Changing Geographies of Fashion in the European Semi-Periphery

Sustainability in fashion production and consumption is considered a major contemporary challenge and at the same time a visible trend in the fashion market. Despite a growing body of academic literature on the topic, detailed analyses so far mainly pertained to only a selected dimension of the fashion market (design, production, retail or consumption). They more often considered major fashion centres and brands and firms rather than independent designers, SMEs or independent fashion events and other alternative consumption means and spaces or less obvious intermediaries in the fashion market. Although the issue of sustainable fashion has been noticed in academic discourse in Poland, so far it has not been analysed in greater detail bringing together both the production and consumption side of the issue. This book fill this research gap by presenting a holistic approach to the fashion market including design, production and consumption of fashion, taking into account economic, social, cultural and spatial dimensions of the matter and diverse stakeholders who participate in the market. Providing a comprehensive analysis of long-term changes in the Polish fashion market, the book addresses several interesting issues such as to what extent the sustainable reorientation of the fashion market fits into the broader processes of adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector, in what measure it fits into the broader logic of culturalisation of clothing production and commercialisation of design as an applied artistic genre and a part of the creative sector and to what extent it is connected with new, alternative consumption patterns with respect to channels, places and spaces of clothing purchases and (re)use. The main premise of the book is that although it is still a relatively small part of the fashion market in Poland, sustainable fashion design, production and consumption is a phenomenon of increasingimportance, with significant social, economic and spatial implications. The book therefore argues that sustainable design and production constitute a promising opportunity for adaptation, restructuring and upgrading of the textile and clothing sector in the European semi-periphery. It also illustrates how sustainable fashion practices contribute to the creation of new links and networks within the fashion industry, alongside a more fragmented domestic production structure.