Experience teaches us that most people start to change their practice by altering those things that they have most control over. For fashion designers and clothing brands this tends to be their product and supply chain and very often their choice of materials. To that end, the first part of this book is dedicated to sustainability-focused innovation in fashion products. It focuses on opportunities to influence the environmental and social impact of garments in their design and development across the entire product life cycle – that is, from fibre to factory and onwards to consumer, point of disposal and potential reuse. The importance of taking this complete view of all aspects of the cycle of production and consumption cannot be overstated. It reflects a way of thinking that sees each part of a system – in our case the fashion industry system – as linked to every other; and one that recognizes that in order to move towards sustainability long-term, it is the whole fashion cycle that has to undergo improvement and not just a few isolated parts. Much of the terminology we use to describe the complete or life-cycle view of resource flows associated with creating, using, discarding and reusing fashion products is borrowed directly from ecology. The language of natural systems, of cycles, flows, webs and interconnectedness, is a marked contrast to the language of industrial production normally reserved for manufacturing and retail sectors such as fashion. Yet it is not only a different vocabulary that sustainability ideas bring to bear on fashion, but a different way of thinking about the world in which our businesses operate and in which we practise design. This way of thinking transcends the binary (i.e. either/or) perspective that frames production and consumption activities as separate and consecutive and the linear view of how resources flow through the supply chain, sometimes described as ‘take, make, waste’. In stark contrast, sustainability thinking is based on reciprocity and complexity and a deep understanding of the patterns, networks, balances and cycles at play in the fashion system.

So as we look to make improvements to fashion products to enhance their sustainability characteristics, it is vital that we employ both broad and deep thinking when making decisions. Yet – and this is equally vital – we also need to focus on the here and now and take pragmatic, practical decisions about, say, fibre choices, supplier factories and fabric finishes. Arriving at a point where these two things happen simultaneously requires that we develop applied knowledge, or practical wisdom. Aristotle described this as a ‘combination of moral will and moral skill’¹; that is, a fusion of experience built up over time, knowledge of the systems in place and a finely tuned ability to improvise. It requires us to learn when to make the exception to the rule and how to reinvent a solution to be appropriate to a given situation and the people at hand. Yet before we work to reshape or revolutionize solutions, we have to get to grips with what they are already and, indeed, what they could be. With that aim in mind, Part One of this book is dedicated to exploring opportunities for improving fashion products largely in terms of resource efficiency, improved workers’ rights, reduced chemicals use and reduced pollution. Part One builds a base of knowledge from which change at other scales and in other places is possible.