by Sandra Niessen
A version of this article was first presented as a plenary address (provocation) at the De-Fashioning Education Conference, 15-16 September, 2023 in Berlin. The author thanks organizers of the conference for the opportunity to share these ideas, and acknowledges Fashion Act Now (FAN) and years of fieldwork in North Sumatra as the crucibles in which the ideas were shaped.
In 2021 I presented the core principles of de-Fashion in an article entitled “Defining Defashion” (The Critical Pulse issue 6; see also Niessen 2022). Here, I expand on those ideas, this time with insights into the role of energy in Fashion history, inspired by the work of the American energy specialist, Nate Hagens.
Fashion is high and fast on Fossil Fuels
Energy is currently a predominant theme in the world. During the past 800,000 years there has not been as much CO2 in the atmosphere as now and global temperature rise corresponds closely. As António Guterrez put it earlier this year, we have entered the era of “global boiling” (Niranjan 2023); the planet will soon breach the 1.5C degree ceiling for temperature increase agreed to during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015 in Paris. Biodiversity is undergoing the 6th mass extinction, and many scientists predict that, unless there is radical change, civilization will collapse within the foreseeable future.
Fig. 1: Global fossil fuel consumption, Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, 2023.
Figure 1 shows the exponential increase in fossil fuel use during the past 200 years. The fuels (coal, gas and oil) have powerful features that have facilitated unprecedented expansion in the human enterprise. Key to understanding this surge in growth is the realization that a single barrel of oil provides the energy equivalent of 5 years of human labour. In 2022, approximately 100 billion barrels were being used per day. Growth in everything from population, to GDP, to fertilizer consumption, waste, tourism, ocean acidification, goods and services and on and on, depicts the “hockey stick” curve of exponential increase; it is not only CO2 and temperature that are undergoing a meteoric rise (Fig. 2). They underscore the abnormal nature of the times in which we are currently living (Rees 2021). Fuel, technology and material use are enmeshed, without significant decoupling among them being a realistic possibility (Hickel and Hallegatte 2021).
Fig. 2: The hockey stickers of prosperity and doom, The Polycrisis, 2015.
While the available data appear to be insufficient to plot Fashion growth over the entire 200 year term with accuracy, recent statistics reveal that the apparel sector grew at 4.78% annually between 2011 and 2017 (MarketLine cited in Nayyar 2917). By 2022, its size was 1.53 trillion USD (Statista 2022), and its rate of expansion greater than the annual global GDP growth rate (Fig. 3). Every aspect of the industry from production to waste, including on-line and second-hand sales, has grown dramatically.
Fig. 3: Growth of Clothing Sales and Decline in Clothing Utilization Since 2000, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2017.
The Fashion industry began with the Industrial Revolution some 200 years ago. The entire course of Western industrial Fashion has taken place during the fossil fuel era. Recently, some scholars have used the term “fossil fuel fashion,” or “fossil fashion” in reference to the “plastic” in clothing and the energy-guzzling fashion form that has been dubbed “fast fashion” (Rissanen 2021). However, Figure 1 reveals that the term fossil (fuel) Fashion can be more accurately applied to the entire 200 year history of industrial Fashion.
That coal, gas, and oil have fueled fashion production since the Industrial Revolution is nothing new, but the awareness that it has not just been an ingredient in fashion history, but rather the ingredient, changes everything. In addition to the Industrial Revolution, the so-called “democratization of Fashion,” “globalization of Fashion” and now “fast Fashion” all represent stages of increased fossil fuel use in apparel production. Fossil fuels have significantly altered and shaped the history of Fashion during the past 200 years.
Most of us have never experienced clothing traditions that are not informed or enabled by fossil fuels. This raises not only the question, “What is Western fashion without fossil fuels?” but also the probable answer: “It doesn’t exist.” That fossil fuels are not discussed as a significant factor in industrial Fashion history is, in the words of Nate Hagens, symptomatic of “energy blindness.” Fuel is taken for granted and (under-)valued; its role is conceived in terms of the price paid for it and not in terms of its value, which is that of the prime enabler, without which industrial Fashion could not and would not exist.
For more than a century Fashion scholars have characterized Western Fashion as having “rapid style change” relative to “traditional” and “tribal” “clothing” (Blumer 1968, Flügel 1930, Hollander 1994, Sapir 1937, Simmel 1904; see Niessen 2003). They, and those succeeding them, have attributed rapid style change to the “superiority” of Western civilization and not to the use of fossil fuels. Othering is central to the very definition of industrial Fashion: the West has Fashion, and the Rest do not.
The human tendency to “keep up” with the (rapidly changing) appearance of status, power, and modernity drags dressers around the world in the wake of industrial Fashion style change, at great cost to local, Indigenous clothing systems and the planet. The notion of Western “superiority,” associated with modernity, has become rooted in policy and politics where it is accepted as self-evident, witness the treatment of refugees and immigrants, the location of sacrifice zones, and sweatshop labour. The entire world continues to depict the vertical binary denoted by Fashion – and to suffer from it.
This same vertical binary is endemic to the fossil fuel industry. Kendra (2021) has reviewed white supremacy in the oil industry as evident in labour relations, racial segregation, and racial violence. Malm’s (2021) research has documented the link between fossil fuels and the defense of white privilege. According to Diego Andreucci and Christos Zografos (2021), othering continues in the government of climate change and can be found in strategies of “mitigation” (extraction of minerals for alternative energy systems), “climate migration,” and “vulnerability” (a filter through which to assign where social “improvements” are needed), thereby extending capitalist relations of racism and colonialism.
Fashion not only makes othering possible and palatable by normalizing it, but exalts it by showcasing it in association with mythologies of “superiority” and the goodness of lifestyles depicting high fossil fuel consumption: billionaire and oligarchic culture, stardom, fancy vacations, palatial homes, and so on. Fashion’s physical expansion works hand in glove with fossil fuel expansion. All of this suggests a need to re-write the history of Fashion, paying attention not only to the role of fossil fuels in how industrial Fashion expressions have come into being, but also what Fashion does relative to the power plays and displays of fossil fuels.
Many are devoting their efforts to making the Fashion industry sustainable. Research has developed strategies to reduce energy use, lower waste production, eliminate toxins in materials and production processes, and introduce circularity and innovation to facilitate material reductions. Yet, growth of the Fashion industry is a central problem and this begs the question as to whether these initiatives will bend the exponential curve (McKinsey Report 2021). Until now, this has not been the case. Efficiencies are likely to even facilitate further growth as savings are invested back in the industry (Jevon’s Paradox). Planetary boundaries are being transgressed from untrammeled exponential growth. Toxicity, including CO2 emissions, at record highs, is climbing. The accompanying exploitation of people and planet is still more the rule than the exception. It is fair to argue, therefore, that the current sustainability framework is, in fact, greenwashing. Furthermore, sustainable fossil fuel Fashion is an oxymoron because it is predicated on growth. Sustainability initiatives are not addressing the necessity of the industry to grow. The industry continues to plan for growth. Having the industry run on renewables rather than fossil fuels is no solution without systemic change. Simply replacing fossil fuels with “renewables,” even if it were possible, does not address all of these key issues. Given how fossil fuels have sped up the central dynamic driving the Fashion system, the most important step that could be taken towards sustainability is a radical reduction of energy in the system. The issue of growth facilitated by the plentiful availability of fossil fuels is central. The French riddle that the authors cited to explain exponential growth in The Limits to Growth (1972:29) deserves repeating here:
“Suppose you own a pond on which a water lily is growing. The lily plant doubles in size each day. If the lily were allowed to grow unchecked, it would completely cover the pond in 30 days, choking off the other forms of life in the water. For a long time the lily plant seems small, and so you decide not to worry about cutting it back until it covers half the pond. On what day will that be?” (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, Behrens III 1972:29)
The answer is: the 29th day. It will take 29 days to half-fill the pond but then only one additional day to fill it completely. By implication, on planet Earth we are now living “the 29th day.” Our planetary pond is at least half full. We know this because, “if we were to grow the global economy at 3% a year, as most governments and institutions expect, we would use as much energy and materials in the next 30 years as we have in the past 10,000” (https://www.thegreatsimplification.com). We are already living beyond planetary boundaries.
What can de-Fashion do?
In Fig. 4, the upward exponential curve depicts the growth of fossil fuel Fashion and the downward curve is de-Fashion, the latter representing freedom, or extrication, from the imperatives that drive Big Fashion. The word “de-Fashion” arose spontaneously during discussions within Fashion Act Now, an activist group based in the UK “standing against the dominant, growth-based Fashion system, and for clothing cultures that nurture people and planet” (FAN). We were frustrated that terms such as “Fashion” and “sustainability” have been co-opted by the industry; their ambiguity hinders communication. We realized that we needed new thought frames and vocabularies that would release us from the mindsets of the status quo. Our first step was to establish that the Big-F Fashion industry needs to be fundamentally dismantled because it is growth-based. Space has to be made for alternatives.
Fig. 4: Fashion and De-Fashion
Big-F Fashion is a specific Western clothing system that has become dominant globally thanks to fossil hydrocarbons. At FAN, we propose a different classification. We make a distinction between Big-F Fashion and small-f fashion. Small-f fashion is the human universal. All humans and societies are hard-wired to adorn their bodies. There has never been a society without a system of dress and bodily adornment, and there are as many varieties of fashion as there are social systems. Big-F Fashion is but one variety: the one powered by fossil fuels. To de-Fashion is not the end of fashion, but rather the weeding out of that rampant, noxious, degenerative, industrial variety that is taking over the whole pond and eliminating the possibility for small-f fashion forms to thrive. To believe that we are dependent on fossil fuel Fashion for our clothing is to be caught up in an industrial myth.
Table 1: Fashion and de-Fashion
Fashion | de-fashion |
Monolithic industrial production system | diverse fashion systems |
High-energy, fossil fuel based | Low-energy, non-fossil-fuel based |
degenerative - reliant on exploitation | regenerative - repairs sacrifice zones |
growth-based | stays within planetary boundaries |
serves the fossil fuel economy | serves the needs of people |
Espousing de-Fashion requires of Fashion educators:
to teach about small-f fashion
to be small-f fashion scholars not apologists and supporters of the Fashion industry
not to “save the Fossil Fuel Fashion industry” or to “make the Fashion industry sustainable” - that window of opportunity has passed with the urgency of the present
not to expect students to repair the problems generated by the industry but to let them unleash their creativity on regenerative systems, small f-fashion, to eclipse and replace, but not to correct Big Fashion!
to transform Fashion curricula into de-Fashion curricula
The Pluriverse is the Way
De-Fashion forms may be found in the pluriverse of fashion. They have been ignored, eroded, and erased by the dominant monoverse of industrial Fashion. We need room in the lily pond for other cultural expressions to thrive. FAN has chosen to invest its primary efforts in raising the profile of these alternatives, a task in which we invite students to join. Much of the de-Fashion world has been degraded and lost and we recognize that the past will never return. However, a pluriverse can be (re)created based on local ways, knowledge, and skills in combination with locally available natural resources, regulated and maintained through commoning. The de-erasure of systems that have been erased by Big-F Fashion will involve learning how they have been eroded and destroyed by othering, and then honouring them, sharing knowledge of them, engaging with them in positive ways, encouraging them respectfully where we can. Enabling a pluriverse of fashion is both the means and the goal of de-Fashion. It is the de-Fashion trajectory. It makes it possible to start to de-Fashion immediately. Because it is about diversity, de-Fashioning cannot be singular. This awareness is as empowering as it is daunting; it implies that the responsibility must be shared by all in common. To de-Fashion is to cherish the collective process.
The de-Fashion pluriverse is about:
Relationships
fashion designing is about relationships and not just clothing
Inclusiveness
respecting and valuing all voices
the end of othering and sacrifice
Decoloniality
the absence of a dominant central Fashion force such as we know in the form of a globalized, monolithic fossil fuel Fashion system
a radical departure from the Fashion system that ensures and perpetuates a colonial, global hierarchy
Openness
Openness to local visions, local thinking and local strategies
Beware Industrial Fashion’s Myths
As educators we need to foster awareness of the myths generated by fossil fuel Fashion. The Western Fashion-related ego is expressed through:
egocentrism - narcissism - separation from other people
ethnocentrism - othering - separation from other cultures
anthropocentrism - human exceptionalism - separation from nature and the planet
De-Fashion will be about coming back in relation with the world by exposing the isolating delusions of hubris and power. I have begun to construct a list of Fashion-ego related delusions, which the reader can find, and help construct, on the FAN website.
Table 2: Industrial Fashion Myths
Centrisms of Superiority | Manifestations of othering or superiority | Fashion mythologies of othering and superiority |
Egocentrism | narcissism hubris | Fashion depicts individual superiority Fashion depicts individuality |
Ethnocentrism | white supremacy racism colonialism othering social Darwinism modernity cultural erasure belief in Western technology cultural sacrifice zones are condoned | Fashion is a zenith of cultural evolution Fashion depicts social/cultural relevance Fashion is rapid change of styles “A least it gives them jobs” (re: Fashion labour) Assumption that Indigenous designs and techniques are freely available for use by industrial fashion Industrial Fashion can maintain/save the clothing systems/technologies/designs of the other “Globalization of Fashion” is seen as an expression of cultural advancement Failure to perceive the power dynamics in the emergence of “universal dress” Confidence that technology will solve the sustainability problem We are dependent on the Fashion industry for clothing |
Anthropocentrism | human exceptionalism ecological sacrifice is condoned greenwashing | Belief that human ingenuity can solve all problems Popular understanding of “sustainability” |
Summary and Implications for de-Fashioning the Curriculum:
We are at a critical juncture in the history of fashion and the planet → orient all curricula to the crisis
It is important to distinguish between big-F and little-f Fashion → de-erase little-f fashion → enable students to work on little-f fashion, rather than training them for work in the industry
Most of us only know fossil fuel Fashion. De-Fashion is about the shift away from fossil fuel Fashion physically and conceptually → develop awareness of the relationship between fossil fuels and the industrial Fashion system → unleash student creativity on the shift from fossil fuels in clothing → explore the role of othering and hubris in Fashion history
As Fashion educators, we are energy blind. Fossil fuels, Fashion growth, and othering appear to be enmeshed phenomena → integrate energy awareness into Fashion history and all facets of the curriculum
Small-f fashion pluriverse is the fair and sustainable alternative to fossil fuel Fashion → develop curricula to explore how Fashion has erased and eroded the small-f fashion pluriverse and created cultural sacrifice zones.
At Fashion Act Now we are expanding awareness of the small-f fashion pluriverse under commons governance → join us in this massive undertaking
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Bio: Sandra Niessen is an anthropologist who has been researching the textiles of the Batak people of North Sumatra since 1978. 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” and has since continued to explore this theme. She works with the Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion (RCDF) and Fashion Act Now (FAN).