Local food and fashion

LEARNING FROM LOCAL FOOD

The principles and practices of local food set a course to change what we eat. As a movement, local food iswell developed; a fusion of small-scale regional producers, distinctive gastronomy, celebrated seasonal availability, farmers’ markets, foraging skills, celebrity chefs, among others.

Can local food initiatives lend themselves to application in the fashion sector? Can they give expression to values of localism – resourcefulness, responsibility and sufficiency – for fashion?

The Fashion Ecologies project set out to investigate, first by conducting a thought experiment to examine the similarities and differences between food and fashion in order to sharpen the development of place-based understanding about clothes. And then by reviewing several local food initiatives – terroir, slow food, hunting and foraging, labelling among others – in order to speculate about possible directions of travel of local practices, systems and culture in the context of fashion.

Kate Fletcher and Gunnar Vittersø’s paper, ‘Local food initiatives and fashion change: comparing food and clothes to better understand fashion localism’, can be downloaded via the Fashion Practice website. Should you have difficulties accessing the paper, please email Kate Fletcher for a copy.