DEFINING DEFASHION

By: Sandra Niessen

The word “Fashion” written with a capital letter “F” signals the currently dominant, dystopic, globalized, industrial clothing phenomenon, which produces and advertises new styles of clothing primarily for profit above the well-being of people and planet. While the harm that the Fashion system does to the physical environment is rightly the concern of fashion sustainability (poisons, CO2 emissions, synthetics, waste, etc.), the solutions will not be found solely in revised materials and physical processes. The efficacy of what crowds under the umbrellas of “sustainable/ green fashion” and “circular economy” will be limited, unless there is an accompanying ontological or paradigmatic shift in how we collectively perceive and do Fashion. Humans develop relationships with clothing and these relationships have psychological, emotional, and spiritual facets that shape consumption patterns. The exclusively ‘physical/materials’ approach succeeds in deflecting collective attention away from the core of the problem and enables business as usual. “Defashion” is part of the paradigmatic shift that the activist organization Fashion Act Now (FAN) urgently advocates for a sustainable planet. Defashion is both a material and a mental shift. It is the path toward clothing systems that are post-Fashion.

The word “Fashion” written with a capital letter “F” signals the currently dominant, dystopic, globalized, industrial clothing phenomenon, which produces and advertises new styles of clothing primarily for profit above the well-being of people and planet.

Dismantle the system that no longer meets the needs of people, cultures, and planet

Defashion is an emergency response to the egregious failure of industry to take account of its harmful impacts on the planet as well as the failure of governments to sufficiently deal with the planetary crises that the industry continues to trigger. So far, the Fashion industry has failed to meet its sustainability goals, or even to sufficiently take stock of its environmental impacts (Kent 2021:8-11). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports reveal the extent of the damage that has been done to the biosphere. Fashion Act Now calls for rapidly dismantling the globalized, capital F Fashion system. This implies a considerable reduction between 75% and 95% in terms of material and energy outputs (Fletcher and Tham 2019:14).

“Defashion” is part of the paradigmatic shift that the activist organization Fashion Act Now (FAN) urgently advocates for a sustainable planet. Defashion is both a material and a mental shift.

Defashion is deep decolonization

Defashion calls for the obsolescence of clothing systems based on colonial extraction and exploitation. The term “sacrifice zone” has its origin in a tacit agreement among holders of power that there is legitimacy in offering up areas of the earth’s surface for the sake of economic growth. As increasingly large segments of the earth are sacrificed to continually expanding growth, these zones are becoming more visible, more destructive, and more controversial. Defashion calls for the elimination of all sacrifice zones related to Fashion. The IPCC’s 6th assessment report points to colonialism as a driver of the climate crisis. Defashion expands the definition of sacrifice zones to acknowledge many more scenes of destruction and waste, including the psychic well-being and cultural pride of consumers. Respect and care must replace greed and growth.

The term “sacrifice zone” has its origin in a tacit agreement among holders of power that there is legitimacy in offering up areas of the earth’s surface for the sake of economic growth.

Defashion facilitates a clothing pluriverse as an outcome of Fashion decolonization

Defashion is an acknowledgement of clothing systems around the world that have been wrongfully erased by Fashion. It encourages respect and celebrates clothing systems deemed “non-Fashion”. They constitute a cultural sacrifice zone specific to Fashion. Defashion recognizes that fashion justice and fashion decolonization must go deeper than better pay for garment workers and representation of BIPOC in the industry, both of which allow for “business as usual”. Their clothing cultures have a right to thrive in an “articulation of contextual histories” (Vazquez 2020:xviii). Cultural survival is severely lacking in conventional strategies for sustainability.

Defashion also facilitates the construction of alternative clothing systems. It proposes clothing commons as alternatives for the Fashion system. The commons are bottom-up systems of endless diversity that are self-organized and maintained by the participants. Commons offer latitude for experimentation, revisioning, and growth that is specific to local needs and circumstances. Commons encourage the (re-) emergence of a range of values (other than monetary) and the diverse benefits are funneled back for the well-being of the entire community. If the Fashion system reorients other clothing systems for dependence on industry and the accumulation of capital, commons reverse this process and facilitate a clothing pluriverse. Defashion is about taking back our clothing, freeing creativity and production processes from the hegemony of the globalized, industrial Fashion system. This is not a process of deprivation, but a joyful process of community and individual empowerment in the re-emergence of local caring for local talents and environments.

Well-being First/Earth First

Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham have sketched the transition towards an “Earth First” fashion system (2019). Defashioning is about placing the carrying capacity of the planet in a central position. This means replacing the Fashion industry with alternatives that have wellbeing at their core. Defashion aims for clothing systems that are regenerative, a step beyond accommodating the earth’s carrying capacity. By implication defashion is about recognizing the inextricable connectedness of all things and beings and acknowledging this connectedness as a greater good. Defashion is the process of perceiving the connections between clothing and all living beings and planetary systems. Defashion humbles and fills with gratitude. Defas-

hioning is fundamentally about debunking the myths and illusions on which the Fashion industry feeds. It explodes Fashion’s promulgated fictions and fantasies that seduce consumers into literally and spiritually buying into the system, regardless of the true costs.

Defashioning is about placing the carrying capacity of the planet in a central position. This means replacing the Fashion industry with alternatives that have well-being at their core.

Degrowth

The term “degrowth” is commonly, but erroneously, understood to refer to only the tip of the iceberg. Defashion, like degrowth, rejects GDP as a measure of well-being. According to economic anthropologist Jason Hickel, “degrowth is about shifting to a different kind of economy altogether – an economy that doesn’t need growth in the first place. An economy that’s organized around human flourishing and ecological stability, rather than around the constant accumulation of capital” (Hickel 2020:205). Defashion is either the de-linking of Fashion from this economic system or the obsolescence of that economic system in which Fashion is rooted. FAN is a member of WEAll: “organizations, alliances, movements, and individuals working towards a well-being economy, delivering human and ecological well-being.” Defashion stands with WEAll’s core beliefs for a new economy based on three core principles:

1. humans are part of nature, and thus dependant on it 2. the economy’s purpose is to support life 3. the measure of an economy’s success is the creation of well-being for all

WEAll aims at engendering systemic economic change so successfully as to make the alliance redundant within a decade. FAN maintains the same timeframe for dismantling the outmoded Fashion industry and having it replaced by clothing cultures that engender well-being.

Defashion is experimental terrain guided by core principles of fairness and respect, as well as the recognition that humans are not separate from the rest of the biosphere, but rather key players influencing its health. The hope is that the concept of defashion will be endorsed and enriched in every corner of the globe by the lively workings of fashion commons. Defashion is a concept whose time is overdue. May its emergence be a harbinger of the needed paradigmatic shift in Fashion.

Bibliography

• Bollier, David. Think like a commoner: A short introduction to the Life of the Commons. New Society Publishers, 2014. • Fletcher, Kate and Mathilda Tham. Earth Logic: Fashion Action Research Plan. London: J.J. Charitable Trust, 2019. • Hickel, Jason. Less is More: How Degrowth will save the World. London: William Heinemann, 2020. • Hopkins, Hop. “Racism is Killing the Planet: The Ideology of White Supremacy Leads the Way toward Disposable People and a Disposable Natural World.” Sierra: The National Magazine of the Sierra Club, June 8, 2020. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/racism-killing-planet. • Kent, Sarah. 2021. “The Sustainability Gap. The Sustainability Index 2021: The Sustainability gap: How Fashion Measures Up.” Business of Fashion. 2021. pp.8-11. • Niessen, Sandra. “Interpreting ‘Civilization’ through Dress.” Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Vol 8: West Europe, Part I: Overview of Dress and Fashion in West Europe. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010. pp. 39-43. • Niessen, Sandra. “Fashion, its Sacrifice Zone, and Sustainability.” Fashion Theory. 2020a. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6G88SUT MEEPH5JIDWN4K/full?target=10.1080/1362704X.2020.1800984. • Niessen, Sandra. “Regenerative Fashion: There can be no other.” State of Fashion. October 28, 2020b. https://www.stateoffashion.org/ en/past-editions/intervention/longreads/long-read-titel/. • Vazquez, Rolando. Vistas of Modernity: decolonial aesthesis and the end of the contemporary. Mondriaan fund essay 014. Mondriaan Fund, 2020.

Websites

• David Bollier: news and perspectives on the commons. http://www.bollier.org • Earth Logic. https://earthlogic.info • Fashion Act Now (FAN). www.Fashionactnow.org • Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll). www.WEAll.org

Bio

Sandra Niessen is an anthropologist who, since 1978, has researched the textiles of the Batak people of North Sumatra. Teaching at the Department of Clothing and Textiles, later Human Ecology, at the University of Alberta (1988 – 2004), she familiarized herself with fashion theory. In 2003 she published, “Afterword: Re-Orienting Fashion Theory” to explore ethnocentrism in fashion theory and the false schism between “indigenous textiles” and “Western fashion”. In the wake of this publication, she has been involved with the Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion (RCDF) and has recently joined Fashion Act Now (FAN).