HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SUSTAINABLE FASHION
Co-authors: Jennifer Farley Gordon and Colleen Hill
This co-authored book, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion: Inspiration for Change, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.
For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward.
The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo.
Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.
“In this fascinating study, the historical research sits alongside museum examples of surviving garments, while the contemporary debates engage with the latest arguments and the freshest responses to the urgent need to do fashion differently.”
Annebella Pollen, Professor of Visual and Material Culture, University of Brighton
“This book is compelling—journeying to the past in order to transform the future and asking what fashion can and should be in a climate changing world.”
Kate Fletcher, Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London and the Royal Danish Academy
For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward.
The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo.
Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.
“In this fascinating study, the historical research sits alongside museum examples of surviving garments, while the contemporary debates engage with the latest arguments and the freshest responses to the urgent need to do fashion differently.”
Annebella Pollen, Professor of Visual and Material Culture, University of Brighton
“This book is compelling—journeying to the past in order to transform the future and asking what fashion can and should be in a climate changing world.”
Kate Fletcher, Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London and the Royal Danish Academy