The second life of McDonald's uniforms after Vain «I can take you to my favourite restaurant» and the rest of the creative project

Fashion and fast food, are a pairing that has been repeatedly proposed by the fashion industry to overturn narratives constructed in the past, juxtapose them, or simply try to give a new dimension to images that belong to different worlds. This is what Vain, an interdisciplinary design project launched by artist Jimi Vain in 2019, has done. The creative grew up in a rural region of Finland and said he spent much of his youth within the colorful walls of his local McDonald's. A place of refuge and a meeting place that has allowed Vain to establish itself as a truly international fashion brand and promote its vision and possibilities. Just a few days ago, Vain caught the media's attention with uniforms specially designed for McDonald's Finland, which prompted us to explore the brand's heritage and ask the creative team directly.

Although it is a diversionary campaign - at the moment it looks like the upcycled collection will not be available for purchase, but will be given away to McDonald's Finland employees, with the exception of a sweatshirt with "I can take you to my favorite restaurant" printed on it, which is available on Vain's website - «we feel that we have actually been successful. In our promotional videos, we dressed several artists and content creators from Helsinki, like Glayden and Pyzze, in our recycled work clothes and put them in a McDonald's kitchen. And the audience felt that the clothes really belonged in that scenario», says the creative team. Vain's project is part of a cultural scene that fuses the conceptual with the immediate, giving seemingly distant images an interesting twist. «If we had to choose a potential partner for a future project, it would probably be Monster Energy. We have a fridge full of it in the office and it's always been a source of energy for the whole team, especially in the last few months. We like strong visual identities and Monster Energy has plenty of those. Jimi even has suggestions for the design already. So if anyone from Monster is reading along here, please get in touch», the Vain team concluded enthusiastically.