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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.

PurposeWorker 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/approachDue 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.FindingsThis 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/valueThis 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 literature, this study qualitatively investigates consumer sentiment towards worker welfare, identifying the greatest barriers to consumers' levels of concern. In addition to a theoretical contribution to the fashion, ethics and business literature, this article provides key insight to guide practice.

Australian fashion is emblematic of Global North countries with high levels of consumption and waste, dominated by high street fast fashion brands. It also has some unique characteristics as it is located in the Asia-Pacific region – the central production hub of garments – and is a leading producer of quality natural fibres such as cotton and wool. Despite this, Australia has a hollowed-out manufacturing sector that can provide minimal value add to these fibres, and little reuse, remanufacturing or recycling infrastructure for post-consumption garment waste. Ambition for change in the Australian fashion sector is rapidly accelerating with product stewardship initiatives, a modern slavery act and textile waste being designated a priority by the Commonwealth government. Both the policy and industry landscape is evolving. This article reflects on the research landscape of Australian sustainable fashion. The authors of this article draw on multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to survey and consider the trajectory of fashion sustainability research in Australia over the past decade and to identify key strengths and gaps. This survey culminates in the development of a research agenda for the next decade to 2030.

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 precursorss, 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.

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.

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.

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.

PurposeThe 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/approachAn 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.FindingsThis 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/valueThis 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.

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.

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 sense-making 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.

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.

PurposeDeveloping 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 paper 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/approachThe 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.FindingsThe 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/implicationsThe 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/valueThe findings propose frameworks with theoretical and managerial implications for developing designers’ capabilities in apparel manufacturing countries that seek industrial upgrading through value-added fashion design practice.

To maximize the impact of Zika prevention programming efforts, a prioritization process for social and behavior change programming was developed based on a combination of research evidence and programmatic experience. Prioritized behaviors were: application of mosquito repellent, use of condoms, removing unintentional standing water, covering and scrubbing walls of water storage containers, seeking prenatal care, and seeking counseling on family planning if not planning to get pregnant., Since the 2015 Zika outbreak in Latin America and the Caribbean, a plethora of behavior change messages have been promoted to reduce Zika transmission. One year after the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiated its Zika response, more than 30 variants of preventive behaviors were being promoted. This situation challenged social and behavior change (SBC) programming efforts that require a coordinated response and agreed upon set of focus behaviors to be effective. To support USAID implementing partners in harmonizing prevention efforts to reduce Zika infection, we developed an evidence-based process to identify behaviors with the highest potential to reduce Zika infection and transmission. We compiled a full list of behaviors and selected the most promising for a full evidence review. The review included systematic keyword searches on Google Scholar, extraction of all relevant published articles on Aedes-borne diseases between 2012 and 2018, review of seminal papers, and review of gray literature. We examined articles to determine each behavior's potential effectiveness in preventing Zika transmission or reducing the Aedes aegypti population. We also developed assessment criteria to delineate the ease with which the target population could adopt each behavior, including: (1) required frequency; (2) feasibility of the behavior; and (3) accessibility and cost of the necessary materials in the setting. These behaviors were refined through a consensus-building process with USAID's Zika implementing partners, considering contextual factors. The resulting 7 evidence-based preventive behaviors have high potential to strengthen SBC programming's impact in USAID's Zika response: (1) apply mosquito repellent, (2) use condoms during pregnancy, (3) remove standing water, (4) cover water storage containers, (5) clean/remove mosquito eggs from water containers, (6) seek antenatal care, and (7) seek family planning counseling. This case study documents a flexible process that can be adapted to inform the prioritization of behaviors when there is limited evidence available, as during many emergency responses.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Background Progress in the fight against malaria has stalled in recent years, highlighting the importance of new interventions and tailored approaches. A critical factor that must be considered across contexts and interventions is human behaviour. Main text Factors such as acceptance of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), ability and willingness to consistently use and appropriately care for ITNs and refraining from post-spray wall modifications can all impact the success of core vector control interventions. Understanding factors that can drive or inhibit these behaviours can contribute to improved social and behaviour change strategies and in turn, improved outcomes. Likewise, patterns of nighttime activities can reveal specific gaps in protection that cannot be filled by core interventions and inform development and deployment of complementary tools that meet people’s needs and preferences. There is an opportunity to increase use of approaches such as human-centred design to engage affected communities more actively in identifying and developing sustainable solutions that meet their needs and lifestyles. Integration of social and behavioural research with entomological and epidemiological evaluations will provide a more complete picture of malaria transmission dynamics and inform improved targeting of context-appropriate interventions. Finally, for gains to be maintained, interventions must be rooted within systems that support long-term success. This includes a movement toward more sustainable vector control solutions, increased decision-making and ownership of research, implementation, and strategy development at the country level, and inclusive approaches that ensure all men, women, boys, and girls are engaged as part of the solution. Conclusions No matter how efficacious, a tool will remain ineffective if communities do not engage with it or use it regularly. Entering the next decade in the fight against malaria there is a critical opportunity to elevate the role of social and behaviour change to increase the impact and sustainability of malaria control and elimination efforts. This includes removing social and structural barriers to use of existing tools at all levels, human-centred and inclusive design and implementation of new tools, and movement toward long-term solutions led by affected communities.

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 and independent and experimental contexts ground the discussion in contemporary industry practices.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.