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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.

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.

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.