Sustainable Fashion: From Trend to Paradigm?

The fashion industry is one of today's most unsustainable global businesses. This book asks the question of how fashion designers can contribute to change the current paradigm. To answer this question the author studied the research on sustainable fashion design, business and education. In addition, the author interviewed a broad range of successful sustainable fashion practitioners in order to get their perspectives on the trends, their potential for contributing to radical change, and their views for the future. The author first concluded that small design-driven practices are insufficient for the radical change that the literature says must occur. She also concluded the basis for a more extensive transformation to take place starts with fashion design education and consciousness. In sum, the research shows that society must shift radically and collectively, with educators, fashion designers and business leaders working in unison to become part of the solution and not continue to be part of the problem.

Autorentext

Carolina Obregn is professor at Universidad de los Andes in Bogot, Colombia, and holds a degree in fashion from Parsons School of Design and a Masters degree in fashion and sustainability from Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. She has extensive experience in the fashion industry including creating her own line of accessories.

Klappentext

The fashion industry is one of today's most unsustainable global businesses. This book asks the question of how fashion designers can contribute to change the current paradigm. To answer this question the author studied the research on sustainable fashion design, business and education. In addition, the author interviewed a broad range of successful sustainable fashion practitioners in order to get their perspectives on the trends, their potential for contributing to radical change, and their views for the future. The author first concluded that small design-driven practices are insufficient for the radical change that the literature says must occur. She also concluded the basis for a more extensive transformation to take place starts with fashion design education and consciousness. In sum, the research shows that society must shift radically and collectively, with educators, fashion designers and business leaders working in unison to become part of the solution and not continue to be part of the problem.