Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change

by Amy Twigger Holroyd, Jennifer Farley Gordon, Colleen Hill

Overview

For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward.

The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo.

Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350160446
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/09/2023
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 9.95(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd is Professor of Alternative Fashion Systems at Nottingham School of Art & Design, part of Nottingham Trent University. She has explored the emerging field of fashion and sustainability since 2004, initially via her craft fashion knitwear label, Keep & Share. Amy's work has been featured in various exhibitions, books and publications, from Vogue to Fashion Theory. Her research today focuses on fashion transitions: the participatory exploration of alternative, open and plural fashion systems that respect the Earth's capacity to support life.

Amy's Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Fellowship project, Fashion Fictions, brings people together to generate, experience and reflect on engaging fictional visions of alternative fashion cultures and systems. Other initiatives include Reknit Revolution, a project supporting knitters to rework the items in their wardrobes, and research networks Stitching Together and Crafting the Commons. Amy has authored and edited several books, including her monograph Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes (I.B. Tauris, 2017).

Jennifer Farley Gordon, PhD is an affiliate faculty member in the Apparel, Events & Hospitality Management department at Iowa State University, USA. She is also an independent researcher, writer, and curator, specializing in fashion history and formerly worked as an assistant curator at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) in New York.

Colleen Hill is Associate Curator of Accessories at The Museum at FIT, New York City, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Materials and processes
Materials and processes: how did we get here?
The development of cotton
Wool and its competitors
Silk and rayon
Synthetic fibers
Unconventional materials
The invention of synthetic dyes
Human impacts of dyeing
Environmental impacts of dyeing
Materials and processes: inspiration for change
Organic cotton
The resurgence of wool
Hemp and flax
Lyocell and bamboo
Lower impact dyes
Natural dyes
Materials and processes: thinking critically
Materials and processes: further reading

2. Design and Manufacture
Design and manufacture: how did we get here?
Clothing production before mechanization
Advancements in spinning and weaving
The sewing machine and ready-made clothing
Choice and disposability
Design and manufacture: inspiration for change
Wartime restrictions and quality
Post-war couture
Artisanal techniques and slow fashion5
Design features
Design and manufacture: thinking critically
Design and manufacture: further reading

3. Reuse and Recycling
Reuse and recycling: how did we get here?
Repurposing practices
Shawls and scraps
The Great Depression and the Second World War
Shoddy recycling
Reuse and recycling: inspiration for change
Post-war repurposing
The rise of vintage
Repurposing and upcycling in the 1990s and 2000
A new era of fiber recycling
Reuse and recycling: thinking critically
Reuse and recycling: further reading

4. Labor Practices
Labor practices: how did we get here?
Textile mills
Child labor
Garment factories
Globalization and sweatshops
Subcontracting and safety
Labor practices: inspiration for change
Unionization
Labeling
Designer-led action
Labor rights in a globalized industry
Cooperatives and fair trade
Labor practices: thinking critically
Labor practices: further reading

5. Treatment of Animals
Treatment of animals: how did we get here?
Feather adornments
The use of fur
Trapping and farming
Treatment of animals: inspiration for change
Anti-feather campaigns
Anti-fur campaigns
Fake and “ethical” fur
Treatment of animals: thinking critically
Treatment of animals: further reading

6. Fashion systems
Fashion systems: how did we get here?
Enclosure, capitalism and modernity
The European fashion system and the Industrial Revolution
Consumerism and change
Fashion systems: inspiration for change
How clothes are used
New approaches to dressing the body
Challenging social norms
Domestic and custom making
Local production and local distinctiveness
Restricting and managing production
Fashion systems: thinking critically
Fashion systems: further reading

Conclusion
Notes
Select bibliography
Glossary
Index

Editorial Reviews

Succeeds in bringing together many of the themes and ideas around ethical fashion. (1st edition)” —Costume

“I have really valued this book since it was first published. It is well-written and accessible, but most importantly, through giving the historical perspectives, it shows the antecedents of the issues plaguing fashion now.” —Alice Payne, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

“The book is aimed at fashion students – its layout, photographs and pitch make it a successful academic text. It is a springboard from which they are invited to delve deeper into the subject. (1st edition)” —Hayley Mildren, Resource

From the Publisher