Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed

Shifting fashion from a perpetual growth model to a sustainable approach will not be easy. Moving to a post-growth fashion industry would require policymakers and the industry to bring in a wide range of reforms, and reimagine roles and responsibilities in society.

Changes in retail are often a result of larger societal changes. Fashion insiders also have a responsibility to mitigate a growing problem. But until those larger changes occur, circular fashion (and sustainability as a whole) is just window dressing. As organic fabrics begin to adopt many of the technical capabilities of their new-aged counterpart... See more

This started with the Seventh Avenue, shop-and-copy approach that has defined the industry, but no longer works with consumers on a global scale. America created the concept of lifestyle brands—it drove the rise of casualization as early as the 1950s, first through denim, then khakis, and now leggings. But the fashion itself has long been predicate... See more

The shifts triggered by the crisis could also reinforce the viability for digital fashion -- clothing rendered in computer-assisted design programmes either for prototyping purposes or to be 'worn' virtually (by avatars, or via augmented reality, for example) -- in place of tangible garments. “I have seen a need for people to express a deeper sense... See more

Owing to fashion’s unmatched ability to reflect and influence culture at large, perhaps this industry is well-positioned to move society towards degrowth. It could be the future we choose.

To understand the current state of industry, you must consider the last shift of this magnitude in fashion retail. The boom of plastics in fashion retail closely resembles the turn-of-the-century availability of cotton-based goods in urban areas. Between 1840 and 1920, a number of developments accelerated fashion consumerism to unforeseen heights.

That kind of spending is what our current economic model is based on: Americans of all class levels buying things and always wanting to buy more, regardless of their actual means. But when a society-throttling, economy-decimating pandemic comes along, what happens when that ability — and, just importantly, that desire — goes away? In April, retail ... See more