Challenging perceptions of fast and slow in contemporary fashion: A review of the paper dresses trend in the United Kingdom and the United States during the 1960s | Intellect Skip to content
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Volume 2, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2754-026X
  • E-ISSN: 2754-0278
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Abstract

Writing in 2022 we are at a global crisis point, as our use of the planet’s finite resources outstrips supply. Our current lifestyles continue to perpetuate this problem by encouraging excessive and wasteful models of consumption. One of the most detrimental industries for this is the clothing industry. Our fashion cycle is now programmed to be ‘ultra-fast’, encouraging excessive consumption of garments causing myriad environmental issues. This article argues that there are developing models of both manufacture and consumption, which can satiate this need for ‘fast’ fashion whilst being part of the wider sustainable fashion conversation. Rather than understanding the short-term life cycle of clothing as inherently unsustainable, this can be reframed as matching a garment’s use phase to the longevity of the material it is made from. This article uses a material culture approach to explore original 1960s paper garments, alongside a critical analysis of the sustainability of their manufacture and disposal from a green chemical perspective. Using the combined knowledge and experience of its authors, from historians and sustainable fashion designers to green chemists and biochemical engineers, this article demonstrates how such garments could inspire new models of sustainable fashion production and consumption. We argue that the current paradigm of slow fashion as the only antidote to fast fashion must be challenged. Instead, the fashion and textile sector must consider a range of solutions to the environmental burden of fast fashion that are human-centred and sympathetic to all consumer demographics and needs.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • UK Research and Innovation (Award AH/S002804/1)
© 2023 The Author(s) Published by Intellect Ltd.
This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND), which allows users to copy, distribute and transmit the article as long as the author is attributed, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and the work is not modified or adapted in any way. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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2023-04-24
2024-05-01
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Challenging perceptions of fast and slow in contemporary fashion: A review of the paper dresses trend in the United Kingdom and the United States during the 1960s
International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles 2, 29 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1386/sft_00019_1
/content/journals/10.1386/sft_00019_1
/content/journals/10.1386/sft_00019_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): disposable fashion; fashion fads; fast fashion; paper dress; paper fabric; slow fashion; speed cycles; sustainability

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