Dios como posición en la estructura existencial del ser hum ano

This section of the chapter addresses the fashion garment in relation to a management perspective. Existing literature that has been developed in response to a critique of the supply chain, usually refers to the traditional system of producing and distributing fashion clothing, and often looks at the management of a garment’s life cycle. This audit will typically begin with the extraction of raw fibres, to production and distribution, through to consumer use and final garment disposal. In the report ‘Travelling Textiles: A Sustainability Roadmap of Natural Fibre Garments’ the authors Diviney and Lillywhite (2009) mapped the journey of two natural fibre garments through the supply chain, so that the environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry could be better understood. Working with Australian fashion label, Gorman, the company revealed its business practices in order to assist the sector with improved sustainability practices. Beginning with design, to material production, garment manufacture, to retail then disposal, the study encapsulated its findings into a visual map, which highlighted the key phases of design and production within the Gorman supply chain. These phases became the points for sustainability considerations thereby acting as a guide to industry for where positive intervention could be made. However, while the mapping exercise provided an informative overview of the supply chain and its problems, the report does not provide any specific direction for the fashion designer. The report explores design and provides a list of tips for how a designer may approach the design for a garment; for instance one suggestion is to design garments for longevity, while another suggestion is to design garments that incorporate recycled materials. In general terms the advice given is certainly positive however, a clear framework that demonstrates how a designer can integrate these ideas

within design practice, is ignored. This lack of detail, or a framework that could assist the fashion designer in how to actively engage with sustainability is a recurrent problem in studies that discuss sustainable fashion from the management perspective.

A number of earlier studies in the area concentrated on the management of the life cycle of fashion clothing. These studies include The Forum for the Future, ‘Fashioning Sustainability:

A Review of the Sustainability Impacts of the Clothing Industry’ report (Draper et al. 2007) and the Better Thinking t-shirt project (2005). In this second project the ideal sustainable fashion garment was identified as one that was designed carefully, made from renewable fibres (pesticide free), and was produced by workers who were receiving a fair wage and decent working conditions (Gwilt & Rissanen 2011). The Forum for the Future’s report (Draper et al. 2007), along with the Sus-house project report (Bras-Klapwijk and Knot 2001), also extended the discussion to include the use phase, with each providing a number of recommendations, for example: garment washing should be carefully considered, which included laundering garments at low temperatures; that fashion clothing could be remodelled;

and that garments should be recycled, reused or possibly, composted before landfill becomes an option. The general, overarching perspective of sustainable fashion has tended to concentrate, and even collapse into a ‘one size fit all’ approach, which is unworkable for an industry that provides many different types of products for different market levels. Moreover, the lack of detail, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, makes it difficult for the fashion designer to meaningfully respond. Furthermore, if a one size fits all approach is applied, the marketplace is likely to continue to be dominated by a range of solutions that offers little diversity in the types of products available.

The fast and slow rhythms of fashion:

Fletcher (2003; 2008) considers that it is the speed and rhythms of fashion that shapes the contemporary fashion industry, and that through a combination of high-speed production and consumption the rise of the fast fashion product has constructed and compounded a myriad of social and environmental problems. Throughout fashion history there are numerous reminders to indicate that fashion once moved at a much slower rhythm, since cloth was considered expensive and clothes were viewed as durable and valuable items. However since the mass-market ready-to-wear boom of the 1950s, the contemporary fashion industry has increasingly worked towards a high-speed system of production and consumption.

Nevertheless, the system is often conflicted, as at times there is a contradiction between the manufacturing considerations and the use of a garment. Fletcher argues that the speed associated with the fashion industry typically centres on economic speed, and the need to reduce time in order to produce garments quickly, and cheaply, for maximum profits.

However, this type of production relies upon cheap labour costs and resources to drive down the price of the products, and yet it takes the same amount of time and resources to produce, consume and care for a high quality jacket as a cheap jacket. While acknowledging economic

speed another perspective would be to see the speed of fashion production and consumption as the driving force for social and environmental values. This would enable the fashion industry to respond at a range of speeds replacing the need for the constant renewal of fashion styles through the seasonal collection, and the reliance on discarding still-functional, wearable items (Fletcher 2008). The fashion industry is instead, focused on using speed,

“…as a force for sustainability…” (ibid 2008, p162). It follows that the fashion system needs to willingly embrace divergent models of fashion production and consumption that can encompass both fast and slow rhythms.

project in 1996. In collaboration with several German shoemakers, other firms and agencies the project offered a promising solution as a “…counter model to anonymous mass production.” (Ax 2001, p403). There are a number of assumed advantages of this method of manufacture: for example, hand-crafted shoes are a sustainable alternative to mass-produced footwear according to MIPS criteria⁵; the use of local and labour intensive production method resulted in the preservation and/or creation of jobs in a decentralized craft trade; and the hand crafted made-to-measure shoe was resource efficient because of its high durability, which is identified as a significant contributor in sustainable strategies that aim to slow consumption. The consumer was a crucial participant in the production process, who was given the opportunity to influence the design of the shoe to include aesthetic personalization, thereby increasing the potential empathy between consumer and product.

However, Ax conceded that because of a high labour intensity that commanded costly salaries, the made-to-measure shoe was essentially a luxury product directed towards a loyal and affluent consumer.

Fletcher’s current research, the Local Wisdom project, examines the role of the user-maker:

the notion being that the (typically untrained) individual in society can contribute to the fashion system without relying upon the skills of a designer/producer (2011). This view radically challenges the fashion system, however the progressively minded fashion designer might draw on this knowledge, reflect and re-conceptualise the role of the designer in a future fashion industry. At the time of Worth and his contemporaries the fashion designer took on an autocratic role, but in a contemporary couture house the relationship with the customer is much less defined. In fact, the (paying) customer today in a one-on-one relationship with a designer has a more powerful voice that previously acknowledged. Juliet Schor (2002) suggests that the fashion industry could return to its roots in small-scale enterprises, run by

5 MIPS is a system of measuring all material and energy inputs needed to determine a fixed unit of service.

designers themselves. Schor cites Angela Robbie’s (n.d.) vision for such scenarios suggesting that small apparel firms locate themselves in small neighbourhoods and operate almost like ‘corner stores’ (Schor 2002). These businesses would cater to local clientele, which further offers the potential for designers to build relationships with locally based seamstresses. The positive impacts of such a system could save in the areas of transport, branding, advertising and marketing as well as assist in a dramatic reduction in overproduction. Financial savings might then be used to pay decent wages, install environmentally sustainable processes, fund better quality materials and support further design research and development. In other words, the fashion industry could draw on its own history, and adapt and renew itself to provide a revitalised couture industry with a social and sustainable underpinning.