Schön! 38 | marina testino

Marina Testino is on a mission: to convince us all to ditch overbuying, forget seasonal trends and stop frantically changing outfits – a disruptive approach to fashion, spread through social media activism and bold hues.

When your uncle is one of the living legends of fashion photography and your dad is listed among the 500 most influential people in the industry, stepping into the same arena may appear daunting. If you’re Marina Testino, however, not only do you get involved, but it doesn’t take long before you spot some critical issues in the field, grow tired of them and decide to call out the whole sector. That’s what the Barcelona-born, New York-based model, entrepreneur and environmental activist is determined to do, making the most of her social media standing.

“I grew up in this industry without even noticing,” Testino recalls. “My dad took me to my first show: Kenzo. It was a revelation: so creative, so colourful, really merging art and fashion. As a creative person, I was immediately captivated.” From sitting front row to studying fashion marketing and then honing her skills with internships at French Vogue and Art Partner (the family business), Testino quickly developed a complete overview of the fashion system and its mechanisms, but something didn’t feel right.

“When I went to my first fashion week in New York, attending events and going to showrooms and shows, one night I found myself having to change clothes three times for three different events. I couldn’t really see the point,” Testino states. “We as an industry are showcasing that this is cool. We’re making people jealous because they’re not here, they don’t own this or that. But we don’t own it! We are struggling to get to all these events…to get a picture. My first fashion week was not what I thought [it would be] and definitely eye-opening. We’re selling this glamorous life, but at the end of the day it’s stressful, it’s not healthy. It’s overconsumption and wasteful.” One week later, Testino had the idea for her first social media campaign, One Dress To Impress, featured above.

Discover our full interview with Testino in Schön! 38 and check out some of Testino’s campaigns below.

#OneDressToImpress was Marina’s first activation in 2018. She decided to wear the same outfit as a response against the taboo of “repeating outfits.” Through this activation, she wanted to showcase that we need to love the clothes we buy instead of buying them because of new trends, seasons, etc. Its main goal was to raise awareness around conscious consumerism.

Testino launched her IG campaign #YellowLikeALemon during Paris Fashion Week FW19. The aim of this project was to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the fashion industry and how consumers could make the industry more circular. Testino created and promoted the following “4S” to Sustainable Fashion to do so: Simplify, Share (or Rent), Secondary Market, and Sustainably Sourced. She shot videos in Paris with Arthur Oscar, Andres Garza, as well as MAX and Yves Huy Truong.