The fashion industry is a major contributor to the ongoing planetary ecological crisis. In re-sponse, many brands have begun to address environmental concerns, driven in part by emerg-ing sustainability regulations that call for interventions in material selection, disposal practices, and labour conditions (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). While these measures are necessary to mitigate the global environmental impact of the fashion system, they remain limited in their ca-pacity to generate a deeper shift in the meanings and functions attributed to fashion by both in-dividuals and the industry. This article reflects on the possibilities that emerge from understand-ing fashion as embodied practices (Negrin, 2016; Entwistle, 2000; Ruggerone, 2016; Eckersley, 2008). It asks what it would entail to reconceptualize the fashion system as a site that, rather than producing artefacts often critiqued as polluting commodities, cultivates material practices capable of fostering human attunement with the environment. Drawing on theories of affect (Ott, 2017), particularly as applied within fashion studies (van Tienhoven & Smelik, 2021; Ruggerone, 2016; Sampson, 2018; Filippello & Parkins, 2024) the article examines smart textiles as one articulation of fashion for attunement, focusing on the embodied design approach applied by Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen. While this emerging field holds significant potential, it also reveals important limitations, particularly in its predominantly human-centered orientation. This article instead argues for a broader conceptualization of fashion for attunement, inviting to ex-plore its practices as tools to question and re-configure human-environment relational dynamics
Shifting to a Narrative of Fashion for Attunement
Ciola, Giulia
2026-01-01
Abstract
The fashion industry is a major contributor to the ongoing planetary ecological crisis. In re-sponse, many brands have begun to address environmental concerns, driven in part by emerg-ing sustainability regulations that call for interventions in material selection, disposal practices, and labour conditions (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). While these measures are necessary to mitigate the global environmental impact of the fashion system, they remain limited in their ca-pacity to generate a deeper shift in the meanings and functions attributed to fashion by both in-dividuals and the industry. This article reflects on the possibilities that emerge from understand-ing fashion as embodied practices (Negrin, 2016; Entwistle, 2000; Ruggerone, 2016; Eckersley, 2008). It asks what it would entail to reconceptualize the fashion system as a site that, rather than producing artefacts often critiqued as polluting commodities, cultivates material practices capable of fostering human attunement with the environment. Drawing on theories of affect (Ott, 2017), particularly as applied within fashion studies (van Tienhoven & Smelik, 2021; Ruggerone, 2016; Sampson, 2018; Filippello & Parkins, 2024) the article examines smart textiles as one articulation of fashion for attunement, focusing on the embodied design approach applied by Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen. While this emerging field holds significant potential, it also reveals important limitations, particularly in its predominantly human-centered orientation. This article instead argues for a broader conceptualization of fashion for attunement, inviting to ex-plore its practices as tools to question and re-configure human-environment relational dynamics
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