Care means attentiveness and consideration for people, things, and the environment. To care means to take responsibility for the cause and effect of our own actions, recognizing the interconnectedness of the world and the human agency in it. The importance of care in relation to designed objects (these would include clothing and other fashion products) was emphasized by the designer and educator Victor Papanek in his influential book Design for the Real World (1971). Papanek argued that normalizing disposability of things we use has damaging consequences for the environment, social justice and also for our personal relationships. “Throwing away furniture, transportation vehicles, clothing, and appliances”, he believed, “may soon lead us to feel that marriages (and other personal relationships) are throwaway items as well, and that on a global scale, countries and, indeed, entire subcontinents are disposable like Kleenex”.(1) As the effects of the climate crisis caused by the culture of disposability in the Global North are now acutely affecting multiple regions in the Global South, Papanek’s view of care seems especially relevant, not least in relationship to fashion.
CARE
