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Sustainable fashion and textiles: Design journeys

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DOI: 10.4324/9781849772778

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Kate Fletcher
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 Fashion Practice
The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry

ISSN: 1756-9370 (Print) 1756-9389 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rffp20

Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys

by Kate Fletcher (Earthscan, 2008)

Tonya Boone

To cite this article: Tonya Boone (2009) Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys by
Kate Fletcher (Earthscan, 2008), Fashion Practice, 1:2, 271-274

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175693809X469229

Published online: 27 Apr 2015.

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Fashion Practice, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp. 271–280

DOI: 10.2752/175693809X469229
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© 2009 Berg.

Reviewed by
Tonya Boone
Tonya Boone is an Associate
Professor of Operations
Management at the Mason School
of Business at The College of
William and Mary. Her research
focuses on sustainable supply
chains and managing knowledge
organizations. She is the Editor of
the book New Directions of Supply
Chain Management: Technology,
Strategy, and Implementation.
Tonya.Boone@mason.wm.edu
Book Review
Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys by
Kate Fletcher (Earthscan, 2008)
Over the past two decades global supply chain management has trans-
formed many of our major industry sectors. Supply chain management
is a systems approach in which a core manufacturer integrates and co-
ordinates the activities of all of its suppliers and retail customers in
order to optimize performance. Generally, performance has been mea-
sured by costs, product delivery time, and some dimensions of quality.
Kate Fletcher’s Sustainable Fashion and Textiles chronicles the effect
that global supply chain management has had on the fashion and textile
272 Book Review

industries. It highlights the impact that globalization, low cost, high

volume, and time-based strategies have had in these sectors. More im-
portantly, she illustrates strategies for adapting the current supply chain
models to incorporate issues related to sustainability, ethics, and fair-
ness. Throughout the book she presents compelling examples of con-
cepts and craftsmanship from companies and organizations working
toward a new fashion ethic.
Sustainable Fashion and Textiles is divided into two parts. The first
examines the environmental and some ethical impacts of each stage of
the supply chain. The supply chains for the apparel, furnishings, and
other textiles described in the book are extensive. As described by
Fletcher, the raw material for a piece of clothing may be grown in one
country, and shipped across the globe for fiber production, to another
locale for fabric manufacture, to yet another for product manufacture
 Book Review 273

before entering the retailers distribution network—which may entail yet

more shipment. In successive chapters she analyzes the environmental
impact of the various production stages, including primary raw mate-
rial creation, fabric and final product production processes, consumer
use, and after-market processes. This reader would have preferred a
more thorough discussion of the environmental implications of the ex-
tensive movement of materials and goods across so many locations and
distances. Otherwise the analysis provides a nice overview of the major
issues associated with the various stages.
The first chapter provides a comparative overview of a variety of
fibers—both natural and man-made. She makes clear that there is no
perfect fiber—even organic cotton has its shortcomings, but there are
trade-offs surrounding each one. The second chapter describes the sa-
lient environmental and ethical issues for the various production pro-
cesses. Fletcher presents lists of current best sustainable practices for
each process type. These lists provide a convenient benchmarking tool
for anyone involved in apparel or textile manufacture. The lists were
compiled from a variety of sources—primarily European. This is not a
shortcoming of the book, but rather indicates the need for researchers in
other geographical regions to address sustainability in these industries.
The last two chapters in the book’s first section discuss customer use and
treatment of the product after purchase. Laundry and cleaning pose the
biggest environmental challenges during product use, but a product may
follow any of a number of paths after the original consumer is finished
with it. In following these alternative trajectories, Fletcher provides some
intriguing examples of product reuse, recycling, and reconditioning.
In the end, sustainable fashion originates in sustainable design.
In part two of the book, Fletcher examines the role of fashion in
society and some of the values it promotes—both among producers and
consumers. These values may undermine, support, or be indifferent to
the goals of sustainability. A lot has been made of local production in
other industries, and in a chapter titled “Local and Light,” she discusses
the benefits of local production and design in fashion. Zara, for exam-
ple, has been able to exploit the benefits of local, small-scale production
in its global supply chain.
The chapter on speed examines how changing the way we view
fashion from a time-based perspective can support sustainability. This
would counter the current dominance of the fast fashion ethic. Fletcher
covers a number of concepts, including slow fashion, slow design, and
product durability. The high volume, high variety, inexpensive apparel
and textiles enabled by most supply chains frequently undermine con-
sumer motivation to adopt environmentally friendly behaviors. The
new fashion ethic described by Fletcher counters this with examples of
products that engage consumers in design or production.
Fletcher’s analysis makes clear that improving the significant environ-
mental and ethical impact of fashion and textiles industries will take a
274 Book Review

systems approach. We must improve the production systems that create

the goods. At the same time we must rethink the value systems that cre-
ate the contexts in which these goods are consumed. The textile industry
is deemed “low tech” by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD). As a result, it has not received the atten-
tion given more high-tech industries. Despite its status, it is a significant
contributor to not only economies, but also cultural mores and norms.
Sustainable Fashion and Textiles provides a solid foundation for under-
standing the state of the art for these industries and hopefully spurring
the much-needed research, and product and process innovation.

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