates globally, the collective argues that material constraint is the most powerful catalyst for innovation. The collective stated that they firmly believe upcycling can be a volume-based solution to this crisis. By shifting from a model of production to one of regeneration, Collectivo demonstrates that high-end fashion can be born from existing waste.

Check the campaign images below:

 

Collectivo worked closely with The Or Foundation, a non-profit organization operating at the intersection of environmental justice and fashion. The collective engaged with the foundation’s design incubator, fostering a creative exchange between Parisian upcycling techniques and the work of Ghanaian designers. This partnership led to the exhibition “Volumes,” held in the Marais district of Paris in partnership with ERE Collective. The show featured upcycled collections from emerging Ghanaian designers, works that originally debuted at the Obroni Wawu festival in Accra. The exhibition posed a question to the industry: what form would creation take if Parisian designers were limited strictly to the volumes of textile waste produced within their own borders?