Fashion’s material form – fibre, fabric, clothing – reproduce connections, or the lack of them, to place. Material assets are tell-tales of system priorities: are textile fibres and fabric commodities of capital exchange or opportunities for community and ecosystem exchange?
In Macclesfield, place was poorly represented in the physical fashion assets: no regional provenance was evident, there were few locally produced pieces, product diversity was restricted and discard rates were high both to charity shops and the household recycling centre:
Clothing is abundantly available to buy. The range of styles and fibre types of clothing is limited.
The price point of new items is low.
The available pieces comprise new and second-hand materials, chiefly cotton, polyester or a blend of the two. More variety of materials is available in fabric shops.
Local clothing was difficult for residents to locate in their own wardrobes, examples included a pair of jeans made in Wales, an African print top made in Manchester and a local team’s football shirt.
The surrounding landscape is largely given over to sheep farming. Yet there is limited wool for sale or present in residents’ wardrobes (from a very small study between 0.5 and 8% of items in residents’ wardrobe made from wool).
New items for sale in the town are made overseas, with only a small number of exceptions.
Historically, Macclesfield was a button-making, silk spinning and weaving town. While there is sizeable capacity for textile printing and garment manufacturing in the town, its products are not available to buy locally.
In 2017, one fifth of the total number of stores stocking clothing in the town are charity shops re-selling donated items.
Of the remaining four fifths of stores that sell clothing, roughly half are chains and half independent.
There is a high level of discard of clothing at the town’s charity shops and the household recycling centre.
MATERIAL ASSETS
Fashion’s material form – fibre, fabric, clothing – reproduce connections, or the lack of them, to place. Material assets are tell-tales of system priorities: are textile fibres and fabric commodities of capital exchange or opportunities for community and ecosystem exchange?
In Macclesfield, place was poorly represented in the physical fashion assets: no regional provenance was evident, there were few locally produced pieces, product diversity was restricted and discard rates were high both to charity shops and the household recycling centre: