Defining defashion: A manifesto for degrowth

Abstract

A paradigmatic shift is needed if the Fashion industry is to put the well-being of people, their lifeways and the earth first. Like degrowth, defashion involves a deep reduction in material and energy throughputs in clothing production, but it goes much beyond this standard approach to sustainability. The required shift is comparable to the revolutionary change that must be made to the global economic system in order to achieve degrowth and is encapsulated in the definition of the term ‘defashion’. The neologism is a call to action: to dismantle the current Fashion system and replace it with a pluriverse of clothing systems that are fair, local, decolonial and profoundly respectful and nurturing. The activist group, Fashion Act Now, which is launching the term, proposes the clothing commons as a post-fashion strategy.