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While the efforts by actors on the buyer-side of value chains – such as brands and retailers – to address upstream labour abuses are well documented, there is a lack of research into how actors on the production-side of value chains – such as raw material producers – can identify and address downstream labour risks. This research presents the findings of an action research project that focused on the Australian cotton industry. By applying a sensemaking lens we propose four properties that can be used to identify labour risk in global value chains, providing insights into the capacity of producers to address downstream labour abuses. We suggest that there is a possibility for a ‘book-end’ approach that combines upstream and downstream actions by buyers and producers in global value chains.

Purpose: Worker welfare and modern slavery within the fashion industry remain a key supply chain challenge for many retailers, consumers, governments and advocacy groups. Yet, despite publicised worker-welfare violations, many fashion retailers continue to post record sales and profits, indicating that consumer concern does not always translate at the cash register. Research has shown that worker welfare is a less salient area of concern for fashion consumers, and the aim of this research is to investigate the reasons why this may be the case. Design/methodology/approach: Due to the exploratory nature of the research, a qualitative methodology was deemed the most appropriate. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with Australian fast-fashion consumers to investigate the underlying reasons worker-welfare violations are less likely to elicit pro-social consumer behavioural change and are a less salient area of concern. Findings: This study found that consumers perceive worker-welfare concerns at both a proximal and cultural distance to themselves, and therefore struggle to connect with the issues associated with modern slavery. Additionally, there was an underlying social consensus that exploitative practices are an accepted part of the fast-fashion supply chain to ensure the continuation of low-cost clothing. Despite an underlying awareness of exploitative practices and acknowledgement that modern slavery is ethically wrong, other consumer values often influenced purchase behaviour and the level of concern expressed towards garment workers. Originality/value: This is the first study to apply psychological distance in a fast-fashion context to better understand consumer perceptions towards modern slavery. Responding to calls for further research into ethical consumption of apparel, this study develops an in-depth understanding of the reasons why worker welfare is a less salient area of concern for fast-fashion consumers. Extending on current literatu

This article categorizes and evaluates how regulatory regimes conceptualize plastics, and how such conceptualizations affect the production, consumption, and disposal of plastics. Taking a doctrinal and policy-oriented approach, it identifies four ‘frames’ – that is, four distinct and coherent sets of meanings attributed to plastics within transnational regulation – namely, plastics as waste to be managed; a material to be prevented; a good (or waste) to be traded freely; and inputs or outputs in production-consumption systems. Based on this analysis, three significant deficiencies in the transnational regulation of plastics are identified: the failure to frame plastics in terms of environmental justice and human rights issues; insufficient focus on plastics prevention (rather than management); and the role of law in reinforcing its production and consumption.

This special issue brings together scholars who have identified justice issues throughout the fashion system, encompassing how fashion is produced, consumed and discarded. While fashion systems have long been the focus of deep and varied perspectives on sustainability, from the environmental to social and cultural, we argue that characterising fashion justice as an environmental justice issue can usefully account for the multiple and intersecting ways in which fashion systems impact both human and more-than-human capabilities (Bick et al. 2018). Against the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and SDG 12 in particular, which calls for sustainable consumption and production patterns, it is timely and appropriate to consider fashion systems as a broader global environmental justice concern.

This article establishes a new basis for examining the participation, mobilisation and impact of investors at a time when market-based activism for social change is rising in prominence. Existing terminology describing the expression of political values through investment decisions lacks conceptual clarity. Political participation by shareholders and other investors is variously described as shareholder activism or socially responsible investment, and currently conceptualised under the banner of political consumerism. However, this term fails to capture the unique political role and diverse actions of investors. We put forward ‘political investorism’ as a cohering term for investment-based political participation to remedy existing conceptual confusion, to distinguish between investors and consumers as political actors and to set an agenda for the future study of market-based activism. This article defines and develops the concept of political investorism, drawing upon illustrative cases from Australia to identify hallmarks, actors and tactics of this form of political participation.

Within global value chains, multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have become the chief means to address the environmental sustainability concerns rife throughout fibre, textile and garment production. MSIs include a wide array of non-governmental organisations, voluntary sustainability standards and reporting tools. However, MSIs can be critiqued as an incremental rather than transformative approach to environmental sustainability, firmly embedded within a green-growth paradigm. This article examines the limits and opportunities of MSIs in aiding a systemic transformation for sustainability within the fashion system. By analysing fashion-specific MSIs at two time points, 2017 and 2021, we identify that while MSI membership is growing and a degree of consolidation and harmonisation is occurring, environmental gains are offset by unrelenting growth in production. Drawing upon principles of degrowth, we propose that a scenario in which an MSI construct could have transformative power is one in which overproduction is explicitly addressed.

The fashion label Easton Pearson operated between 1989 and 2016 and was led by cofounders and designers Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson, based in Brisbane, the subtropical capital of Queensland, Australia. The label was known for its highly embellished textiles and bold use of color. The label’s establishment, philosophy, global reach, and particularly the designers’ approach to collaboration with artisans in India and Vietnam are explored in this article. The context of the changing nature of the Australian fashion industry over the 27-year span of Easton Pearson, and the shifts in offshore manufacturing, tariff reduction, and the impacts of the global financial crisis on the local Australian industry are examined. Easton Pearson closed operations in 2016, and in 2017 the full Easton Pearson archive was gifted to the Museum of Brisbane.

A shift to a circular economy is essential, and regulation can play a critical role in this transition. In this paper we examine the regulatory frameworks required to promote a circular economy (CE) for textiles through a qualitative analysis of data from Australian and international contexts. Supporting the transition to a CE requires an optimal policy mix that includes direct regulation, self-regulation, voluntary initiatives, education approaches, and economic instruments, such as subsidies and incentives. Using an inductive, interpretive approach to qualitative analysis, we analysed the submissions and Standing Committee sessions of the Commonwealth Government’s 2019-20 Inquiry into Australia’s Waste Management and Recycling Industries and identified the regulatory approaches for which different stakeholder groups are advocating. Public, industry and recyclers all advocate first for economic instruments, with industry bodies next advocating for self-regulation, while both the public and recycling industry next recommend education initiatives. Alongside, our analysis draws on the regulatory approaches of Australia and other nations, as captured in a sample of international government and NGO reports and working papers. We find that Australia’s current regulatory system focuses primarily on normative education and information documents, with fragmented economic and co-regulation on a state-by-state level. Through this analysis, we propose a holistic policy mix that codifies a circular economy approach to textile waste governance and make a series of regulatory recommendations appropriate to the Australian context.

Current sustainability frameworks and tools to assess and track social and environmental impacts of textile and apparel (such as life cycle analysis) along the chain, although important, provide a narrow focus on metrics (such as a reduction in inputs) or on economic value. This paper proposes a tailored method which combines value chain thinking with qualitative value mapping techniques to identify what sustainable value means and to whom, who benefits both in and beyond the chain (such as wider society, the environment, local communities), as well as opportunities to create sustainable value in the future. Results from interviews with stakeholders of a single connected cotton value chain demonstrate that this approach can identify sustainable value propositions specific to different actors in the chain, temperature-test whether stakeholders are willing to pay a premium price for sustainability efforts, and identify novel sustainable value opportunities that disrupt the chain. In addition to extending knowledge around sustainability in the textile and apparel industry, our contribution also lies in the development of a tailored tool which can be adapted and used for other value chains.

The Sri Lankan apparel industry is currently in transition from apparel assembly to manufacturing original designs as a value addition. Design teams work closely with Western brands, buyers and designers to offer advanced creative and technical design services. The purpose of this article is to investigate how Sri Lankan designers acquire personal, high-value fashion knowledge and design skills in this crucial time of industry transition. The study adopts a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews conducted with 28 fashion design and product development professionals in the industry. Based on an inductive thematic analysis, the study finds that Sri Lankan designers’ acquisition of high-value fashion knowledge and skills comes primarily through their self-directed learning. This study proposes the Designers’ Self-Directed Learning Cycle to illustrate how designers’ learning happens and is applied in their professional practice. The findings are significant in understanding the designers’ practice in the export-oriented apparel value chain.

As the urgency around the environmental impact of fashion production grows, biotechnologies that engineer microbes and other biological organisms such as plants offer cleaner, greener processes and entirely new products. Bacteria and yeasts may be engineered to colour fabric, generate synthetic fibre precursors, and produce enzymes used to break down and convert waste. Biotechnology can also present as a continuation of humanity’s mastery over the natural world. This article explores how biotechnology may offer fashion–as both industry and culture–alternative ways of forming relationships with the natural world, offering a range of propositions for the role of biotechnology in fashion practice. The first theme, ‘taming’, examines how biotechnology offers alternatives that control and reduce environmental impacts within existing industry norms. Taming includes synthetic biology and microbial biotechnology to develop processes for silk and leather alternatives, and the replacement of existing fossil-fuel based fibres with bio-based equivalents. The second theme, ‘rewilding’, focuses on the role biotechnology may play in local, decentralised fashion production existing outside of industry control, within the community. Last, ‘speculating’ shows the role biotechnology may play in imagining and enacting alternative views of the living world in which the human and more-than-human entangle to form new kinships.

In the fashion industry, the circular economy (CE) may be mobilised for many agendas, from a superficial approach to reducing waste and using recycled materials to a more radical proposition for societal transformation towards sustainable production and consumption. For fashion educators, the CE is, therefore, an important new facet of sustainability education and one that must be approached with critical nuance, as the representation of the CE in the media have the potential to frame students’ understanding. To evaluate the discourse created around fashion and the CE in the mainstream media, 476 published articles were analysed between 2016 and 2020. The findings revealed that the media sidelined cultural perspectives of CE while promoting its technical dimension. The concluding part of this paper makes suggestions on how best to engage students in the CE conversation with a critical approach that considers pressing consumption issues in fashion.

Potassium-ion capacitor (KICs) is an emerging technology that can potentially combines the virtue of high power capability of supercapacitors and high energy density of batteries. Herein, we have scientifically transformed blue denim textile waste into two different forms of nanocarbons to assemble dual carbon potassium-ion hybrid capacitor (KIHC). The unique composition of indigo and sulphur dyes in blue jeans enables to produce multi-heteroatom (nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen) doped hard carbon (MHC) with large interlayer spacing (0.41 nm) in a single step. An in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis reveal that the charge stored in disordered and large interlayer spaced graphitic structure enable fast kinetics for efficient potassium-ion transportation. Coupling with an activated carbon foam (ACF)-based cathode, a full cell of potassium-ion capacitor successfully delivers a high energy density of 181 Wh kg−1 at 70.4 W kg−1 and 61.8 Wh kg−1 at 4000 W kg−1, as well as an long lifespan of 5000 cycles with over 89% of capacity retention. These performance statistics match or exceed state-of-the-art values for KIHCs, providing novel strategy to develop dual carbon ion capacitors with high energy and high power capabilities.

About this Book: How do fashion designers design? How does design function within the industry? How can design practices open up sustainable pathways for fashion's future? Designing Fashion's Future responds to these questions to offer a fresh understanding of design practices within the sprawling, shifting fashion system. Fashion design is typically viewed as the rarefied practice of elite professionals, or else as a single stage within the apparel value chain. Alice Payne shows how design needn't be reduced to a set of decisions by a designer or design team, but can instead be examined as a process, object, or agent that shapes fashion's material and symbolic worlds. Designing Fashion's Future draws on more than 50 interviews with industry professionals based in Australia, Europe, Asia, and the United Kingdom, with case studies and examples from North America and China. These diverse perspectives from multinational retailers, independent and experimental contexts ground the discussion in contemporary industry practices. Table of Contents: 1. Fashion Design Beyond the Designer 2. Fashion Systems Thinking 3. Designers, Named and Nameless 4. Fashion's Designerly Narratives 5. Designing in Fast Fashion 6. Design for Sustainability as Strategies and Tactics 7. Weightless Fashion 8.Taming Fashion by Design 9. Rewilding Fashion by Design 10. Conclusion

About this book: In a fast-moving global industry how does anyone know what the next trend will be? To answer this question, fashion professionals engage in a systematic, analytical process to predict and understand changes in society and consumer behavior. Forecasting companies and developers collect information related to culture, the economy, politics, and technology that may influence future trends. Gleaning information wherever they can, online or from books, arts, music, movies, fashion and architecture, fashion forecasters research cultural indicators that signpost new ways of living, shopping, and designing. Fashion Trends offers a clear pathway into the theory and practice of forecasting fashion, using professional case studies to demonstrate each technique and concept. This revised edition includes expanded coverage of social media, crowd sourcing, digital influencers and the use of technology such as augmented reality, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and big data. With the rise of individualism, the authors also walk you through the 'end of fashion' and what comes next, including clothing subscription and rental services, the circular economy, transparency and traceability and the role of forecasting in provoking the desire for a sustainable lifestyle.

This article examines the cultural geography of fashion cities, focusing on independent fashion designers’ relationships with their city. Through discussing the Australian city of Brisbane and its place within the hierarchy of fashion cities, we examine the position of modern yet peripheral locations that have what we term an ‘elusive’ fashion identity. The discussion highlights the complexities that make a city a fashion city, specifically the interplay between industry, culture, retail and design, commonly identified as fundamental elements in the construction or transformation of fashion cities. The paper unravels the dynamics and discourses that have contributed to the contemporary conceptualisation of the fashion city; it evaluates the way in which local independent fashion designers (IFDs) can contribute to a reorientation of thinking about cities and their fashion; and it gauges how IFDs sustain a local fashion identity within cities that do not present the commonly recognised characteristics of a fashion city such as infrastructures. We argue that IFDs in peripheral cities have a very different relationship with their city than do IFDs in so-called fashion cities. By examining this relationship, and Brisbane’s modestly placed position on fashion cities’ hierarchy, we propose that, except for the traditional fashion centres, other cities are in a constant state of flux, arguing that the concept of the fashion city itself is elusive. We propose that as cities experience fashion narratives that ebb and flow, they may present multiple characteristics that make them unique at a particular moment, thus they are ‘elusive’ fashion cities.

Waste is a material problem and a cultural condition. Many philosophies and visualisation resources exist for addressing waste such as waste hierarchies and circular economy diagrams. These diagrams, however, are not always enough to represent the intrinsic complexities related to waste systems or the interactions that exist between current and potential interventions. In this paper we contribute an original framework for understanding waste and propose a visualisation of waste as a spectrum of possibilities rather than as a series of discrete, disconnected interventions. The Waste Rainbow invites users to “plot” interventions and to think about these interventions and their relationships with the system on multiple stages of the life of an object.

Fast fashion and slow fashion are critical concepts in the discussion of sustainability in fashion. In academic circles each concept has been widely studied, and in fashion media and communication, slow fashion is often set up as a contrasting paradigm to the dominant model of fast fashion. This chapter looks beyond the common definitions of ‘fast fashion’ and ‘slow fashion’ to instead bring the concept of fashion’s speed back to first principles. As sociologist John Tomlinson (2007) observes, in physics, speed equals distance over time. What, then, are the ethical considerations for fashion in the concept of distance, and in the context of time? Through examining the spatial and temporal dimensions of speed in fashion, this chapter identifies relationships between speed/distance, and speed/time that can further inform conceptions of sustainable fashion. These ideas are discussed through analysis of the Australian fashion industry. The chapter argues that through setting aside the inevitable binary of fast fashion and slow fashion, and instead discussing speed as an ethics of distance and time, producers and consumers may come to a more nuanced understanding of what kinds of practices may contribute to a sustainable fashion system in Australia.

This article examines the cultural geography of fashion cities, focusing on independent fashion designers’ relationships with their city. Through discussing the Australian city of Brisbane and its place within the hierarchy of fashion cities, we examine the position of modern yet peripheral locations that have what we term an ‘elusive’ fashion identity. The discussion highlights the complexities that make a city a fashion city, specifically the interplay between industry, culture, retail and design, commonly identified as fundamental elements in the construction or transformation of fashion cities. The paper unravels the dynamics and discourses that have contributed to the contemporary conceptualisation of the fashion city; it evaluates the way in which local independent fashion designers (IFDs) can contribute to a reorientation of thinking about cities and their fashion; and it gauges how IFDs sustain a local fashion identity within cities that do not present the commonly recognised characteristics of a fashion city such as infrastructures. We argue that IFDs in peripheral cities have a very different relationship with their city than do IFDs in so-called fashion cities. By examining this relationship, and Brisbane’s modestly placed position on fashion cities’ hierarchy, we propose that, except for the traditional fashion centres, other cities are in a constant state of flux, arguing that the concept of the fashion city itself is elusive. We propose that as cities experience fashion narratives that ebb and flow, they may present multiple characteristics that make them unique at a particular moment, thus they are ‘elusive’ fashion cities.

Textile waste presents a serious environmental problem with only a small fraction of products from the fashion industry collected and re-used or recycled. The problem is exacerbated in the case of post-consumer waste by the mixture of different natural and synthetic fibres in blended textiles. The separation of mixed fibre waste, where garments are often multicomponent, presents a major recycling problem as fibres must be separated to single components to enable effective recycling. This work investigates the selective digestion of wool fibres from wool/polyester blended fabrics using an enzymatic approach. Complete degradation of wool fibres was achieved by application of a keratinase in a two-step process with addition of reducing agent and undigested polyester fibres were recovered. Electron microscopy showed complete breakdown of the natural fibres in the fabric blends, while spectroscopic and mechanical analysis of the recovered synthetic fibres confirmed that the enzymatic treatment had no significant impact on the properties of the polyester compared to virgin samples. The polyester fibres are therefore suitable to be recycled to polyester yarn and re-used in the manufacture of new garments or other products. The nutrient rich keratin hydrolysate could be used in microbial growth media or incorporated into bio-fertilisers or animal feed, contributing to the development of the circular economy.

Purpose: The rise of fast fashion has changed the face of global fashion. Despite sector growth, critics have questioned the level of obsolescence, encouragement of over-consumption and fast fashion's unsustainable business practices. Specifically, mounting concerns surround the impact on environmental, worker and animal welfare. Accordingly, the aim of this current work is to understand the influence of consumer's values on ethical consumption in a fast-fashion context. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was designed to collect responses relating to personal values and ethical concerns towards animal and worker welfare issues, as well as environmental concerns. A total of 350 US-based fast-fashion consumers completed the survey via Amazon MTurk. Factor analyses and structural equation modelling were used to analyse and test a theoretically hypothesised model. Findings: This study found that self-transcendence values and openness to change values have a positive impact on consumers' levels of ethical concern towards animal welfare, the environment and worker welfare concerns within the fashion industry. Furthermore, a consumer's level of concern towards animal welfare and the environment positively influences a consumer's likeliness to purchase ethically marketed fast fashion. Originality/value: This is the first study to investigate the role of consumer values and their influence on ethical concerns within the fashion industry and the impact of these concerns on intentions to purchase ethically marketed fast fashion. Responding to calls for further research into ethical consumption of apparel, this study includes all elements of ethical consumption identified, including animal welfare. This study identifies ethical areas of concern salient amongst fast-fashion consumers and provides a deeper understanding of the values impacting the level of ethical concerns surrounding animal welfare, the environment and worker welfare.

This article examines the cultural geography of fashion cities, focusing on independent fashion designers’ relationships with their city. Through discussing the Australian city of Brisbane and its place within the hierarchy of fashion cities, we examine the position of modern yet peripheral locations that have what we term an ‘elusive’ fashion identity. The discussion highlights the complexities that make a city a fashion city, specifically the interplay between industry, culture, retail and design, commonly identified as fundamental elements in the construction or transformation of fashion cities. The paper unravels the dynamics and discourses that have contributed to the contemporary conceptualisation of the fashion city; it evaluates the way in which local independent fashion designers (IFDs) can contribute to a reorientation of thinking about cities and their fashion; and it gauges how IFDs sustain a local fashion identity within cities that do not present the commonly recognised characteristics of a fashion city such as infrastructures. We argue that IFDs in peripheral cities have a very different relationship with their city than do IFDs in so-called fashion cities. By examining this relationship, and Brisbane’s modestly placed position on fashion cities’ hierarchy, we propose that, except for the traditional fashion centres, other cities are in a constant state of flux, arguing that the concept of the fashion city itself is elusive. We propose that as cities experience fashion narratives that ebb and flow, they may present multiple characteristics that make them unique at a particular moment, thus they are ‘elusive’ fashion cities.

Internationally there are large clothing brands, small fashion labels, and artisan makers developing products that are circular, environmentally conscious, and/or ethically made. Some of these are respected global brands, such as H&M, Patagonia, and Nike, while others are making a difference at a local and/or national level. Although these companies do raise awareness to sustainable fashion, there has been difficulty in “seeing” sustainable fashion as a truly international movement. Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion has tried to present a wide variety of narratives from researchers, designers, makers, and activists in different communities, countries, and continents. ey represent the many varied environmental, ethical, social, and economic aspects that have shaped the development of fashion for sustainability in different nations. Although each author has examined aspects of sustainable fashion in their own way, the dimensions of environmental and ethical production come to the fore, and alongside the apparel production critical to the livelihoods of individuals and to the economies of nations. Nevertheless, it is evident to us that many of our regional neighbors are being encouraged or motivated to reduce the impacts associated with fashion production and consumption—and this is a positive dimension that has been, perhaps, less acknowledged in the research community.

The edited volume Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion showcases the global fashion industry's efforts to reduce the negative impacts associated with fashion production and consumption. In the Introduction the editors provide the aims and objectives of the book, and explain the book’s structure, providing a rationale for why there is a need to explore sustainable fashion in the context of regional fashion systems. The editors briefly summarise the state of the fashion industry in the 6 regions, and describe where and when sustainable fashion began to emerge within the regions. Last, the editors set out and describe the contributions included in the book.

Australia has a high consuming customer base accustomed to purchasing low-cost imported clothing, resulting in high volumes of waste. At the same time, Australia is a primary producer of natural fibre: the world’s largest exporter of merino wool, and third largest exporter of cotton. Yet local textile manufacturing is almost non-existent, with most raw fibre exported and the majority of clothing imported. This hollowed-out manufacturing base is a barrier to progressing sustainable fashion in the country. This essay examines the designers, entrepreneurs, and retailers working against the odds to promote a sustainable ‘local’ fashion system via fledgling reshoring projects and innovative social enterprises.

Apparel manufacturing is Sri Lanka’s largest industrial sector, accounting for 43.2% of total exports, and Sri Lankan firms manufacture for recognizable global brands such as Abercrombie and Fitch, GAP, Marks and Spencer, and Victoria’s Secret. Social and environmental sustainability is key to the industry’s development, with Sri Lankan government and industry promoting a reputation of producing ‘garments without guilt.’ This essay explores sustainability initiatives undertaken within both niche and mass sectors of the Sri Lankan industry, highlighting the diversity of approaches needed to support a sustainable and equitable fashion industry in Sri Lanka.

Fashion, with its intimate connection to the logic of capitalism, has the ability to absorb all resistance into itself. Fashion makes fashionable what was once subversive. What therefore can we make of contemporary ‘alternate practices in fashion design’: textiles grown from fermented tea, garments that transform into portable habitats, or manuals that teach users how to hack mass-produced garments? Such practices would seem to be speculative at best, operating on the margins of a fashion system that will attempt to feed on their critical content for reinvention as a new trend. In this chapter we argue two points. First, we propose that speculative practices can be seen as part of a lineage of critical practitioners whose work developed in opposition to the dominant fashion culture. Second we argue that although fashion operates largely through absorbing its own criticism, profound change in fashion is also driven by clothing design on the margins. Through an analysis of the work of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century designers and artists whose practices have hovered uneasily on the margins of fashion, this chapter will explore how critical practice may un-design and re-design fashion.

Agri-intelligence targets the increasing complexity of farming enterprise operations arising from increasing availability of data, connectedness of decisions, and seeking to optimise operations more tightly, and at finer scales, than ever before. This project identified current situational awareness about the diversity and complexity of the decision space in cotton production as well as data and information use and utilisation gaps within the industry. In tandem, the project examined the information flows from the cotton value chain, including a segment-by- segment outline of key issues, data creation and use, and consequences of on-farm decision-making. The chief outcome of the project is a method for identifying and evaluating digital technology investment opportunities in the Australian cotton industry. The method is informed by the findings from the analysis of on-farm decision-making and for the potential for new information flows from the value chain. This method can inform the case for different agri-intelligence solutions in cotton production and also assist CRDC with decisions about their research investment portfolio to transition the sector towards its goals as set in CRDC’s Futures Program, which seeks to transform the industry to ensure it is more profitable, sustainable and competitive in the next 20 years. The report closes with a strategy for segmenting on-farm decision-making for future research. This is a detailed method for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in new digital technologies that can inform recommendations for continued investment in related areas of research.

Purpose: Developing countries engaged in apparel value chain are going global, seeking opportunities to upgrade the industry through providing higher value-added products and services. The purpose of this article is to investigate how Sri Lankan apparel industry designers interact with the Western fashion world in the apparel value chain process, and how they acquire, adapt and apply the knowledge needed to develop high-value fashion products in their fashion design practice. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted with fashion design and product development professionals in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. An inductive thematic analysis is used in identifying participants’ experience of the Western fashion world within their fashion design practice. Findings: The study proposes a ‘fashion knowledge bridge’ illustrating the ways in which Sri Lankan designers acquire and merge high value fashion consumer culture and lifestyle knowledge with the manufacturing industry, through multisensory and virtual experience, termed ‘exposure’, in their interactions with the Western fashion world as well as the manufacturing culture of the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Designers’ exposure improves the feasibility and reliability of their apparel products, aligning to the end consumer needs. The study also proposes a ‘designers’ exposure framework’, that illustrates gains made by the Sri Lankan apparel industry resulting from knowledge enhancement through the designers’ exposure. Research limitations/implications: The study is based on a qualitative methodology that has potential subjective biases on the part of the researchers, in this case only the Sri Lankan designers’ perspectives were used in synthesising the findings. Originality/value: The findings propose frameworks with theoretical and managerial implications for developing designers’ capabilities in apparel manufact

In the South Asian Region, the Sri Lankan apparel industry is transitioning from apparel assembly to providing higher value-added product and services. Fashion designers are key actors in this transition. The purpose of this article is to examine the evolving role of the fashion designer in the Sri Lankan apparel industry.The study adopts a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted with twenty-eight fashion and product development professionals in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Based on an inductive thematic analysis, the study finds that the Sri Lankan designers take a multidisciplinary approach to their design practice, integrating the key functions of fashion design, product development and manufacturing capabilities, in alignment with the functional and strategic ambitions of the apparel companies. Their approach to design through technical skills extends the conceptual approach of brand designers in fashion design practice. However, the fashion knowledge of Sri Lankan designers varies significantly depending on their familiarity with Western brands and retailers as well as Western consumer culture and lifestyle.

Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion showcases the global fashion industry's efforts to reduce the negative impacts associated with fashion production and consumption. Illustrated throughout with infographics, photographs and diagrams of creative works, eighteen essays focus on six regions, examining sustainable fashion in the context of local, cultural and environmental concerns. Also included are 18 regional 'Spotlight' sections highlighting the differences and similarities across regions by concentrating on examples of best practice, design innovation and impact on the community.

For the past 15 years, the Sri Lankan apparel industry has been upgrading from apparel assembly to providing design and product development services. The country’s fashion education developed in response to the industry’s need for design professionals. The purpose of this study is to explore how fashion designer competencies are developed within Sri Lanka. This study adopts a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews conducted with 28 fashion and product development professionals, selected through purposive sampling. The development of fashion designer competencies within SL in this context are analysed and discussed. The study proposes a ‘fashion education ecosystem’ that has emerged from the nexus between formal fashion education and training and professional development within the industry, supporting the upgrading of the industry through the enhancement of designer skills. Sri Lanka, as a small country that depends heavily on the apparel industry for employment and economic development, provides a model for other developing countries seeking industrial upgrading from apparel assembly to design and product development services through the fashion education ecosystem.

The Anthropocene describes our current geological era, in which human activity has grown to become a planetary force. Interest in “sustainable fashion” reflects the necessity to address the social and environmental ills of fashion. Yet thinking on sustainable fashion remains chiefly industry and user-focused, examining narrow questions regarding how industry may shift practices, or how users may engage with fashion differently—hence only tacitly positioned within the context of the Anthropocene. Synthesizing scholarly and industry perspectives, this article establishes two positions on sustainable fashion, and aligns these with the philosophical positions of humanity’s future in the Anthropocene, adopting ethicist Clive Hamilton’s nomenclature. First, fashion’s Prometheans, the techno-optimists, propose a future in which cleaner technologies can lead to the gradual evolution of a better industry. In contrast, fashion’s Soterians take a cautionary approach, and seek to unbind fashion from the unsustainable growth imperative of capitalism itself. Under these two, the definition of “sustainable fashion” may differ, but, critically, their dialogue will shape the direction of fashion. Together, their actions create a “fashion futuring,” a dynamic process of negotiation between what I term the “taming” and the “rewilding” of fashion, within a world of our own making.

This article reports on the findings of a study investigating creative risktaking behaviours of the commencing university students enrolled in three units across three disciplines: Interactive and Visual Design, Fashion Design, and Film, Screen and Animation. The study employs an action research methodology in order to help students develop confidence and competence in creative risk-taking. Upon analysis from relevant literature three key provisions for the study are proposed, being: P1 An open and playful learning environment that encourages sharing and challenging multiple perspectives; P2 An adequate period of time for students to develop and revise creative concepts; and P3 Opportunities to assess their own performance in developing creative risk-taking capacities. The study draws on the students’ written self-reflections to identify the key challenges and opportunities in encouraging creative risk-taking among first year students, which are challenges of collaboration; creative resilience and self-efficacy; and balancing creativity with technical competency. The article suggests several ways that educators can encourage students to take creative risks within higher education in preparation for careers in the creative industries.

Many things have been written about Easton Pearson over the brand’s history: a selection of fashion editorials call up words such as ‘exuberant’, ‘embellished’ and inevitably refer to the brand’s luscious use of layered texture and colour. However, beyond the finished pieces on the runway, in exhibitions, in wardrobes, how did their approaches develop? It is easy to say, ‘Easton Pearson worked with artisans for close to three decades.’ It is quite another to explain what this work actually involved, day to day, season to season, and how these relationships and collaborations entwined to form an extraordinary body of work. As extraordinary as the garments produced by Easton Pearson is the 27-year design partnership between Pamela and Lydia. In 2003, Easton Pearson said of their work, “our way of working is inseparable from our design ethos… we work in partnership through all passages of our process – planning, designing, finishing, travelling and selling” (quoted in Lovell 2003, 1). The exhibition, The Designers’ Guide, opens up their design process, techniques, collaborations, experimentations, successes and set-backs for the viewer. The leitmotif of this essay is time– the time an artisan takes to weave a cloth or complete an embroidery, the decades of a partnership, the natural seasons (one cannot screenprint during the Indian monsoon), and fashion’s artificial seasons. Now, for the Easton Pearson Archive, there is archive time. There, the Archive exists as a constellation of garments, skills, and histories—both inside and outside of time. The garments held in the Museum of Brisbane archive are as layered up with skill and knowledge as they are with colour and texture, and The Designer’s Guide captures these layers. The following sections explore the context of Easton Pearson in fashion’s time, both fast and slow, before turning to their processes, materials and garment stories.

Sustainability in fashion is a highly complex issue in which students must grapple with ethical considerations such as workers' rights, as well as environmental issues such as waste and pollution of air, water and soil. In the past decade, although many fashion companies have worked to alleviate their environmental and social impact, there are still intractable problems to overcome. In this exercise, students are asked to engage in a role-playing task around the topic of fashion and sustainability. The aim of the exercise is not to merely classify garments as more or less 'sustainable,' but rather for students to rigorously examine and debate the many dimensions of fashion and sustainability that can be applied to the discussion.

Central to fashion design practice is an awareness of the classic garment forms: the shirt, the tailored jacket, the pencil skirt, the denim jacket and many more. As well as aesthetic significance, these classic styles hold rich cultural and symbolic meaning: a trench coat may be associated with hard-boiled detectives or with the film Casablanca; a babydoll dress may invoke Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Fashion designers can adapt, subvert and reinvent these forms - or indeed can propose entirely new forms. They can play with the visual look and feel of these items as well as their symbolic meaning.

The backdrop of fashion education globally is that of industry turbulence: radical digital innovation, hyper-competition enabled by fast global supply chains, and a world simultaneously more fragmented and more connected. In this chapter we examine the idea of the local within the global, and explore how our experience of local—subtropical Brisbane, Australia—shapes the fashion culture and approach to materiality of our undergraduate design students and of ourselves as educators. In our Fashion Design course at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), our teaching approach is to foster curiosity and material exploration within the students as they tackle the quixotic task of making garments in a country in which manufacturing skills are in scarce supply, and where there is no shortage of clothing, but a dearth of high quality materials. For us, the future of fashion and textile design lies in entrepreneurial and artisanal approaches to making, and we have found that living in Brisbane promotes the make-do capacity in our students—as through necessity they innovate. We begin by discussing the desire for local fashion cultures through the notion of “fashion cities”—whether first-tier, second-tier, or otherwise—before discussing the Australian and then Brisbane fashion culture. Through a series of undergraduate student projects, we illustrate how our geographical location can at once limit and expand the students’ capabilities in fashion and textile design. Last, we close by discussing our expanding connections with other countries in the region.

This paper examines togetherness and difference in fashion education in the Asia-Pacific region through three perspectives: fashion designer, textile designer, and design educator. The backdrop of fashion education globally is that of industry turbulence: radical digital innovation, hyper-competition enabled by fast global supply chains, and a world simultaneously more fragmented and more connected. Aside from living in a ‘flat’ globalized world, increasingly students’ experience of fashion and textiles is flattened to images on a screen. However, the future for fashion and textile design may lie in local, entrepreneurial, and artisanal approaches to making. In this paper, we examine the idea of the local within the global, and explore how our experience of local, within the wider Asia-Pacific, shapes the fashion culture and approach to materiality of our undergraduate design students and of ourselves as designers and educators. Our teaching approach is to foster curiosity and material exploration within the students as they tackle the quixotic task of making garments in Australia, a country in which manufacturing skills are in scarce supply, and where there is no shortage of clothing, but a dearth of high quality materials. We discuss the desire for local fashion cultures in a globalized world through the notion of “fashion togetherness” in which cross-cultural partnerships may be forged to celebrate difference and find common ground. Through a series of undergraduate student projects and cross-cultural connections, we illustrate how geographical location can at once limit and expand students’ capabilities in fashion and textile design. We close by proposing collaborative strategies in making, thinking and doing fashion that may be specific to one’s own place but are shared collaboratively within regional networks of fashion educators.

This article explores approaches to education for sustainable fashion and textile design. Students, as future industry professionals—and as present wearers of clothing—need to understand the various sustainability issues of fashion in ways that are straightforward yet also draw the necessary subtle distinctions required to move beyond a simplistic understanding of the issues. However, there is an abundance of information available on sustainable fashion, and this is part of the challenge for educators. Alongside the many academic publications in the area, a growing number of activist groups, governments and non-governmental organisations are releasing reports on the topic, and at the same time, the number of brands and retailers purporting to be ‘green’, ‘ethical’, and ‘sustainable’ are mushrooming. Given the amount of information now available on the topic, there is a need for discernment in presenting the issues incisively while also doing justice to their complexity. The article offers a detailed overview of the present sustainable fashion literature, from both academic and non-academic sources, and frames approaches to teaching as ‘ethics’ and ‘encounters’, in which students are challenged to examine their assumptions and frame their own philosophy of what ‘sustainable fashion’ may mean to them.

Waste in fashion is a material problem as well as a cultural condition. In this paper we offer a cultural perspective on waste transformation in fashion practices: what happens to waste, rather than where it goes. We propose states of transformation of waste: disguise, elevation and enchantment. These states are not a hierarchy but rather a typology to consider the kinds of material and cultural transformations that waste undergoes when revalorised through fashion practice. The study centres on the Australian context, and seeks to examine the ways in which Australian fashion retailers, designers, and community groups are engaging with clothing and textile waste. We identified forty-seven initiatives and explored their approaches to waste transformation. Through selected vignettes, this paper examines both the material processes and symbolic meaning behind the approach and its messaging, and offers reflections on the ideas of waste that emerge. Selected examples include large fashion retailers, independent and experimental fashion practitioners, and grassroots campaigns by local charities. Looking beyond the practical approaches to waste management, such ‘reduce, reuse, recycle,’ or the waste hierarchy, we explore ways in which these practices may ‘disguise’ waste, ‘elevate’ waste, or ‘enchant’ waste. Through this analysis, we argue for a perception of waste beyond that of inevitable by-product of the industry, towards waste recast as a potent force of loss and renewal.

This article traces several interwoven traditions of considering waste and its materiality within fashion practice. Waste in fashion is commonly considered a problem to be solved, whether through reduced consumption, improved production processes, or recycling and upcycling practices. While the pragmatic and effective “waste management” approaches are key to developing a sustainable fashion industry they can also distance and obscure the materiality of waste, and in doing so overlook the potency and poignancy that waste can have. As a counter-approach to the problems of waste, this article explores a poetic element that relates to an aesthetic of the worn and wasted, and a fashion practice that elevates rather than disguises waste. This is discussed through a case study of experimental fashion label Maison Briz Vegas, reflecting on time, place and waste.

Description of the work Garden of Shrinking Violets is a collection of six half scale garments and three illustrations, continuing the practice-led research project into design for disassembly, developed in the work Shrinking Violets (2015). All garments are constructed in laser cut modules that enable the items to be reassembled in new combinations. The project extended the materials used to include ahimsa (peace) silk, silk organza and silk twill. The pattern pieces have internal laser cut grids of 5mm circles, allowing the textiles to be layered, threaded and knotted to achieve rich embellished surfaces that play with the transparencies and colour overlays of the sheer and opaque silks. Research Background Conceptually grounded in design for sustainability, the aim of the work is to develop approaches to garment construction that could allow users to engage with the garments by adding, removing and reconfiguring elements. This approach to design considers the use and end-of-life phases of the transient fashion garment through considering how the garments can be later disassembled. Research Contribution This construction process is unique in being not only a patterning device but also integral to the garment’s construction. This work sits at the intersection of technical design and craft: the laser cutting and technical approach to developing new forms of garment construction is coupled with the artisanal approach of hand-knotting, a reference to traditional quilting techniques, as a method to layer and pattern the textiles. The technique developed in Shrinking Violets was extended to experiment with different grid structures, knotting devices, and decorative fringing. The result is a proposed construction system in which the laser cut grid and knotting form a decorative patterning device, but are also integral to the garments’ construction. Research Significance Garden of Shrinking Violets was exhibited at artisan gallery’s Ivory Street window, Brisbane, January

The apparel industry is a major export industry in Sri Lanka that depends upon labour intensive manufacturing. The Sri Lankan apparel industry is transitioning from Cut, Make, Trims (CMT) assembly and Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) to Original Design Manufacturing (ODM) and Original Brand Manufacturing (OBM), experiencing the economic benefits of apparel product export. The transition relies on having expert professionals who can provide creative, commercial, technical, and leadership skills in the process. In order to identify the creative roles and responsibilities that can contribute to the industrial upgrading process in Sri Lanka, this paper first provides an analysis of the global apparel value chain and the journeys of the countries with newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in the region. Second, a comparison of Hong Kong and Sri Lankan apparel industries contextualises the development of fashion design within each nation’s industry as a competitive advantage. In each country we examine three factors that demonstrate growth in fashion design: development of fashion design education; development of exportable own brands; and the establishment of local showcases to a global audience. The examples of both Hong Kong and Sri Lanka demonstrate the ways in which creative roles may act as a bridge between production and marketing networks, buyers and producers in maintaining and building industry value-adding for highly sophisticated and competitive fashion production systems. Although the Sri Lankan apparel industry has not progressed as far as Hong Kong in this arena, evidence suggests the industry is actively growing design capabilities.

Since the 2000s activewear has grown as a fashion category, and the tropes of gym wear – leggings, leotards and block colours – have become fashionable attire for both men and women outside the gym. This article examines the rise of activewear in the context of an on-going dialogue between fashion and sport since the beginning of the twentieth century. Through an analysis of the Australian activewear label, Lorna Jane, we consider the fashionable female body as both the object and subject of a consumer culture that increasingly overlays leisure with fashion. Activewear can be seen as the embodiment of an active and fashionable lifestyle that is achieved through a regime of self-discipline, and that symbolizes the pleasure in attaining and displaying the healthy and fit body.