Fashion Futures & Societal Sustainability: Possible directions from scenario development

Purpose: to explore possible directions for future development in the fashion industry, especially targeted at sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach: we executed a design exploration by means of future scenario development. Five student groups (master level Industrial Design Engineering) developed future scenarios for the clothing industry for around the year 2050 and designed product and service concepts that matches these scenarios. These ranged from a local circular economy of urban flax farms to an ingenious system of smart DIY clothes-enhancers, spurring the fulfilment of life-goals.
Findings: the five future concepts show very diverse possibilities for more sustainable alternatives to the current practice. Remarkably, within the concepts the actual design of garments plays a subservient role. Although these are only five examples, this made clear for us that a more sustainable future for the clothing sector is highly dependent on the adoption of sustainable behaviours, rather than the clothing products themselves.
Research implications/limitations: because of the exploratory character of the study and the level of uncertainty in the chosen future scenarios, the presented concepts are to be regarded for inspirational purposes only.
Originality/value: the Scenario Development method that we present is not new, the application in the fashion context however, rendered highly innovative design results. The value of these design results lies in the presentation of plausible future arrangements that take the social and societal context into account.