Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys - Softcover

Fletcher, Kate

4.28

85 ratings by Goodreads

9781844074815: Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844074811 ISBN 13: 9781844074815

Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2008

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This inspirational design handbook presents a new vision of sustainability in the fashion and textile sector based on design thinking and practice. It brings together for the first time information about lifecycle environmental impacts, practical alternatives, design concepts and social innovation, and frames them in a sustainability context. It challenges existing ideas about the scope and potential of sustainable fashion and textiles, and sets out a broader, more inter-connected and forward-looking picture drawing on ideas of human needs, industrial ecology, speed and rhythms, and participatory actions, as well as knowledge of materials.

The book not only adds to the understanding of this subject area, it also presents practical information for textile and fashion practitioners. All eight chapters present a combination of long-term and short-term solutions. They deal with making changes to industry as it exists today and at the same time they articulate a new vision for the sector based on sustainability principles.

Arranged in two sections, the first four chapters represent key stages of the lifecycle: material cultivation/extraction, production, use and disposal. Each explores design opportunities to improve resourcefulness supported by case studies and data and brings new perspective to these issues by framing them in an ecological context. The remaining four chapters are more conceptual and far-reaching. They are concerned with altering the scale and nature of consumption and not just the quantities of resources expended, and address wide-ranging ideas including: fashion, human needs, localism, services, shared products, creative participation, and fast and slow clothes. While each of these chapters are complete in and of themselves, their real value comes from what they represent together: innovative ways of thinking about textiles and garments based on sustainability values and an interconnected approach to design.

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About the Author:

Kate Fletcher is an Ecological Design Consultant whose clients include Marks and Spencer, TerraPlana, Clarks, People Tree, Intermediate Technology Development Group. She has a PhD (1999) from Chelsea College of Art & Design, The London Institute, for which she investigated the development of environmentally responsible design strategies in the UK Textile Industry.

Review:

'We badly need a sustainable fashion revolution; one where buyers, designers, retailers and consumers fill our closets with clothes that are more durable and less impactful and face up to their true environmental and social cost. As a matter of urgency, all of the above should read this book ... At last a book that dispels the idea that fashion is only interested in trend-driven fluff: not only does it have a brain, but it could be a sustainable one.' – Lucy Siegle, Crafts Magazine

'Fashion is ephemeral by nature, but Kate Fletcher describes how clothing manufacture could be turned into a sustainable industry. Her detailed book assesses systems as well as products, examining possible solutions from raw material to final design.' – Nature

'I'll probably be one of the first to buy it... We NEED this book.' – Carole Collet, Course Director, MA Textile Futures, Central St Martins

'Read this book to understand how we can inspire consumers to protect the planet and people through the passion and energy of design.' – Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Marks and Spencer

'The depth of Fletcher's writing will take people's understanding of 'Sustainable Fashion and Textiles' to a new level.' – Treehugger

'[A] fascinating book.' – John Thackara, Doors of Perception

'This is a must read.' – Design 21

'Provides the foundations for a radical new perspective.' – Ethical Pulse

'This is an excellent book for producers and designers of fashion and textiles who want to make a positive contribution through sustainable products and practices.' – Family & Consumer Sciences

'Much-needed... this is an excellent reference book that will be turned to time and time again.' – The Higher Education Academy Art Design Media Resource Centre

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