1st Edition
Fashion Ethics and Sustainability Exploring Social Purpose and Transparency in the Fashion Business
Table of contents
List of tables
Introduction
PART I STAGNATION
Chapter 1 The Traditional Fashion System
PART II TRANSITION
Chapter 2 Towards a Sustainable Fashion Future
Chapter 3 Embedding Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in Fashion
Chapter 4 Navigating the Evolving Legal Landscape in Fashion
Chapter 5 Fashion Sector Transformation and Innovation
Chapter 6 The Quandary of Sustainability for Fashion
Chapter 7 The Accountability Struggle for Fashion Businesses
PART III EVOLUTION
Chapter 8 Creating a Transparent Fashion Industry
Chapter 9 Ethics in Fashion Business
Chapter 10 Embedding Social Purpose in the Fashion Industry
Chapter 11 Bridging the Sustainability Intention Gap in Fashion Consumption
PART IV FULL CIRCLE
Chapter 12 Circular Fashion Principles
Index
Biography
Alison Lowe is a leading supporter of next generation fashion talent and awarded an MBE for Services to the Fashion Industry in 2017. Alison balances industry roles and brand consultancy with academic work, developing and leading fashion courses including the MBA in Fashion Entrepreneurship at University of East London.
Alison Lowe approaches fashion sustainability not as a surface-level design problem, but as a deeply interconnected system, shaped through histories of extraction, consumption, governance, value re-production and commodification. What makes this text compelling is its refusal to isolate circularity, sustainability, ethics or ESG frameworks as standalone initiatives that alone may achieve positive change. Instead, Lowe frames them as more powerful when understood as interwoven structures that together demand cultural, organisational and economic transformation across the entire fashion ecosystem. The book moves beyond simplistic sustainability narratives, examining how transparency through digital innovation, governance and community accountability are critical factors to be embedded within the successful future architecture of fashion brand building itself. A timely and important contribution to contemporary fashion discourse.
Wesley Hartwell, Director, Regenerative Fashion Archive, University of East London
