Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, 1(1): kgab003

doi: 10.1093/oxfclm/kgab003
Research Article

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Examining climate change and sustainable/fast

fashion in the 21st century: ‘Trash the Runway’
1,
Maxwell Boykoff *, Patrick Chandler2, Presley Church3 and Beth Osnes4
1
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies Program, University of
Colorado Boulder, UCB 397, Boulder, CO 80309, USA, 2Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado
Boulder, UCB 397, Boulder, CO 80309, USA, 3Inside the Greenhouse, University of Colorado Boulder, UCB 397,
Boulder, CO 80309, USA, 4Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Colorado Boulder, UCB 261, Boulder,
CO 80309-0261, USA
*Correspondence address. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado Boulder,
UCB 397, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. E-mail: boykoff@colorado.edu

ABSTRACT
We interrogate fast fashion in the 21st century in the context of a changing climate, assessing emergent trends in sustain-
able fashion as an alternative consumption pathway through the annual ‘Trash the Runway’ event in Boulder, Colorado. In
this research, we interviewed and surveyed designers and analyzed workshop activities that led up to their annual fashion
show. We also interviewed and surveyed students at the University of Colorado who worked with designers to produce
short films about them and their work. The project centers on decolonial practice by providing —who are often marginal-
ized in decision-making processes—a stage to articulate policy and behavior changes to address climate change and
sustainability. We found designers expressed reticence before the workshops and events to speak about climate change in
everyday life, yet their design work creatively spoke powerfully for them, and they expressed less discomfort after the
experience, while they advanced their skillset as climate communicators. Moreover, we found both designers and student
partners reported that they think climate change will impact people greatly in the future. Also, while comparatively fewer
respondents reported that climate change impacts them personally, our findings showed those noting personal impacts
nearly doubled after participation in the sustainable fashion project. Although engagement with sustainable fashion helps
to defetishize production processes and link consumption habits with awareness of climate and environmental change,
more creative work should be done through fast- and sustainable-fashion endeavors to draw out spatial and temporal
considerations of climate change threats here and now.

Key words: climate change; sustainability; fashion; environment; decolonial practice.

INTRODUCTION industry’s emissions are on the rise as people buy – and discard – their
‘When you shop for new clothes, you’re probably not thinking about clothes more frequently. The problem is made worse by the rise of fast
the climate. But making apparel creates carbon pollution, and the fashion – clothes that are cheap to make and cheap to buy.’—Stephanie

Submitted 17 December 2020. Received (in revised form): 2 March 2021. Accepted: 4 March 2021
C The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.
V
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1
 2 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1
Manuzak (https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/carbon-emis
sions-from-the-fashion-industry-are-on-the-rise/)
Traces of what we recognize as commercial fashion trends
date back to 14th-century European cultures, but the industrial
revolution of the 18th century fueled an increase in the pace
and scale of change [1]. Along with these tenets of increased
consumption and more entrenched consumer capitalism came
environmental impacts, among many reverberations. In the
late 19th century, there was a superstition about making French
stage costumes in green, as green dye was highly poisonous be-
cause it was created using arsenic [2]. In the early 20th century,
asbestos was being proposed as a high-fashion material for
clothing and radioactive radium was being built into timepieces
so they would glow in the dark [3]. In other words, environmen-
tal impacts from fashion choices were not prioritized in this
time. The sped-up and compartmentalized hyperconsumption
of today’s fashion landscape has been dubbed ‘fast fashion’ [4].
Fast fashion refers to inexpensive clothing that is produced and
turned over rapidly by mass-market producers and retailers in
response to fast-changing trends. Nowadays, fast fashion typi-
cally runs on a multiseason calendar, producing new lines mul-
tiple times a year rather than two seasons (Spring/Summer and
Fall/Winter) that comprised previous fashion traditions. In addi-
tion to its nod to quick turnovers in clothing lines [5], Joy et al.
[6] have noted that ‘fast fashion helps sate deeply held desires
among young consumers in the industrialized world for luxury
fashion, even as it embodies unsustainability’.
In the 21st century, the fashion industry has been found to
be responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-
sions [7]. Approximately 20 new garments are made for each
person every year on this planet [8] and fashion purchases have
increased 60% since 2000 [9]. As Lucy Siegle puts it, ‘if the gar-
ment business were a nation, it would be the fourth largest
climate polluter on Earth’ [10].
Fashion industry impacts extend beyond emissions and
climate change (In this research, we invoked ‘climate change’
and ‘global warming’ interchangeably as it is often used synon-
ymously in colloquial discussions. Nonetheless, we do under-
stand scientific distinctions here where global warming is
focused on temperature increases and climate change involves
other changes such as sea level rise, precipitation changes,
ocean ice extent, etc. over time [11]. We also approached it in
this way so that a part of our survey instrument would be con-
sistent with ‘Six Americas’ or ‘Climate Change in the American
Mind’ survey instruments [12].) to other associated environ-
mental concerns. For example, 200 tons of water is required to
produce 1 ton of cotton textiles and petrochemicals used in pro-
duction contribute significantly to ocean microplastics pollution
[13]. Long supply chains and labor demands—from farming to
transportation to garment production to retail staff—place fur-
ther demands on climate and the environment [14] (Fig. 1).
Manufacturing largely takes place in the Global South—such as
Honduras, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Indonesia—while de-
sign and consumption largely take place in the Global North
[15]. These are effectively ‘hidden costs’ of fast fashion retail
[16]. Through various adaptive strategies encased in the logics
of consumer capitalism, various fashion sectors look to new
markets of both production and consumption in emerging and
developing countries—referred to as ‘frugal innovation’—in or-
der to outpace these feedback loops [17]. Along current trends,
the fashion industry is expected to triple resource consumption
by 2050 [9].
In terms of the garments themselves, studies of life cycle
emissions have found that a quintessential cotton tee-shirt
(based on 50 washes) contributes 35% of carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions through the manufacturing phase and 52% through
the use phase [18]. Moreover, the fashion industry now produ-
ces twice the volume of clothing than it did in 2000 [19]. With
the use life of collared shirts, woven pants and tee-shirts esti-
mated at 3–3.5 years [20], this has led to surges in the amounts
of textiles that have gone into landfills in the past two decades
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[21, 22].
Together, the past decade and past years have seen
increased engagement in the intersections of sustainability,
fashion and fad. In this larger context, the ‘Trash the Runway –
Recycled Couture’ (https://www.shopcommonthreads.com/
trash-the-runway)project began in Boulder, Colorado in 2009.
Formerly known as ‘Recycled Runway’ (until 2018), ‘Trash the
Runway’ (TTR) is an annual independent study workshop and
capstone fashion show for young designers (ages 11–18).
Through this research, we analyze the work of TTR from 2017 to
2019 as well as the processes associated with their collaboration
with the ‘Inside the Greenhouse’ (ITG) project at The University
of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). (‘Inside the Greenhouse’) is an
interdisciplinary, evidence-driven and action-oriented project
that began in 2012. ITG draws its name from an acknowledge-
ment that, to varying degrees, everyone is implicated in, part of,
and responsible for greenhouse gas emissions into the atmo-
sphere. Through the development and experimentation with
creative modes of communication, participants in ITG treat this
‘greenhouse’ as a living laboratory, an intentional place for
growing new ideas and evaluating possibilities to confront cli-
mate change. Through commitments to meet people where
they are on climate change, the ITG project draws upon stu-
dents’ strengths and perspectives to consider the complexity of
climate change in new ways. ITG seeks to build competence,
confidence and capacity of undergraduate and graduate stu-
dents as emergent communicators and leaders in the new mil-
lennium. As such, this project has sought to create cultures of
participation and productive collaboration among students, in-
terfacing with the larger community and world in retelling the
stories of climate change and to become meaningful and sus-
taining content producers. In doing so, ITG offers direct links be-
tween the natural and social sciences and arts to communicate,
imagine and work toward a more resilient and sustainable fu-
ture.) In so doing, we interrogate the intersecting pressures of
fast fashion, climate change and sustainability in the 21st cen-
tury through creative communications and engagement strate-
gies (Fig. 2).
BACKGROUND
‘We really don’t have long now to change things. But I honestly believe
it’s doable – I couldn’t do what I do if I didn’t believe that’  Stella
McCartney [23]
There are many intersecting challenges regarding unsus-
tainable consumption in the 21st century, including unsustain-
able consumption in fashion. Over the past decade—and
particularly in recent years—there have been several responses
to address these trends. The Copenhagen Fashion Summit in
2009 was the first significant appearance of a sustainable fash-
ion event. This event was followed by Green Fashion week—in
partnership with the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change—beginning in 2010. Yet, there have been earlier trac-
ings of earlier brand engagement, such as Patagonia’s

Figure 1: Garment-manufacturing supply chain (reproduced with permission [13])
switch to making fleece jackets with recycled polyester from
water bottles (Fig. 3). (https://www.patagonia.com/our-foot
print/recycled-polyester.html)
In terms of informal efforts to change norms and social con-
ventions, many have called for consumers to support ‘slow
fashion’ (purchasing garments that last a long time) [24] and to
consider a ‘wardrobe diet’ (buying fewer textiles over time) [25]
(Fig. 4). Others have called on designers to produce two or fewer
collections a year and produce more durable goods [26, 27]. And,
others have demanded that the fashion industry limit growth,
reduce waste and promote a circular economy [13]. From
research academics to eco-designer Stella McCartney [28],
comedian Hasan Minaj [29] and actor Woody Harrelson [30],
the fast fashion industry has increasingly been subjected to
scrutiny in the public arena [31].
Developments have been catalyzed by trends in sustainable
fashion itself. As example, in 2017, Stella McCartney spoke out
about the fashion industry as ‘incredibly wasteful and harmful
to the environment’ [32]. Also in 2017, the initiative ‘Fashion
Switch’ was revealed as London Fashion Week. Partnering with
Vivienne Westwood and the Mayor of London, UK-based brands
were encouraged to switch to a green energy supplier by 2020
[9]. During this same time, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation re-
leased a landmark report with strong calls to move the fashion
industry to circular economies and emphases on reduced waste
and durable goods [33].
In 2018, Connect4Climate (Connect4Climate [the
Communication for Climate Change Multi Donor Trust Fund
(MDTF)] has been one of the most influential and early entrants
to these spaces of sustainable fashion, beginning with their
work to initiate ‘Sustainability Dialogues in the Design Industry’
during the 2014 Milan Fashion Week.g (a global partnership pro-
gram based in the World Bank) developed a traveling exhibit
called ‘X-Ray Fashion’ that has explored climate impacts of the
fashion industry through immersive virtual reality technology.
This project has traveled from fashion events and climate nego-
tiations as its creators have sought to defetishize the products
of fashion by virtually taking people into factories where work-
ers produce garments, into the fields where cotton is grown and
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harvested and to landfills strewn with discarded outfits. Also in
2018, H&M declared its commitment to make their garments
from 100% recycled or sustainably sourced materials as they
also opened a recycling facility for old clothes [34]. In 2018,
Burberry agreed to stop its practice of burning unsold clothes
[35], while in 2019 they joined ‘the Science Based Targets
Initiative’ to commit to GHG emissions reductions targets in
line with the 2015 United Nations (UN) Paris Climate Agreement
[36]. Shortly thereafter, Kering (parent group to Yves Saint
Laurent, Balenciaga and Gucci) announced that it has commit-
ted to carbon neutrality and to halving their GHG emissions by
2025 [37]. In that same month, Gabriella Hearst held the first
‘carbon neutral fashion show’ at New York City Fashion Week
[38]. And in partnership with the UN, fashion industry stake-
holders launched the ‘Fashion Industry Charter for Climate
Action’ at the December UN climate negotiations in Poland.
This Charter contained specific goals of emissions reductions
(30% by 2030), materials use (‘prioritizing materials with low-cli-
mate impact’), and revamped supply chains (‘support global
transition to low-carbon transport’). (https://unfccc.int/sites/de-
fault/files/resource/Industry%20Charter%20%20Fashion%20and
%20Climate%20Action%20-%2022102018.pdf [7])
In 2019, the company that owns retailer Zara announced a
plan to make all its collections from 100% sustainable fabrics by
2025 [39]. Several brands in the Spring/Summer 2020 collections
catered to sustainable fashion trends as well, like Versace,
Dolce & Gabbana and Coco Chanel [2]. Meanwhile, ahead of the
2019 G7 summit, 32 of the world’s biggest and most influential
fashion brands signed onto the ‘Fashion Pact’ calling on 100%
renewable energy by 2030 and changes in materials and ship-
ping packaging, among a host of pledges [40]. In the words of
fashion correspondent Vanessa Friedman, ‘Forget street wear.
Sustainability [is] the hottest look of the day’ [38]. Furthermore,
climate advocacy groups like Extinction Rebellion made appear-
ances at London Fashion week in recent years as they protested
against fast fashion in the name of environmental protection
[41, 42].
Meanwhile, in the USA the 2020 Academy Awards featured
gestures of sustainable fashion. For examples, Jane Fonda wore
 4 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1

the same dress that she wore at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,
while Saoires Ronon’s Gucci gown was said to have been made
of leftover black satin from her British Academy of Film and
Television Arts (BAFTA) awards dress (recycling of a sort) [43].
Largely situated in high-consuming societies, efforts to
make change have been strong on commitments, proclama-
tions, performance and rhetoric and not as strong on formal
governance. Yet there are some exceptions. For example, in
2018 a French law—‘Projet de loi relatif à la lutte contre le gas-

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pillage et à l’économie circulaire’ (or ‘the fight against waste
and the circular economy’)—mandated that clothing brands
were held responsible for postconsumer recycling of their prod-
ucts. On its face, this was viewed as an effective way to reduce
waste, where just 6% of these items found themselves in land-
fills or incinerated. But, to cope with these new rules, French
companies began exporting the majority of these items over-
seas (6% were resold in France 33% were down-cycled) [44]. This
veritable old-clothes NIMBYism though has led several African
countries to call for a ban on this practice as it suppresses local
textile production, while burdening African countries with new
sources of cotton, textile and apparel waste [45].

PROCESS
‘Fashion, the epitome of consumerism, is also its stealthiest critic’
 Elizabeth Wilson [46]

The TTR project has been hosted each year by the ‘Common
Threads Creative Lab’ (https://www.shopcommonthreads.com/ Figure 2: Presley Church, TTR 9 Winner (and research co-author). Photographed
creative-lab/). The subtitle for this initiative is ‘teens transform- by Barbara MacFerrin 2019.

ing trash’ because they make garments and accessories from

found materials (Fig. 5). TTR is a guided independent study
workshop for teens to make garments from found materials
that culminate in a fashion showcase for the Boulder commu-
nity [in pre-Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) times] amongst an en-
thusiastic and sold out 900-person Boulder Theater crowd. The
2-month workshops build organizational, creative and technical
design skills, while also prompting participants to reflect on cli-
mate and environmental impacts of material use in ‘fast’ as
well as sustainable fashion (Fig. 6).
Much of this reflection is captured by surveying designers as
well as analyses of interviews by students in a class that has
been part of ITG. ITG student participants asked the designers
to consider what TTR teaches them about waste and the inter-
section of fashion design and the environment. Designers are
instructed to use landfill-bound material, stimulating thought
and conversation surrounding where waste comes from, how it
can be transformed, and where it ends up (Fig. 7).
For the past 4 years students and instructors in an upper
division course called ‘Creative Climate Communications’
from the CU Boulder have partnered with ‘Trash the Runway’.
Students were mainly third- and fourth-year undergraduates
from three majors where the course was cross-listed:
Environmental Studies, Theatre & Dance and Engineering.
There were also some students from Geography, Education and
Sociology.
This class is part of the ITG project at CU Boulder. The objec-
tives for this course have been to (i) generate quality multi-
modal compositions on the subject of climate change and
(ii) engage meaningfully with various dimensions and issues
associated with climate, environment and sustainability.
Participants worked to deepen understanding of how issues
associated with climate change are communicated creatively Figure 3: Chip bag top by TTR Designer Leo Scribner. Photographed by Lianna
by analyzing previously created expressions from a variety of Nixon 2019.
 Boykoff et al. | 5

media (such as interactive theatre, infographics, film, fine art

and performance art). Students then integrated insights gained
into the process of creating their own work.
Moreover, with guidance from experienced designers as
well as near-peer mentors, through these interactions young
designers gained competence and confidence communicating
(verbally and through their creations) about climate change,
sustainability and waste.
Trash utilized for garment designs has included worn

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bike tires, computer wires, plastic bags, old coffee filters, used
straws, balloons, construction flags, gum wrappers, compact
discs and DVDs, shower curtain liners, bubble wrap, wire hang-
ers, wallpaper samples, aluminum cans, ribbon, film strips,
discarded sugar packets, popped bicycle inner tubes, plastic
utensils, paint swatches and old postcards and magazines.
On the event nights in the years studied, a line of excited
community members wrapped around the block, eager to see
the creations of these young designers. Parents, students,
friends and strangers alike would cheer as each model strutted
down the runway showcasing technical skill and passion for
environmental conservation.
Three local high-profile judges sat at a table amid the excited
crowd at the end of the runway. During the show, the emcee in-
troduced each designer—nearly all of whom modeled their own
creations— who then entered the stage amid cheers and spir-
ited music. The designer walked down the runway and back
adding turns, smiles and various other touches that help to
highlight unique aspects of their design. Then, standing beside
the emcee, each designer was interviewed about some salient
aspect of their ‘look’. Designers described their artistic process,
challenges they faced during construction, and the story of the Figure 4: TTR judges interviewing designer Hattie Westnedge. Photographed by
trash from which the outfit was created. The judges deliberated Lianna Nixon 2019.
and contestants returned to the stage, eager to hear how their
creations were received. Each year, there are seven awards After all the performances, the final 15 min of the session was
given in two groups (ages 11–13 and ages 14–18) in these catego- set aside for discussion and reflection.
ries: functionality, innovation, design, construction, audience Following this session, the TTR leadership team visited the
choice, runner up and grand prize. Students have returned year class and introduced the TTR project. They also then introduced
after year to continue their work as designers and climate the designers by name, age and the recycled materials that they
communicators, many hoping to take home the grand prize had chosen for their garments. From that information, CU
awarded to the creation that encompasses best design, best Boulder students selected one of twenty designers and formed
construction, most functional and most sustainable pairs based on their selections. In sessions following this visit,
As a part of the partnership under study, over a 4-month the pair of CU Boulder students met the designers in two sched-
period (February–May 2019), 40 CU Boulder students inter-
uled sessions at the Common Threads Creative Lab and learned
viewed TTR designers and drew out stories that ultimately
more about their interests and motivations. The CU students
appeared in 2-min video compositions. (Video compositions
then participated in a ‘pitch and feedback’ session with the rest
from 2017 to 2019 can be viewed here https://insidethegreen-
of the class where they described how they would approach
house.org/project/trash-runway.) In preparation for this
their video composition. With feedback from the instructors
work, CU Boulder students first paired up and interviewed
and students, the CU Boulder students then coordinated and
one another about what is at stake for each person regarding
conducted interviews with the TTR designers as well as col-
climate change. This open-ended exercise was to help stu-
lected b-roll footage and other still shots as provided by the TTR
dents begin to learn the technical dimensions of the recording
equipment and to begin storyboarding the narratives they designers. Interspersed with this preparatory work, CU Boulder
found. This process also introduced them to editing and inte- students read about dimensions of climate change and the
grating b-roll footage as well as music to augment and en- fashion industry, engaged in vocal, physical and improvisa-
hance their 2-min interview. tional activities and were visited by various guests involved in
Next, students reviewed a set of articles relating to sustain- the dimensions of sustainable fashion. [Guests included
able fashion and then participated in an article-to-performan- young designer Lily (Shafroth) Forbes, Connect4Climate
ces exercise. They were placed into ten groups of four people #Fashion4Climate lead Max Edkins (virtual), and scholar
each, and were then given 20 min to discuss an article assigned Shannon Mancus (Colorado School of Mines).]
to their group and then create a short 2–3-min performance/ On the night of the highly anticipated 2019 show, CU stu-
scene communicating the issues raised. Articles included dents entered the front doors of the Boulder Theater in down-
themes of fast fashion economies, circular fashion economies, town Boulder, CO beneath the bright lights of the marquee
UN engagement with fashion industries and greening fashion. announcing the sold out TTR event. A subset of six students
 6 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1
was granted backstage passes and worked to gather footage
from different vantage points backstage and in the front of the
house before, during and after the event (shared postevent for
integration into compositions).
In the weeks following the show, the CU students took to
editing the footage they captured of the TTR process and event.
In May 2019, 40 completed video compositions were presented
in a public event—attended by CU Boulder students, faculty,
TTR designers and their families, and members of the local pub-
lic—at the CU Boulder Museum of Natural Science. The format
for each of the videos was similar—interview of the teen-de-
signer, footage of them constructing their piece in the Common
Threads Creative Lab, the model walking the runway the night
of the show and the designer getting interviewed about their de-
sign. The sparkling, charming and sometimes quirky personali-
ties of each young person is animated in their video. Their
expressions of commitment to sustainability descriptions of
what encouraged them to get involved in TTR also brought en-
ergy to these compositions.
Many were inspired by older community members who par-
ticipated in years past. One student mentioned she applied be-
cause ‘[Two girls], they’ve been in the Runway for a long time,
they’ve been really big older girls that I’ve looked up to all my
life’ (https://insidethegreenhouse.org/media/trash-runway-10-
tyler-jacobs). Another stated, ‘I saw my fifth grade teacher’s son
do it, so that’s why I decided to do it “because I was like that’s
cool”’ (https://insidethegreenhouse.org/media/recycled-run
way-8-keara-friel). These participants benefited from direct
positive influence by older students bringing climate communi-
cation and art to the Boulder Community. Other TTR designers
joined specifically motivated by their material. One middle-
school student and ballerina told the event emcee, ‘I want peo-
ple to know that a pointe shoe dies after 8 hours of use, so a
principal dancer can be going through ten pairs of pointe shoes
a week, and each is going to be costing about 90 dollars per
pair.’ She devoted her time on the runway alerting the audience
of waste realities in an industry she is interested in. These stu-
dents are able to weave together zeal for design, creation and
the environment supported by their peers, mentors and the
community.
(We authors have taken up various positionalities in the
partnership. Boykoff and Osnes have attended TTR shows for
several years and have led the ITG–TTR partnership. Chandler
has participated in the ITG–TTR partnership under study as he
attended the events and contributed to CU Boulder class exer-
cises. Church was an award-winning TTR designer for 6 years
and became a near-peer mentor and coproducer in the ITG–TTR
period under study.)
METHODS
For this study, we deployed a mixed-method approach. We con-
ducted anonymous surveys of CU Boulder students and TTR
designers as well as TTR leadership in February (at the begin-
ning; N ¼ 86) and April 2019 (after the TTR event; N ¼ 70) (The
survey was conducted through Qualtrics with Human Research
and institutional review board (IRB) approval (protocol #19-
0022). Consent was given by CU Boulder students as well as TTR
designers and their parents or guardians.) and supplemented
these findings through content analysis of the video composi-
tions from 2017 to 2019 (N ¼ 74) as well as participant observa-
tion throughout the process.
The survey was a mix of 2 dozen Likert scale and open-
ended questions. Questions ranged from their general inquiries
about the importance of climate change to them and questions
about communication about climate change to more specific
questions about their participation in TTR and its effects.
Overall, 22 questions were then asked about their views of cli-
mate change advocacy, soliciting responses based on the extent
to which they agree or disagree with each statement.
The interdisciplinary approach taken up here sought to cap-
ture, value and interrogate interactions of fashion, climate
change and sustainability. Our methodological approach sprung
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from an expansive view of climate change in society, where
more formal scientific and policy work is part of, rather than
separate from, public uptake. Representational practices of vari-
ous sorts then are seen to play key roles in drawing attention to
how to make sense of the changing world. Mediated por-
trayals—through fashion design and live performance—are crit-
ical links between people’s everyday realities and experiences,
and the ways in which these are discussed at a distance in more
formal spaces [47].
FINDINGS
‘The fashion industry is all about storytelling, self-expression and inti-
mate objects we wear on our bodies. If brands made a concerted effort
to leverage all of these tools towards educating people about the carbon
footprint and ethical impacts of their purchases, the fashion industry
could have an outsized impact in shifting the conversation’  Elizabeth
Segran [31]
The CU Boulder in-class performances—based on the fash-
ion articles exercise—was found to be a useful way to embody
these dynamics through short performances. CU Boulder stu-
dents reported visceral, emotional and experiential ways of bet-
ter understanding these dimensions of circular fashion
economies, UN engagement with fashion industries, fast fash-
ion economies and greening fashion. For instance, CU Boulder
student Kaisa Simon commented, ‘I remember starting off feel-
ing uninspired and nervous that we wouldn’t come up with any
content. When we did, I felt like it ended up being really
funny. . .We made a silly fashion show skit satirizing how far
companies take sustainable fashion’. Each of the student groups
created lively depictions of the issues through mostly comic
scenarios that effectively engaged the rest of the class’ attention
and seemed to deepen the comprehension of the complex and
abstract ideas within the articles. This result is consistent with
studies that have shown the benefits of using performing arts
to convey science-based lessons [48].
Moving to the ITG-TTR video production exercise as well as
the April and May 2019 events, quantitative and qualitative
presurvey and post-survey responses revealed challenges and
successes as well as changed and sedimentary perspectives
throughout.
Exploring climate change in ITG-TTR minds
Pretests of participants showed that 80% of respondents (N ¼ 86)
reported that they were ‘very worried’ about global warming
while 20% reported they were ‘somewhat worried’ (Fig. 8). Post-
test responses remained stable.
When asked ‘how important is the issue of global warming
to you personally?’, half of respondents replied ‘extremely im-
portant’, 42% said ‘very important’ and 8% selected ‘moderately
important’ (Fig. 9). Post-test responses varied slightly regarding
personal importance of global warming: 61% selected ‘ex-
tremely important’, whereas 27% picked ‘very important’ and
 Boykoff et al. | 7

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Figure 5: TTR Backstage. Photographed by Lianna Nixon 2019. Figure 7: Pointe-shoe skirt by TTR Designer Leela Newton. Photographed by
Lianna Nixon 2019.

Figure 8: Survey responses to the question ‘How worried are you about global
warming?’
Figure 6: TTR eight participants as winners are announced. Photographed by
Dylan Crossley 2017.

10% and 1% responded ‘moderately important’ and ‘slightly

important’, respectively.
Further, when asked about whether climate change will
impact them personally, responses in the pre-test were as
follows: 16% selected ‘a great deal’, 62% chose ‘a moderate
amount’, 19% selected ‘only a little’, whereas 3% reported that
they ‘don’t know’. In the post-test, responses varied as well
with 29% choosing ‘a great deal’, 53% selecting ‘a moderate
amount’ and 19% still picking ‘only a little’.
When asked about how much they thought global warming
would harm future generations of people, in the pretest, 91% of
respondents selected ‘a great deal’, whereas the remaining 9%
chose ‘a moderate amount’ (Fig. 10). In the post-test, responses
varied slightly with 94% picking ‘a great deal’ and 6% choosing
Figure 9: Survey responses to the question ‘How important is the issue of global
‘a moderate amount’.
warming to you personally?’
These questions were adapted from the ‘Six Americas’ or
‘Climate Change in the American Mind’ [12]. ITG–TTR partici-
pants report higher levels of concern than a representative participate in these activities and events due to pre-existing
sample of US adults (Fig. 11). They also consider global warming interest or concern with climate change. With this in mind, it is
more personally important (33% higher) and TTR–ITG partici- noteworthy that there was a shift in how much respondents be-
pants also think that global warming will harm future genera- lieved climate change would impact them personally, with 13%
tions at higher levels (28% higher) than the US national more responses indicating a different relationship with climate
averages. Moreover, ITG–TTR respondents reported at higher change after the project. It is also important to consider the 19%
levels that global warming will impact them personally (57% of respondents who indicated they believed climate change
higher). would impact them ‘only a little’ remained constant. This
We interpret these responses to illustrate that the TTR shows that the students who became more concerned with
designers and mentors as well as the ITG students chose to climate change through this project were already somewhat
 8 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1
Figure 10: Survey responses to the question ‘How much do you think global
warming will harm you personally?’
Figure 11: Survey responses to the question ‘How much do you think global
warming will harm future generations of people?’
concerned about personal impact and those that were not con-
cerned remained set in their beliefs.
Finding ITG–TTR confidence and competence as climate
change communicators
Another set of survey questions asked about ITG–TTR partici-
pants’ confidence and competence as a communicator about
climate change. These questions were adapted from McCroskey
and McCroskey [49] and Schwarzer and Jerusalem [50]. In re-
sponse to a series of questions regarding their ability and com-
fort communicating about climate change in various situations,
pretest results showed a large majority of respondents noting
their greatest competence and confidence speaking with friends
or groups of meetings of friends. The lowest levels of comfort
were reported to be in a presentation or large meeting of strang-
ers. Yet after the ITG–TTR workshops, processes and experien-
ces, greater confidence was expressed in speaking with
acquaintances and strangers. Our survey data showed that 90%
of respondents in the pretest expressed comfort in speaking
with peers and 12% more specifically were comfortable speak-
ing through performance. Our post-test survey data showed
that this increased to 96% and 15%, respectively. Similar trends
were noted in questions about comfort communicating about
climate change with family before and after the events. In ques-
tions regarding communicating climate change to the public,
73% of ITG–TTR respondents expressed comfort (13% through
performance) before the activities, exercises and events. These
numbers rose to 88% (and 14% through performance) afterward.
To illustrate, a TTR designer remarked, ‘I think that the night
of the show showed me how fun it could be to step up in front
of an audience, which is something that I used to be very afraid
to do. I don’t get stage fright as much since the show’. Another
commented, ‘At first I was very nervous to go out on stage and
talk about my outfit, but once I did I realized how fun it was and
would feel better doing this in the future’. Among other qualita-
tive responses in the survey, a TTR designer observed, ‘After do-
ing Trash the Runway, I now feel so much more comfortable
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telling people about how trash impacts our environment.
Talking about these problems in front of everyone in the show
and the audience has really helped me get better about feeling
comfortable talking about it in everyday life’. Another TTR de-
signer commented, ‘Talking about things like air and water pol-
lution in front of the people in my workshop and the audience
has made it much easier to talk about it in front of other people
that ask about it every day’.
Meanwhile, an ITG student noted that these activities, exer-
cises and events ‘helped bridge the gap between the jargon and
scale of climate communication; it helped me see a real world,
local activity which helped me access the issues’‘. Focusing on
technical skills, an ITG student commented, ‘I now feel very
comfortable with a camera, editing software, and developing a
storyline and how it will impact the audience’. Taken together,
another ITG student reflected, ‘I feel confident that the knowl-
edge and experiences I’ve gained have helped me to better craft
questions, responses, and an overall storyline when making a
video project. Throughout both the interview-a-partner and
TTR assignments, I was constantly thinking about how to frame
shots, and how the editing process was going to feel post-
filming’.
In another set of questions, respondents were asked to
‘Select the response that best fits these statements for you.’ In
response to the statement ‘I can always manage to solve diffi-
cult problems if I try hard enough’, presurvey responses indi-
cated that 63% felt this statement was ‘moderately true’ and
37% felt it was ‘exactly true’. After the project, these percentages
shifted to 49% for ‘moderately true’ and 51% for ‘exactly true’.
This indicates a clear boost in problem-solving confidence. This
general confidence boost of respondents may raise the question
of whether the project had impact on climate communication
ability specifically or rather a general impact on confidence and
communication that also applied to climate-related topics. This
topic is further explored in the next section.
Searching extra-discursive climate communication
pathways
First, we found that the ITG–TTR experience—from perspectives
of ITG students as well as TTR designers, significantly helped to
advance them as effective climate communicators (Fig. 12). One
TTR participant noted, ‘I feel that wearing the trash that par-
tially causes the climate change happening in the world is able
to grab people’s attention and have a lasting impression rather
than being told the facts’. Another remarked, ‘I’ve always
wanted to help the environment and one way is to be a climate
communicator’. An ITG student observed, ‘When I was doing
the interviews I thought more about what I truly was doing, it
made me look deeper into the good effect it had instead of the
fashion designer part’. Another ITG student commented, ‘I
think it did, since it made me critically engage with the material
and think about scientific ideas in a creative way. I am very
data-oriented so I have a hard time engaging with things crea-
tively, however I felt that. . .these projects helped me’. After the

final events, one ITG student also noted, ‘I do think that being
able to interact with designers that are part of TTR has helped
me to broaden my understanding of climate change. It was very
helpful to hear how others view climate change, especially
those who are younger than me, I loved hearing how they are
affected and want to make a difference. It opened my eyes to
new perspectives of how we can all make a difference for the
better. . .we all can participate where we are comfortable’.
Second, we found that the ITG–TTR partnership helped to
defetishize the production and consumption of fashion. For ex-
ample, one TTR designer noted, ‘The fast fashion industry is a
huge contributor to climate change issues. . .however, it can also
be a part of the solution based on how brands decide to interact
with their environment, materials, and workers’. Another TTR
designer commented, ‘I really want to be a biologist when I’m
older and I love fashion, I want there to be a happy medium be-
tween the two of sustainable fashion. People don’t realize how
much energy and water consuming clothes are’. Meanwhile, an
ITG student reflected, ‘The fashion industry is inherently
unsustainable; from sweat shops, transportation miles, and the
general need of wealthy individuals to consistently be buying/
wearing new clothing, there are several dimensions that are in
need of significant reform in order to achieve sustainability
(profit, supply chain, and general buyer behavior). However,
there are designers, businesses, and local artisans that are in
this industry to make a difference. . .everything is tied back to
the choices a consumer makes on a day-to-day basis’. Another
ITG student commented, ‘Before this class I had never really
thought about fashion being related to climate change. Now
that I’ve learned more about the process of cheap fashion, I feel
like I’ll apply that in my future. I’m very interested in designing
and making wedding dresses in the future and after going
through this course, I’m very determined to make the dresses
out of environmentally friendly and safe materials’. A third ITG
student noted, ‘TTR shines a huge light on consumerism, partic-
ularly when projected from the youth. We see that the small
buying choices we make on an everyday basis (disposable coffee
cups, latex swim caps, straws, etc.) add up to an enormous im-
pact on our environment. The decisions we make at all points
in the supply chain, from producer to consumer, must be
shifted in order to create the impact we need to address climate
change and sustainability’.
Third, we found that the ITG–TTR experience effectively is
connected through art-science and extra-discursive communi-
cations. As one TTR designer put it, ‘Art can show different per-
spectives that can’t be shown through words alone’. Elsewhere,
expanded pathways of learning—experiential, emotional, aes-
thetic and tactile as examples—have been found to effectively
improve possibilities for enhanced engagement and action in
the face of contemporary climate change [45]. One ITG student
commented, ‘I really enjoy fusing different disciplines (like arts,
science, fashion, etc.) together to find common ground and
make a significant impact for the community. I really like seeing
how sustainability, science, the arts can take on a variety of
forms and it really inspires me to pursue other creative outlets
in the future’. Another noted, ‘It helps to show that fashion is
not always produced, consumed and distributed in responsible
ways and that this can be damaging to the environment. It also
helps to show that there are alternatives which can be fun,
empowering and creative’. And an ITG student also pointed out
‘Without art, climate change breeds nihilism. We need the
merging of art and climate science in order to provide hope’.
Meanwhile, a TTR designer reflected that TTR ‘a way to pose a
question while allowing others to interpret it on their own. Art
Boykoff et al. | 9
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Figure 12: A word cloud depicting frequency of words (4 letters or more) used in
qualitative responses by ITG students and TTR designers in presurvey and post-
survey
is a way to communicate things that may be difficult to nor-
mally talk about in creative and sometimes more positive
ways’. Another TTR designer noted, ‘I think fashion is so beauti-
ful and I think it is a perfect outlet for communicating because
it is for sure an attention grabber’. A third TTR designer com-
mented, ‘Art is well-suited for climate communication because
it is a form of communication that most people would not ex-
pect. In seeing art based around climate change, many people’s
first exclamations are positive and they are able to take away
some message from the art’.
With these findings and successes in mind, a looming set of
questions remain about whether the scale of these engage-
ments match the scale of the intersectional challenges regard-
ing climate change, fashion and sustainability. The short
answer is no, but there remains optimism within the program-
ming that these engagements will plant seeds for larger-scale
changes down the line. Nonetheless, some associated critiques
were offered by ITG students and TTR designers within the
events. For instance, a respondent commented, ‘the Trash the
Runway event is a cute way to get youth involved, but the mes-
sage being sent is going to people who live in Boulder, who al-
ready probably know about the issues at hand, considering it is
a white, affluent, and left-leaning town. . .I think that this event
probably informed a few people in the audience about an issue
they did not fully understand and there were some amazing
youth designers who took it upon themselves to inform the au-
dience about what is going on and how they can make a change,
beyond that, the impact was not nearly as grand or meaningful
as I had hoped’. Another respondent noted, ‘Trash the Runway
is a fun way to engage a community with shaking up the status-
quo of the fashion industry, but it doesn’t aggressively push the
message against the unsustainable nature of the fashion indus-
try. Instead, it focuses on positive alternatives without getting
into the details’. Through these comments, analysis of the con-
tent of the videos produced and participant observations, these
 10 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1
are valid criticisms that point toward ongoing work to further
deepen and improve these efforts within TTR and elsewhere.
Nonetheless, our analysis points to consistent evidence that
TTR feeds hope that young people are going to have a positive
impact on our future and that they have agency to more capably
tackle climate change.
CONCLUSIONS: SOME SUCCESSES, YET MANY
CHALLENGES REMAIN
‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to every-
thing else in the Universe’  John Muir
This research has focused on the connections between
fashion and climate and environmental impact, as stages all
along the chains of creation, consumption and waste or re-/
down-/up-cycling as accessed through examinations of active
participation and behavior change. In this Boulder, Colorado,
case study, we found that these TTR designers—and the larger
TTR project—were able to actively change narratives and con-
ceptions from ‘fast fashion’ to sustainable fashion solutions
(Fig. 13).
In the context of the project itself, there are some important
findings and subsequent critiques to note. First, it is challenging
to strike a balance between broad and specific messaging on cli-
mate-related topics. Second, there can be confusion when con-
versations about waste and climate change are combined.
Finally, the project focused on awareness in a time when action
must be prioritized. Each one of these critiques will be unpacked
in the following paragraphs.
First, when climate change is brought up in conversation, it
is often discussed in broad terms. ‘We must reduce carbon out-
put’, and, ‘Increased greenhouse gasses are melting arctic ice!’
Although statements like this are true, they do not necessarily
lead to action or change [47]. In this project, there was some in-
depth discussion in the ITG class about the specific impacts of
the fashion industry when it comes to climate change.
However, in conversations and interviews between ITG and TTR
students, these specifics seem to have been lost. Instead of dis-
cussing the supply chain impacts and material acquisition that
results in so much of the climate change impact of the fashion
industry, conversations centered instead upon general ideas of
sustainability and why it was harmful to create so much trash.
In survey results, the term ‘supply chain’ was only mentioned
in two respondents’ written answers across all questions asked.
The shift from specific to general is understandably given the
limited interactions between ITG and TTR students and may
speak to the need for a more targeted approach to including cli-
mate change impacts of the fashion industry in discussions
with TTR students in the coming years.
Second, when working directly with trash, it is easy to focus
on waste rather than climate change without unpacking their
entanglements. This speaks to both a challenge and a path for-
ward. As a challenge, the general topic of sustainability and
green practices has been rolled into one idea in many commu-
nication campaigns. Few campaigns exemplify this more than
reduce, reuse and recycle. This slogan has been taught in
schools and through public messaging so effectively that it has
become synonymous with saving the environment in many
contexts. However, the slogan does not address many of the
transitions necessary to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Complicating the narrative of environmental messaging is im-
portant to avoid greenwashing and provide concrete solutions
rather than general ideas. In the case of this project, moving
away from a focus on what we use too much of and toward spe-
cific impacts of overconsumption would take more discussion
and interaction with the science of environmental impact, but
might help participants to better understand and discuss the
impact of their fashion choices as a system that starts with
production.
Third, moving participants and audiences from awareness
to action is one of the most important challenges of climate
communication. In the case of this project, TTR participants
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brought awareness to many of the waste and consumption
challenges we face, but few focused on local behavior and policy
changes that would address the problems they raised. Our sur-
vey focused mainly on perceptions of climate change and confi-
dence in discussing the issue but did not address how able
participants felt in initiating action. To participate in this proj-
ect, TTR students often worked with local businesses and al-
ways worked with specific products. There is a great
opportunity to include a specific policy or behavior request in
communication efforts. Many similar projects and partnerships
also miss this opportunity. If we are to address climate change
with the urgency it demands, action and behavior must always
be a focus of messaging.
The TTR project and the research operate in the spirit of
Donna Haraway’s work Staying with the Trouble [51]. There she
says, ‘Staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly pre-
sent, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or edenic pasts
and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as mortal critters
entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times
matters, and meanings’ [51]. Haraway’s concept of staying with
the trouble helps form an approach to decolonial work. Instead
of focusing on the colonial system as a whole and the Western
epistemologies that exemplify it, we can begin by unravelling
one case, one specific impact of our current system. Through fo-
cusing on cocreation and copresence in both the deconstruction
of problems and the design of solutions, the research and prod-
ucts of TTR partnership aim to dismantle the relationship struc-
tures that help to keep colonial systems, and fast-fashion as a
specific example, intact.
Inviting groups, including youth, to take part in authoring
their own future rather than designing it for them is a part of
decolonial practice [52]. TTR provides youth, who have been his-
torically denied political voice and vote in colonial structures, a
platform for their voices to be heard on environmental and so-
cial justice issues. This gives youth a stage—literally and figura-
tively—to suggest policy and behavior change and a voice in
redefining the relationship of youth to adults. (As a co-producer
and co-author here, Church brings her lived experience as a
multi-year participant in TTR to enrich this writing with a par-
ticipant view point, which also ensures the inclusion of youth
voice in this analysis.) The TTR project also works to dismantle
colonial hierarchies by focusing on establishing near-peer men-
torship models between University and 11- to 18-year-old stu-
dents instead of relying solely on perceived authority figures for
expertise. Finally, the project and our research critique one of
the most deeply enshrined colonial systems: fast-fashion and
the production of clothing as an extractive and exploitive enter-
prise that deeply impacts both humans and the other-than-hu-
man world.
The partnerships involved in this project highlight several
levels of codesign and coproduction. Involving CU Boulder stu-
dents in the TTR project required the coordination and trust of
community and academic leaders. In this partnership, partners
were careful to address power and status by honoring each
other’s expertise without forming hierarchical relationships. By

Figure 13: Sold out Boulder Theater TTR billboard. Photographed by Lianna
Nixon 2019.
recognizing that ‘relationships are power-laden. . .pre-con-
structed by history, and weighted with social gravity’ [53], part-
ners were able to attend to the iterative work of overcoming
preconstructed relationships in order to support equally hon-
ored roles within the project. Partnerships were also necessary
among student teams. These teams focused on allowing stu-
dents to work with each other rather than placing the university
students in positions of authority over middle and high school
students. Again, students strived to honor each other’s exper-
tise while providing support.
The products of this project, high fashion clothing made
from trash and videos of this process, exemplify the way in
which the products of art and science partnership can be forces
of decolonization. The clothing produced by young designers
using repurposed materials pushes against an industry that
thrives on extraction and exploitation. The fashion show in
which the designs were modeled brought together 1000 people
who were there to support youth authorship of knowledge on
sustainability in the form of fashion. The videos documenting
the production process brought viewers from the Boulder and
University of Colorado communities together and opened up
discussions on the issues and products highlighted by the
young designers. Furthermore, the research revealed how these
efforts can (re)shape attitudes, perspectives and engagements
relating to fashion, climate change and sustainability. Although
anchored through embodied work at the local scale, the pro-
cesses and products are transferable to other cultural, social,
economic and political contexts and locales.
Although project partners worked to attend the issues of
power and status and during the project held each other as
equal participants, it’s important to note that even if these val-
ues are attended to within partnerships, ‘that doesn’t stop peo-
ple on the outside from relying on the academics, patronizing
community members, privileging Whiteness/maleness/aca-
demic credentials, or trivializing the collaboration’ [54]. In the
context of the TTR and other similar projects, there is a risk that
culminating events and the messages they offer will be seen as
applicable to the performance space itself, but not outside of it.
Although youth are honored as designers and authors of ideas
in the performance space, the ideas they share may be pushed
aside once the event is over. This speaks to the importance of it-
erative events to maintain momentum in addressing the issue
of who is allowed to speak on environmental and policy prob-
lems within a community.
Boykoff et al. | 11
Outside of lessons learned and critiques specifically applica-
ble to our project, we recognize that sustainability in fashion is
part of wider political economic trends as well as branding and
reputational ‘intangibles’ [55] along with education and innova-
tive business models [56]. For fashion to be sustainable, fast
fashion must give way to slow and linear patterns of consump-
tion and must be substantively complemented with circular
patterns of consumption. This requires political, economic and
cultural/psychological reconceptions of fashion in the 21st cen-
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tury [57]. Moreover, brand loyalty is also a function of authentic-
ity and trust [58]. In fact, research has found that ‘eco-
friendliness’ has contributed to brand preferences, especially
among luxury brands through perceptual notions of added
value [59].
Kirsi Niinimäki and colleagues have noted:
The current business logic in the fashion sector is based on ever-
increasing production and sales, fast manufacturing, low product
quality and short product life cycles, all of which lead to unsus-
tainable consumption, fast material throughput, substantial waste
and vast environmental impacts. . .Ultimately, the long-term sta-
bility of the fashion industry relies on the total abandonment of
the fast fashion model, linked to a decline in overproduction and
overconsumption, and a corresponding decrease in material
throughput. Such transformations require international coordina-
tion and involve new mindsets being adopted at both the business
and the consumer levels. [13]
These ongoing dynamics intersect importantly with perva-
sive challenges associated with socioeconomic, gender and ra-
cial inequality. For example, often clothes are manufactured in
impoverished countries with low-wage often BIPOC workers
[60]. Although environmental impact has become more of a fo-
cus of the sustainable fashion industry, ongoing complicity in
systematic oppression of Black and Brown often-poor commu-
nities has increasingly been identified as shaping decisions all
along the fashion supply chain, from designers to manufac-
turers, marketers, transporters and consumers [61].
This research helps to advance further work that identifies
how alternatives must be pursued [62], from technological
developments (e.g. new fibers) [63] to cultural shifts in appetites
(e.g. as conscious consumerism displaces commodity fetishism)
[6, 64]. Together, these trends have been engaged in dynamic
processes called ‘fashion futuring’ [65]. As such, ‘slow fashion’
brands like Rustic Hue, Doodlage and [Ka] [Sha] have gained in
market share as customers factor working conditions, material
use and up-cyling post-production into their purchasing deci-
sions [66]. Although some have viewed these shifts with suspi-
cion of mere reforms [67], others have noted openings through
sustainable fashion for more fundamental re-considerations of
dominant systems of ‘unbridled consumption’ [68].
In the meantime, movements for greater accountability
have grown. For example, Sofia Garcia-Torres et al. [69] have de-
veloped a ‘Fast-Fashion Sustainability Scorecard’ as a disclosure
framework and assessment tool.
Some of these alternatives may be prompted by external dy-
namics and others may be pursued through internal restructur-
ing. Interestingly, the Royal Society of the Encouragement of
Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) found that in 2020
the COVID-19 pandemic has changed clothing consumption:
• 28% of those surveyed said they are now habitually reusing or
recycling clothes;
• 35% of women stated that they intend to buy fewer clothes post-
pandemic; and
 12 | Oxford Open Climate Change, 2021, Vol. 1, No. 1
• 35% of people ages 18–24 report that they intend to buy fewer
items of clothing after the lockdown has ended [70].
Moreover, secondhand shopping apps have seen their traffic
increase significantly while retail sales in April 2020 fell 18.1%
[71]. And COVID-19 has been noted as a contributor to the uptick
in fashion rental platform as an alternative to garment owner-
ship [72].
Focus on sustainability in fashion means tugging on
emotional registers in the everyday. We all wear clothes and
therefore are ‘part of the problem’ [30], and, conversely, can be
part of the solution. There are emotional purchases, sentimen-
tally held garments, clothing that brings joy, and fashionable
clothing made completely out of trash. Arguably, our clothing is
among the most intimate and identity-expressing objects
owned. When clothing is created from trash by young people
and worn at a public celebratory event, a community’s relation-
ship to their conceptualizations of clothing and trash is signifi-
cantly expanded. Given the significant environmental impact
of the fashion industry, it is essential to radically reimagine our
relationship with clothing.
More broadly, through research into activism and civic
engagement, Arvind Singhal and Karen Greiner have pointed
out that ‘There is room for play and fun in spurring civic enga-
gement. . .symbols and play, taken together, represent highly
powerful tools of spurring civic engagement, building social
movements, and promoting social justice’ [73]. Students who
engage in the TTR project improve their ability and confidence
in communicating important messages that catalyze further en-
gagement with relationships between fashion, climate change
and sustainability. This ITG–TTR collaboration further ex-
panded multiple ways of knowing and communicating the crea-
tive and informal spaces of our everyday lives [47].
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None declared.
AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
Conceptualization – M.B; Data curation – M.B., P.D.C.; Formal
analysis – M.B.; Investigation – M.B., P.D.C., B.O., P.C.;
Methodology – M.B.; Project administration – M.B.; Resources –
M.B., P.D.C., B.O., P.C.; Supervision – M.B.; Validation – M.B.,
P.D.C., B.O., P.C.; Visualization – M.B., P.D.C., P.C.; Writing origi-
nal draft, review and editing – M.B., P.D.C., B.O., P.C.
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