Sustainable Fashion Design

Driving action.

Sustainable Fashion can be activated in many different ways.

It can imply slow fashion, through personal style, and locally produced high quality garments. Slow Fashion, inspired by the Slow food movement of Carlo Petrini, claims that “One way to initiate slow fashion is to develop personal style” (Gwilt and Rissanen 2011, 153). Finding an independent personal style freeing the user from the fast pace fashion cycles, is part of the foundation towards slowing down the fashion industry. Slow fashion is closer to local resources, small-scale production and traditional techniques. The ideology promotes the uniqueness through traditional manufacture and defends mass-production.

Garments made of organic cotton and fair trade labour are promoted by several smaller and bigger fashion designers. Sustainable fashion can also mean recycled garments, a la trash style, junky styling, if one does like the idea of obvious visibility of the creative redesigning. Secondhand & Vintage, clothes swapping and shared clothing... as well as making and redesigning your own things offer great potential to explore and refresh ones wardrobe, without a high consumption on resources. 

There are many ways to encourage a more sustainable fashion behaviour without giving up style and love towards fashion and clothing. I will not make a distinction, what is more or less sustainable as it depends on the personal preference, and goals of the single user. I will also not discuss in detail the options based on new fibres, or offer carbon footprint or MIPS (material input per service unit) calculations, as this is beyond my current research. But I have a collection of useful links on the right side of this blog, where you are abel to find information regarding these issues.

On this blog I intend to show various options, to reach a broader variety of interested people. I do not want to make any statement of what is the right way, because I think there isn't only one. Each product or lifestyle has its plus and minus. We have to decided, measure and inform ourself on the responding actions of our behaviour. We have to start accepting and living our responsibility. Sustainable Fashion is just one point to start with. Take it as a starter-drug for further improvement. 

For more information on materials, shiping, sales and other innovations. Have a look at the NICE Nordic Initiative Clean & Ethical. 
http://www.nicefashion.org/en/professional-guide/raw-materials/