Historical Perspectives On Sustainable Fashion

For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward. The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo. Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.

Since the democratisation of the clothing industry in the early 19th century, buyers have become increasingly disconnected from the creative and human aspects of the production of clothing. Arguably clothing is now valued less for its aesthetic qualities or because of the hours spent in its making, but more for the extent to which it serves current 'fashion'. In a climate of increasing anxiety about the environmental and social impact of the contemporary global fashion industry, Rachel Worth suggests that, rather than seeking solutions only in the present, looking to history can assist in understanding better the challenges consumers face today in making decisions about the contents of their wardrobes, which, in turn, will impact on the nature of the future global fashion industry. She does not seek to offer simplistic historical solutions to contemporary problems, but explores ways in which it might be possible to bridge divides between knowledge of the past, current individual choice, and possible directions for future action. The more we know about our clothes, the less likely it is that we will wear an item of clothing only a few times before replenishing it with newer purchases that are 'on trend'. By taking ownership of our personal clothing choices rather than feeling pressurised to respond to sophisticated marketing and to 'influencers', this book suggests how we might rethink our wardrobes in philosophical and practical ways in order to create a sense of order and beauty in our lives and to wrest control back from the increasing chaos of seemingly endless choice that perpetuates unsustainable, impersonal and fast fashion.

Sustainable Fashion provides a unique and accessible overview of fashion ethics and sustainability issues of the past, present and future. This book is the first to situate today's eco-fashion movement in its multifaceted historical context, investigating the relationship between fashion and the environment as far back as the early nineteenth century. Employing an expanded definition of sustainability that also considers ethical issues, Farley Gordon and Hill explore each stage of the fashion production cycle, from the cultivation of raw fibers to the shipment of the finished garment. Structured thematically, each of the six chapters is dedicated to the discussion of one major issue, from recycling and repurposing to labor practices and the treatment of animals. Including interviews with eco-fashion designers, Sustainable Fashion will appeal to students and scholars of fashion, as well as students of design, history and cultural studies.

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion showcases the global fashion industry's efforts to reduce the negative impacts associated with fashion production and consumption. Illustrated throughout with infographics, photographs and diagrams of creative works, eighteen essays focus on six regions, examining sustainable fashion in the context of local, cultural and environmental concerns. Also included are 18 regional 'Spotlight' sections highlighting the differences and similarities across regions by concentrating on examples of best practice, design innovation and impact on the community.

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion showcases the global fashion industry's efforts to reduce the negative impacts associated with fashion production and consumption. Illustrated throughout with infographics, photographs and diagrams of creative works, eighteen essays focus on six regions, examining sustainable fashion in the context of local, cultural and environmental concerns. Also included are 18 regional 'Spotlight' sections highlighting the differences and similarities across regions by concentrating on examples of best practice, design innovation and impact on the community.

Packed with examples from groundbreaking designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Edun and People Tree, A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion is a much-needed overview of current models of fashion design and production. Alison Gwilt introduces the key issues associated with the production, use and disposal of fashion clothing and gives step-by-step guidance on how to identify and evaluate the potential impacts of a garment during the design process. With innovative examples of best practice from international designers and brands, the chapters follow each key stage in the life cycle of a fashion garment and explores approaches such as low-impact textiles techniques, mono-materiality, zero waste techniques, upcycling, repair and maintenance techniques and closed-loop design systems. New to this edition: More in-depth coverage of design thinking, materials manufacture, practical techniques for creating 'faster' recyclable fashion and new ways forward for fashion, such as including the circular economy and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The clothing industry employs 25 million people globally contributing to many livelihoods and the prosperity of communities, to women’s independence, and the establishment of significant infrastructures in poorer countries. Yet the fashion industry is also a significant contributor to the degradation of natural systems, with the associated environmental footprint of clothing high in comparison with other products. Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion recognizes the complexity of aligning fashion with sustainability. It explores fashion and sustainability at the levels of products, processes, and paradigms and takes a truly multi-disciplinary approach to critically question and suggest creative responses to issues of: • Fashion in a post-growth society • Fashion, diversity and equity • Fashion, fluidity and balance across natural, social and economic systems This handbook is a unique resource for a wide range of scholars and students in the social sciences, arts and humanities interested in sustainability and fashion.

Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery: Ateliers of 'Social Integration' tells of community-led 'solidarity ateliers' engaged in sewing and embroidery activities which, in the Global North and Global South, are providing a vital alternative to neoliberal and neo-colonial fashion paradigms. On encountering several ateliers solidaires/sartorie sociali during her immersive fieldwork, for which she travelled to Morocco and Southern Italy, and contrasting her findings with her knowledge of parallel and analogous initiatives in London, Alessandra Lopez y Royo suggests that despite their different outlook and approach these ateliers can be inscribed within an ever-growing economy of solidarity and sharing. With a uniquely combined focus on sustainability, fashion and migration, Lopez y Royo examines how the ateliers foreground a powerful social inclusion agenda, encouraging migrants (and refugees) to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and foster communities on a level playing field with locals. Questioning widely accepted notions of 'empowerment' and 'social integration', and drawing on her background in archaeology and material culture studies, Lopez y Royo uses micro-studies to illuminate a broader path to a more inclusive, sustainable, and socially conscious industry, presenting a fresh perspective on repurposing and upcycling. In a world grappling with the need to shift away from fast fashion's wasteful practices, this thought-provoking exploration shows how slow-growth 'solidarity ateliers' can challenge the widely accepted notions of both 'fashion' and 'social integration'.

When thinking about lowering or changing consumption to lower carbon footprints, the obvious offenders come easily to mind: petroleum and petroleum products, paper and plastic, even food, but not clothes. When people evaluate ways to lower their personal carbon footprint by changing purchasing habits, they are bombarded with information to avoid petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, paper, even food, but not clothes. Most consumers do not think of clothes as a source of environmental damage. Yet, clothes are made with petroleum products through chemically-laden industrial processes that generate significant pollution. The fashion industry is among the largest organic water polluters in the world, accounting for significant greenhouse gas emissions and generating massive amounts of waste as a function of the frequent discarding of used clothing. In the Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society, author Nikolay Anguelov exposed the ecological damage from the fast-fashion business model. In this book, The Sustainable Fashion Quest: Innovations in Business and Policy, the author takes this one step further by focusing on solutions. This book uses the familiar (yet complex) industry of fashion as a lens to examine how business pressures and national and international policies can have both positive and negative social and ecological impacts. It provides an analysis of extant and emerging policies to address the divergence in the ongoing quest to maximize economic development and minimize the social costs of the industrialization process. It also examines emerging technologies and innovative business models that have the potential to revolutionize how fashion is perceived, manufactured, and consumed. This book begins with an introductory letter that outlines the social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry, as well as emphasizing the seriousness and urgency of addressing them. Each chapter then focuses on a major aspect of the industry with an increasing emphasis on policy. The chapters outline the impact of global-level and business-level decisions on the industry’s success, its social and environmental impact, and its relationship to consumers. The goal of the book is to define that transition, explain its challenges, and educate readers on the possibilities to become powerful drivers of change through their professional actions and their personal behavior as consumers. While the book specifically analyzes the fashion industry, it also explains the implications for other industrial sectors. It uses a product everyone is familiar with (we all buy clothes, after all) to examine the decisions, impacts, and policies shaping the industry behind the scenes. The linkages are applicable to other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business sectors, such as consumer electronics, which are starting to face sustainability criticism for relying on a business model of promoting a high frequency of repeat purchasing.

This book considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the realisation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Although efforts towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals are ongoing, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on these efforts: accentuating inequities, as well as absorbing resources. This book addresses this impact, as it takes up the question of how to ensure global recovery – in line with the target for the Sustainable Development Goals – after the pandemic. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, but focusing particularly on the role of law and legal frameworks in this recovery, the book considers the effect of the pandemic on key industries such as shipping, insurance, manufacturing, and banking, as well as on the role of the State and non-State actors. Pursuing an explicitly Global South perspective, the book maintains that in the post-COVID era it is the elaboration a rule of law framework that is in sync with both the Global North and South that is crucial if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved. This book will be of value to scholars, students and policymakers working in the general area of law and development, but especially those with specific interests in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.