How do we build artistic practices for sustainable fashion?
Materials
Prioritize materials that don’t trigger new production. Work with textiles already in circulation, like secondhand, vintage, production offcuts, unsold surplus (deadstock), or donations. These avoid signaling companies to extract more raw materials and manufacture more goods.
Work with materials made in your region.
Choose lower-impact fabrics if it really needs to be new, like 100% recycled, no chemicals.
Design
Reduce waste. Optimize pattern layouts, use small fabric pieces creatively, and plan around available material sizes.
Make it adaptable, repairable, resizeable, modular, or easy to transform, so fewer new pieces need to be made, and one piece can be many things.
Make it last longer, with durable fabrics and strong construction.
Sale/Distribution
Prioritize local distribution, like distributing and selling nearby.
Experiment with direct-to-consumer or community sales to reduce inventory and storage.
Think about smaller-batch, to avoid deadstock and reduce inventory and storage.
Culture
Create events for swaps, resale, rental, and sharing to keep materials in circulation.
Teach classes on how to repair, style, and reuse.
Amplify practices that will lead us to a new fashion era.
Advocacy
The system will not without better policies and regulation. Large companies, investors, and wealthy institutions have the resources and political influence to reshape the rules of the game, so they have the greatest responsibility to fund and support policy work.
We can still contribute by joining coalitions, amplifying campaigns, signing petitions, attending public hearings, supporting worker organizing, and voting for representatives who prioritize labor rights and environmental protections.
