Once again honing in on yet another important societal issue, M.I.A has now teamed up with Swedish retail super giant H&M for a new campaign titled “Rewear It”. Asking everyone to join a “global fashion movement for the planet”, the campaign is about giving H&M your old clothes so they can turn them into new ones, but with M.I.A’s droning hook and exotic beats, you’d easily be forgiven for forgetting this wasn’t actually her new music video.
Starting off with “Regenerate a nation” repeated over and over again after a brief spoken introduction about how climate change is everyone’s problems, the clip then quickly darts between subjects, each of whom are getting down and cutting some incredible shapes with their dance moves. There’s also stunning scenes of M.I.A standing on top of a giant tower of fabric.
In a recent interview with Vogue, M.I.A discussed what she hoped to achieve from this campaign, saying, “If all [H&M] do is go and inspire another high-street brand to get in on caring and being conscious, or if H&M gets criticized for any of their factory processes, these are all good things. We should discuss them in public and we should have this back and forth. At least they’re even stepping into the [environmentally conscious] arena.”
It’s uncertain whether or not the track in this video will be featured on her forthcoming album, Matahdatah, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing if it wasn’t as it’s certainly not her best song. That said, it still contains a powerful message and one that so desperately needs to get through to people. For more information about the Rewear It campaign, head here.
Image: Spin