Unfolding Responsibility | Propositions for best practice in Fashion

Fashion impacts nearly every aspect of our lives from the language we speak, the furniture we use, the homes we live in, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. This publication track is focused on the responsibility contemporary designers have to negotiate ethical relationships between their personal creative and business activity and the realm of collective social accountability.

This special volume of SMT is interested in an inclusive definition of the term "fashion". While fashion is often understood to center on apparel choices, fashion can be recognized as the current style or way of behaving in any field. Thus, proposals are welcome from divergent fields such as architecture, anthropology, cultural studies, history, interior design, graphic design, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies among others.

From where designs originate (e.g., intellectual property rights, fakes), to what materials are used in creating a fashion (e.g., green materials, recycled, upcycled, repurposed, non-traditional) to what styles are produced (e.g., objectifying children), to how and where fashion is produced (e.g., labor issues, working conditions), to how and where it is sold (e.g., fast fashion, upscale retailers, labor issues), to its consumption (use, care, disposal) decision making by designers, producers, retailers, and consumers can reflect a dedication to or indifference to social responsibility and sustainability.

In this special volume of SMT, we invite submissions dealing with short, focused, research informed critiques of any aspect of fashion (ideation, design, production, distribution, sale, consumption, and disposal) that offers an opportunity for critique of contemporary decisions and processes. The aim of this volume is to signpost key issues that could lead the way to a more socially responsible creative sector and influence the views and sensibilities of emerging designers.

Volume 11 will be focused on image/text propositions for best practice in the fashion design industry. SMT is open to innovative format options. We would like to have the opportunity to work with submissions using images in a positive, active, discursive manner and to assist artists and researchers to explore a strongly visual form of argumentation.