The project

INTRODUCING FASHION ECOLOGIES

The aim of Fashion Ecologies is to develop new knowledge and practice around localism as a route to sustainability change in the fashion context. It does this by understanding localism not as a materials and supply chain issue or as single items, like, say, iconic British pieces or traditional materials, but as a dynamic mix of resources and interactions in an area, the sum of what a place can offer.

Foregoing received wisdom and nostalgic ideas about ‘local fashion’, the project sets out from where we are. It engages in close examination of a place, its surroundings and the social and material resources there as the gateway for engaging a changed future for fashion.

Fashion Ecologies is a research project led by Professor Kate Fletcher from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.

The work received funding between 2016 and 2018 from the Research Council of Norway and formed part of a work package of the KRUS project headed by Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp of Oslo Metropolitan University. The funded project’s research assistant was Lizzie Harrison.

The fieldwork took place in Macclesfield, a town in the north of England as did four micro design projects. A comparative study is underway in Molde, on the west coast of Norway.