Sustainable fashion is a process of change in the ways of thinking and practices of design, production, communication, wearing and enjoying fashion, that values diversity, prosperity and well-being of both people and the environment. It highlights the interdependence of individual, social, environmental, cultural and economic implications of fashion, and so questions the status quo of the industry that still prioritizes profit over vital social and environmental concerns. While over the last thirty years sustainable fashion and its equivalents such as eco fashion or green fashion have entered the mainstream vocabulary, researchers highlight that not enough real progress has been achieved over this time.(5) Innovation in products and materials, as well as improved efficiency in using resources are all insignificant while the rates of production, consumption and disposal of fashion products constantly keep increasing. To make a true impact in fashion and sustainability, we must therefore stop focusing on such temporary fixes and symptoms and instead commit to finding long-term solutions that address the underlying causes of waste and environmental and social costs of fashion.(6) This means a radical “unlearning of fashion-as-we-know-it”(7) by uprooting the logic of endless growth, overproduction and overconsumption, and instead finding new and richer ways of enjoying and giving value to fashion.(1-8)
SUSTAINABLE FASHION
