The spiral relationship between suffering and the production of fashionable clothes

In this article, I explore the relationships between suffering and the production of fashionable clothes. In the commercial struggle for survival many fashionable styles are discarded while some remain durable due to their adaptability to new trends and creative ideas. The aim of this research was to investigate how suffering initiates these changes in the creative process of fashion design. This was examined through a number of methodologies, which included object-based research and ethnography. The research findings indicate that suffering within the fashion industry can be a positive attribute. It can influence the way in which clothes are produced and the skills necessary to produce them. A model depicting the connection between suffering and fashion is posited as a tentative theory suggesting that there is a spiral relationship in that changes in fashion production and consumption resulting from suffering evolve into a spiral of further suffering impacting on the future of fashion design and manufacture.