Dare to UNLABEL by Claudia Linders

Claudia Linders
Dare to UNLABEL, 2002

Claudia Linders invites people to part with something small that can carry a surprising amount of weight: the designer label inside their clothes. By removing and donating it, participants reconsider what makes a garment desirable — its quality, its appearance, or the name sewn into it.

Linders began gathering contributions in 2002. Approximately 1,700 labels were joined into a 66-metre ribbon to form a prototype dress, bringing many individual choices together in one garment. Participants could exchange their original labels for an “UNLABELED” tag created for the project by Image Label Styling.

Dare to UNLABEL explores how branding shapes our shopping habits and the way we see ourselves. Do we choose a brand for its image, its reputation, or the quality of what it makes?

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The project launched at Galleria Postart during Salone del Mobile, from 9 to 13 April 2003, as part of Droog’s Your Choice exhibition. Further presentations followed in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Prague. The dress later appeared in the travelling Simply Droog retrospective, continuing the conversation about branding, belonging, and the identities we buy into.

*some images by Ilya van Marle