Shaping the Future of Fashion: A Research Companion (Routledge Research Companions in Business and Economics)

The book is a research-led companion for anyone seeking to understand how fashion futures are already being made. It brings together a curated collection of conceptual, empirical, and practice-based chapters that reflect fashion’s complexity while remaining grounded in rigorous and reflexive research.

Organised around four interconnected themes, Innovation, Ecosystem, Education, and Values, the book explores how technological change, circular systems, community practices, pedagogy, and ethics collectively shape fashion today. Chapters explore innovation as a multidimensional process, rethink fashion as a network of relationships, position education as a driver of systemic change, and foreground values such as justice, care, and cultural accountability. Across the volume, dominant narratives rooted in extractive, exclusionary, and short-term thinking are critically challenged.

Written in an accessible and engaging style, the book is designed for fashion educators, researchers, students, and practitioners who want to think critically while remaining oriented towards action. Each chapter analyses current transformations and offers future research agendas or critical questions to support reflection beyond the page. This book benefits readers by providing intellectual depth, global perspectives, and practical inspiration. It serves as both a snapshot of contemporary fashion research and a catalyst for shaping more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable fashion futures.

Bethan Alexander is Reader in Fashion Retailing and Marketing and Research Lead at the Fashion Business School, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.

Yu Lun Eve Lin is Programme Director Integrated Study, researcher, and multi-disciplinary practitioner based at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London, UK.

Flavia Loscialpo is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Cultural and Historical Studies at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London, UK.

Kelly Dearsley is Associate Dean of the School of Media and Communication, at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.