Post-Fashion
Sandra Niessen,
Author, Teacher and Consulting Anthropologist
Post-Fashion denotes a future world in which the currently dominant Fashion system is dismantled. The Fashion system is unsustainable, growth-oriented and constructed to profit from the universal human need to dress. It is also a colonial throwback representing the proliferation (globalization) of a Western system of dress to the detriment of all other systems of dress supported by different economic systems. It must be eclipsed.
Post-fashion implies that there are alternatives in place: a pluriverse of sustainable, clothing traditions. Some alternatives are already available in the form of indigenous systems. These require nurturing and must be provided with room to survive in the face of the current expanding Fashion system. Other alternatives need to be constructed in local, historically-grounded, culturally-relevant, earth-friendly ways. This will ensure the obsolescence of the current Fashion system.
Post-Fashion is being spear-headed by activism. Initiatives like farm-to-fashion and fibershed(s) are leading the way.
Post-fashion implies that there are alternatives in place: a pluriverse of sustainable, clothing traditions. Some alternatives are already available in the form of indigenous systems. These require nurturing and must be provided with room to survive in the face of the current expanding Fashion system. Other alternatives need to be constructed in local, historically-grounded, culturally-relevant, earth-friendly ways. This will ensure the obsolescence of the current Fashion system.
Post-Fashion is being spear-headed by activism. Initiatives like farm-to-fashion and fibershed(s) are leading the way.
(1) Fashion Act Now: “urges an immediate crisis response to dismantle the dominant globalised Fashion system. It calls that response defashion, the role that Fashion must play in degrowth. Defashion is a transition to post-fashion clothing systems that are regenerative, local, fair, nurturing and sufficient for the needs of communities.”
(2) Fibershed: “We develop regional fiber systems that build soil & protect the health of our biosphere.”
(3) Fletcher, Kate and Tham, Mathilda. 2019. EARTH LOGIC: Fashion Action Research Plan. London: J.J. Charitable Trust.
︎ Word Context
(2) Fibershed: “We develop regional fiber systems that build soil & protect the health of our biosphere.”
(3) Fletcher, Kate and Tham, Mathilda. 2019. EARTH LOGIC: Fashion Action Research Plan. London: J.J. Charitable Trust.
︎ Word Context
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287 Park Avenue South, Suite 700
New York, NY 10010
United States
hello@climatewords.org
+1 (332) 900-7880
Climate Words is fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics, Inc. (EIN 27-2116150), a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.
© 2023, Climate Words, Inc. All rights reserved.
