Clothing Upcycling in Otago (Ōtākou) and the Problem of Fast Fashion Kirsten Michelle Koch A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts in Sociology at the University of Otago. Abstract Clothing Upcycling in Otago (Ōtākou) This dissertation employs qualitative inductive research methods to address the ‘problem of global fast fashion’. Currently the global production of garments is 62 million tonnes per annum with the majority of production occurring in the world’s poorest countries with limited human rights and labour and environmental protections. From 1994 to 2018 following the easing of trade protections in Developing countries and internationally, there has been a 400% increase in the tonnage of clothing produced internationally. This figure is only escalating. As the level of global clothing waste grows following global clothing consumption rates, the drive to expand the market is fuelling the production of vast amounts of poor-quality textiles and resultant textile waste. In Developed countries 67% of textile waste is commercially on-sold as second-hand clothing to mostly Developing countries. The need for ever cheaper fashion production processes creates ethical concerns for global garment workers and those who sort and dispose of garment waste. Garment workers are 80% women and often women of colour living in Developing countries with few employment options. Meanwhile, textile practitioners and clothing designers in Westernised countries such as New Zealand, are experiencing heightened job precarity and an increasingly diminished space to exercise creativity, sustainable innovation, and social critique. The research interviews local Otago (Ōtākou) textile practitioners who upcycle clothing within their practice assessing how these localised creative actions connect to the larger global ‘slow fashion’ movement, including the ‘clothing upcycling’ movement. This method involves the reutilization of discarded textiles and clothes to make items of a higher value than the original materials. The slow fashion movement uses a systems-based theory to illustrate the global ‘fast fashion’ network demonstrating that constructive input is needed from all players; industry, government, practitioners, and the public/consumer to develop a more sustainable fashion system. This research takes a practitioner-focused angle to situating the issue of fast fashion viewing clothing upcycling as a form of ‘creative social enterprise’ and a ‘designer- activist’ role necessary in shifting the current fashion consumption and textile waste ii paradigm. Participants are employing a form of politics through their expression of difference. This politic can also be viewed as a post-human approach to fashion in that it is a movement responding to its time. This also links textile upcycling to historic Western fashion movements responding to Industrialism through a return to crafting. The reasons the participants upcycle textiles, the textile and design methods they employ, the organising principles within their practice and the ideas they convey through their work all speak to the global fast fashion system and possible sustainable and more equitable fashion alternatives. As an integral feature of the research design, a public Clothing Upcycling Seminar was held on April 24th, 2019. This day marked the anniversary of the Rana Plaza Disaster. This decision demonstrated support for the Fashion Revolution’s political stance and coordinated approach to critically examine the social and economic inequalities and human and environmental dangers of the global fashion system while celebrating and encouraging international localised slow fashion actions. iii Acknowledgements This masters project was large and complex involving the imput and assistance of many people. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Katharine Legun, Dr Natalie Smith and Dr Hugh Campbell for helping me get to the finish line. Your various skills in research design, sustainability, and fashion theory were anchors in cementing my argument and crafting a cohesive research project. Secondly, I would really like to thank all of the participants: - Simone Montgomery, Fiona Jenkin, Fiona Clements, Desi Liversage, Elena Poletti, Kerry Mackay, Hilary Rowley, Margie Beyer, Lucy Gray, and Liz Manson. Without you agreeing to be involved this project would lack the dynamism of your creativity. Your work, your words, your passion and your humour made the research process stimulating. Thirdly, I would like to thank a group of friends whose talents helped make this project shine. Thanks to Jacqueitta Burleigh and Jane Duval-Smith for your assistance with the April 2019 Upcycling Seminar. Your help provided me with much needed support. Thanks to Nigel Yates for showing me how to use the new camera and thank you to Jessie Neilson and Pauline Brook for your help with the editing and thank you to Sharon Teavae for your help with formatting. Finally, I would like to thank my family. Hendrik, thanks for having weekly discussions with me on my research and my eco dye. Thanks Eleanor for showing your love and protection through your beautiful hand dyes and hand knits. This is a gift you gave me Mum and one I am able to pass on through this research. Thanks to Shasta, Matai and Tui for being cool siblings and doing things differently from me. Thank you to Tracey for being a legendary cat minder and thank you to my three darling cats. While some theoretical approaches in research critique systems, policy and ideology, other approaches want to escape the fight ‘against’ and write from alternative ideological frameworks performing the task of telling through the process of showing. The details build the portait and remain as a mental picture internally feeding and informing one’s thoughts. Never one for simple answers, this writing tries to do both and more. Enjoy... iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... ii Clothing Upcycling in Otago (Ōtākou) ..................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v Table of Figures ........................................................................................................................... ix Chapter One .................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Setting the scene .................................................................................................................... 1 Justification ........................................................................................................................... 3 Creative Sector in the New Economy ................................................................................... 5 Gendered Nature of Creative and Fashion Sectors ............................................................... 6 Clothing Upcycling ............................................................................................................... 7 Taking a Practitioner-Focused Approach .............................................................................. 9 Introducing Myself .............................................................................................................. 10 The Narrative Structure of this Dissertation: ...................................................................... 16 Chapter Two ................................................................................................................................ 18 Garment Factories and Global Textile Recycling ................................................................... 18 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 18 Current Fashion Industry Dynamics ................................................................................... 19 Clothing Hyper-Consumption and Disposal Patterns ......................................................... 20 Garment Factories and Vulnerable Labour ......................................................................... 21 Textile Recycling ................................................................................................................ 23 Regulatory Mechanisms for addressing the ‘problem of fast fashion’ ................................ 26 Critiquing Fast Fashion from Slow Fashion ....................................................................... 27 Chapter Three .............................................................................................................................. 30 Slow Fashion, Anti-Fashion and Critique ............................................................................... 30 Introduction: Fashion as Critique ........................................................................................ 30 History of Slow Fashion ...................................................................................................... 31 Slow Fashion’s Relationship