Local Wisdom: Post-Growth Fashion

In order to bring about change, sustainability values and experiences have to be real to people. Yet we know very little about people’s everyday encounters of fashion and sus- tainability. In this paper I explore the interconnections between real, live experiences of sustainability in fashion and what they suggest about the shape and structure of the industry that creates the fashion and clothes that we wear. The experiences, recorded as part of the on-going Local Wisdom project, convey some of the ‘craft’ of using gar- ments of the British public. The project’s aim is to recognize and honour culturally em- bedded sustainability activities in fashion that exist at the level of the user and give them a platform to flourish and inspire. It involves gathering images and stories from the general public about the way clothes are used with the hope of developing fresh understanding about more resourceful and satisfying use of garments. Together, im- ages and tales of resourcefulness, thrift, emotional connection and social defiance ex- press ways in which to improve quality of fashion experience within the physical limits of the clothes we already have. They offer a human scale, intimate and tentative glimpse of a new prosperity in fashion that exists outside the predominant economic and business model of growth that is so closely associated with fashion today.

This paper was originally presented at the LeNS Conference: Sustainability in Design NOW!, 29/09/10 – 01/10/10, Bangalore, India.

LeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme,
EuropeAid, European Commission

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