Conversation with Kirsi Niinimaki

Recording of the Post Growth Fashion Futures webinar - 08-11-2024

On Friday, November 8th, we got together with Kirsi Niinimaki, Professor of Design at Aalto University, for another webinar in the Post Growth (?) Fashion Futures series.

The goal of these webinars is to shed light on current sustainable fashion research, especially its consumption aspects, and bring it closer to discussions amongst policy makers, advocacy groups, and change makers on the ground.

Kirsi has been in charge of fashion research at Aalto for almost two decades and her contribution to the field is enormous. From leading a work steam for the New Cotton project on fiber to fiber recycling to closing the loop in circular policies in the EU, Kirsi's team has been doing critical research that has impacted European policies and business strategies alike.

Questions for Kirsi included:

🌺 What are the most interesting recent findings from your research on fashion consumption / social change - or that you are aware of?

🌺 How has research on fashion and sustainability transformed since you started working on these topics?

🌺 Are there any research strands that are not captured by policy today? "Forgotten" studies that should be brought to light?

🌺 What are your thoughts on fashion post-growth? What kind of re-thinking would be required? What kind of changes and by whom?

I must say, it was a surprisingly and refreshingly optimistic conversation. Kirsi talked about the evolution of the field since the early 2000s and how she moved from design focus to consumption patterns and nature based materials. She also shared her views on how the post growth fashion future could look like and I was so pleased to hear that our thoughts on that align as we talked about creativity under scarcity and how to make better things with less.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

To listen to this conversation and the discussion with the public that followed, join our substack as a paid subscriber - for a symbolic price of $6 a month you will get access to all the webinars recorded and all the premium content - some of which has already been cited in Vogue and in scientific discussions around sustainable fashion.

Post Growth (?) Fashion Futures is a project I am doing on my *unpaid* time and it requires quite a lot of effort in terms of organising and preparing. By joining as a paid subscriber, you're not only helping bring research findings closer to those who need to know them, you are also helping me personally by paying for the time and work I had put into this project.