1st Edition

Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion

Edited By Kate Fletcher, Mathilda Tham Copyright 2015
    324 Pages
    by Routledge

    324 Pages 60 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    Introduction  Part I – Framing and expanding fashion and sustainability  1. Other Fashion Systems Kate Fletcher  2. Sustainability and Fashion Joanne Entwistle  3. Nature’s systems Louise St Pierre  4. A Whole New Cloth: Politics and the Fashion System John Thackara Part 2 – Sustainability and fashion as seen from other places and disciplines  5. The Real Challenge of Sustainability John Ehrenfeld  6. Economic Growth and the Shape of Sustainable Fashion: contextualizing fashion sustainability in terms of consumer-led economic growth  Ann Thorpe  7. Prospect, seed and activate - advancing design for sustainability in fashion Jonathan Chapman  8. Speed Carolyn Strauss  9. African Second-hand Clothes: Mima-te and the Development of Sustainable Fashion Amanda Ericsson and Andrew Brooks  10. Fashion And Sustainability In The Context Of Gender Mirjam Southwell  11. Spirituality and Ethics: theopraxy in the future of sustainability within the supply chain Sue Thomas  12. Consumption studies: the force of the ordinary Ingun Klepp and Kirsi Laitala  13. Accidentally sustainable?: ethnographic approaches to clothing practices Sophie Woodward  14. The world in a wardrobe: expressing notions of care in the economy and everyday life Joe Smith Part 3 – Perspectives on refining fashion from within 15. Establishing the History of Sustainability in Fashion Sasha Wallinger  16. Branding Sustainability, Business Models in Search of Clarity Simonetta Carbonaro and David Goldsmith  17.Towards fashion media for sustainability Else Skjold  18. The role of science and technology for sustainable fashion Greg Peters, Hjalmar Granber, Susanne Sweet  19.The New Synthetics: Could synthetic biology lead to sustainable textile manufacturing? Carole Collet  20. The fashion system through a lens of zero-waste fashion design Timo Rissanen  21.Fashion brands and workers’ rights Liz Parker Part 4 – Visions of sustainability from within the fashion space  22. Fashion as material Lynda Grose  23. Fashion Design Dilys Williams  24. Fashion and community Lizzie Harrison  25. Openness Amy Twigger Holroyd  26. Mending Jonnet Middleton  27. "A suit, of his own earning": Fashion Supremacy and Sustainable Fashion Activism Otto von Busch  28. The futures of futures studies in fashion Mathilda Tham  Conclusions

     

    Biography

    Kate Fletcher is Professor of Sustainability, Design, Fashion at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.

    Mathilda Tham is Professor of Design at Linnaeus University, Sweden, and metadesign researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

    'Containing the work of leading thinkers and activists, this Handbook is a much-needed volume, which broadens and deepens our understanding of the complexities of the conjoining of sustainability and fashion. A truly collaborative initiative, in its content and method it provides guidance, challenges, but also a positive way forward for sustainability and fashion to co-exist, despite what sometimes seem to be overwhelming odds.' –Hazel Clark, Parsons The New School for Design, USA

    'Many books document, describe and perhaps even explain fashion. What this book adds is the desire to change it. No-one reading the extraordinarily diverse content is left with any doubt as to the complexity, but also the urgency, of that ambition. Starting with a movement from the study of systems to a concern with consequences.' –Daniel Miller, University College London, UK

    'Fletcher and Tham have gathered together a stellar cast of academics, researchers, practitioners and activists who offer their perspectives on sustainability viewed through the lens of fashion. Through concise essays and case study snapshots the reader is challenged and guided to think more deeply about sustainability as a matter of personal, local and globally interconnected agency.'–Sandy Black, University of the Arts London, UK

    'Fashion and sustainability can be hard to grasp due to its complexity. This seminal handbook offers a wide range of good suggestions and perspectives; from very hands on propositions to highly abstract theoretical inquiries, each and every chapter provide good examples for action and exploration of issues relevant for both scholars, students, and industry.'–Vibeke Riisberg, Kolding School of Design, Denmark

    'Sustainable Fashion has in the past often seemed gestural, borrowing from the discourse of Sustainable Design to only ever slightly lessen a massive problem. This selection proves that Sustainable Fashion Design is now a conceptually mature field with much to teach other disciplines of design.' –Cameron Tonkinwise, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

    'Throughout, this handbook strives to present an objective, future-oriented approach to sustainability in the fashion industry that takes into account the experiences of designers, manufacturers, the labor force, consumers, and the environment. This important and unique resource will appeal to a wide range of scholars, students, practitioners, and activists. Summing Up: Highly recommended.' - C. B. Cannon, Brand Library and Art Center, CHOICE April 2015