Fashion Act Now - Is it Time to DeFashion? (And What the Heck Does that Mean?)

You've probably heard about degrowth, which is: "a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being." (If this idea is new to you, have a listen to Episode 135 with economist Jason Hickel).Question: is it time to apply such thinking more specifically to the fashion industry? What would that look like?This week's podcast presents the ideas of a new fashion activist organisation called Fashion Act Now (FAN), born out of Extinction Rebellion. They are calling for "a radical defashion future" - their interpretation of: "the role fashion must play in degrowth. It is a transition to post-fashion clothing systems that are regenerative, local, fair, nurturing and sufficient for the needs of communities."They argue that the current system - which they call Fashion with a capital 'F' - is not only environmentally unsustainable because it's addicted to overproduction, but, in its current form, morally bankrupt being built on oppression."Defashion may sound negative," says FAN co-founder and former fashion journalist Bel Jacobs, "but we think of it as a movement of joy, possibility, liberation. It does not mean the end of beautiful clothing."On this podcast, you will hear from Jacobs, along with her fellow FAN co-founder, the activist Sara Arnold; Extinction Rebellion co-founder (a former fashion designer herself) Clare Farrell; anthropologist Sandra Niessen (who has researched the clothing and textile tradition of the Batak people of Sumatra, Indonesia, for almost 40 years); fashion museum curator and founder of Denier Shonagh Marshall; and New York-based stylist Samantha Weir.To take the Fashion Act Now pledge, see here.Follow them on Instagram here.Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2021/12/6/ep-152-fashion-act-now-is-time-to-defashion to read yours and #bethechangeThank you for listening to Wardrobe Crisis. Find the shownotes here.This is the final Episode of Series 6. See you in January 2022 for Series 7!Don't be a stranger - follow Clare on Instagram @mrspress @thewardrobecrisiswww.thewardrobecrisis.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.