Post Growth Fashion Cities
Starting the conversation at the UN
What role can cities play in a transition towards a more sustainable fashion system?
When I think about fashion and cities, the first thoughts are about shopping in New York, Sex and the City, Paris and Milan fashion weeks. Basically, all the glamour of the 1990s that had cities painted as hubs for exclusive access events and Louboutins worn casually down Fifth Avenue.
Source: https://pagesix.com/2018/06/06/what-carrie-bradshaws-favorite-shoes-would-cost-today/
As someone who lived in London, Rome, and New York and who frequently spends time in Paris, I can attest that this image has more to do with a fairy tale than with the reality that 99.99% women live in these cities. Not because they don’t have the golden pass to the “exclusive” events and fashion sample sales but mostly because they do not want to break their legs walking down the cobbled stones in 12 cm heels or attract attention on their commute to work wearing that tight bodycon dress like the one worn by Kim Kardashian.
Source: https://people.com/style/kim-kardashian-flaunts-her-26-inch-waist-in-what-else-a-tight-body-con-dress/
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Emily In Paris as much as any next girl - especially after living in the UK and the USA and adapting to the French culture (season one on that was so funny I cried). But the heels and the outfits (and general cheerfulness) are really more of a modern day Cinderella story than any reflection on what people wear in Paris.
Source: https://harpersbazaar.com.au/lily-collins-emily-in-paris-heels/
But this is not the side I want to reflect on here.
I do not work on fashion as a creative design pursuit by a few, I work on consumption patterns of the majority. And it is consumption by most people - and especially by the wealthiest 50% of the population in the Global North - that is wrecking the planet. This graph below from our report with Hot or Cool (2022) clearly shows how the richest quintiles of the population overconsume up to 83% above their fair share of the carbon budget.
Today, over 50% of people live in cities globally and over 60% of the global resources are estimated to be consumed in cities. Cities are the hubs for commerce, consumption, and disposal of unwanted stuff. Cities are where the “bad” consumption practices of the wealthier take place - and which hold much potential for transformation in the future.
Between 2020 and 2022, I led a research project, funded by the City of Geneva, aimed to understand the state of alternatives to fast fashion in Geneva. You can read the report here. It was a fascinating exploration that exposed me to a world of struggling small initiatives and brands pushed forward by people with big hearts who want to do the right thing but have to compete with global fast fashion giants that do not count money.
I also discovered the whole “post-consumer” world - before much information appeared and attention to this topic was drawn by the work of the Or Foundation, among others. I also worked with colleagues on a comparative analysis of nine OECD cities, to understand similarities and differences in how wealthy cities manage their post-consumer textile flows (the article is under review, will be sharing as soon as it is published).
What our research concluded is that wealthy cities serve as a sort of pump that push through imported garments and push out second hand garments for exports at an unprecedented rate. In Geneva, charities that receive donations from citizens do not have the capacity to sort more than 30% of the incoming volumes; the rest is sold to a commercial reseller which then exports most of this merchendise out of the country.
The current system enables overconsumption from two sides:
cheap imports
over which, admittedly, city authorities have little control
+
easy exports
do not be misled- our “donations” make excellent business for commercial reseallers!
Exporting most of the donations essentially makes the problem of overconsumption invisible to local, municipal authorities and to consumers. Seeing a city as such kind of system really makes me wonder how come it has taken us so long to notice this. Cities have been virtually absent from discussions on transforming fashion consumption patterns and fashion has been absent from discussions on transforming cities towards sustainability.
Now, to the good stuff.
It may have been a while but the right people noticed and the conversation has started, big time. Yesterday, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Ethical Fashion Initiative, and the United Nations Environment Program hosted a webinar called Fashion and the City, which received almost 500 registrations and was attended by over 200 people. The recording of this 2.5h long event will be made available in a week and I will update the post with the link then.
I gave a keynote to define the problems with the fashion system (production+consumption+disposal) and also presented a case study of Geneva. Other case studies included Amsterdam, Oslo, Accra, Cape Town, and New York - and I have learnt a lot!
Most cities do not have control over the exploitative practices of international trade. Whatever happens upstream, in supply chains far far away, or downstream, also far far away, cities cannot change much per se. But what they do have control over are consumption practices on the ground, consumption defined across three phases - ACQUISITION, USE, AND DISPOSAL:
Source: Vladimirova, K., Iran, S., Barber, J., Blazquez, M., Burcikova, M., Henninger, C. E., Johnson, E., Joyner Martinez, C., Laitala, K., Maldini, I., McNeil, L., Niinimaki, K., Onthank, K., Plonka, M., Sauerwein, M., Wallaschkowski, S. (2021). Conceptual framework for Sustainable Fashion Consumption within the Circular Fashion System. International Research Network on International Fashion Consumption. June 2021. https://sustainablefashionconsumption.org/projects/sfc-framework/
And I believe there is a lot cities can do to reduce overconsumption and decrease the generation of textile waste. Cities can raise awareness and improve education, including skills based education, they can develop infrastructure and build partnerships for and support local circular textile ecosystems. Here are the examples of actions that we developed as policy recommendations for the City of Geneva last year:
This list is tailored to the specific situation of Geneva, which is a rather small city (1 million inhabitants including suburbs) - but many of these recommendations can be applied in other cities.
Most importantly, it is critical to recognize that cities, municipalities, have an important say in a transition towards more sustainable fashion consumption practices.
Starting this conversation at the UN level makes me hopeful and optimistic about changes that can be achieved!
Excellent work! Detroit as a city is unique, in this regard as it already lacks mainstream/mass and luxury retail options in general. I think there is space to define how to avoid such problems discussed, instead of figuring out how to change the system here.