Co-edited by: Lusty, N., R. Khan and H. Richards, 2021

Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 35, issue.6, pp.813-937

Edited by co-founders of the Critical Fashion Studies research group, Professor Natalya Lusty, Dr Harriette Richards and Dr Rimi Khan, the issue brings together the material, ethical, and aesthetic practices of fashion with Cultural Studies approaches to sustainability and the micropolitical practices of cultural production and consumption. Over the last decade, fashion has emerged as a key site in which debates about social and environmental responsibility, and their gendered, socio-economic and spatial dimensions, have intensified. This special issue focuses on fashion as a cultural practice and creative industry, where aesthetics and design innovation are being shaped by local and global landscapes of activism and critical enterprise. The scholarly articles, by both established and emerging scholars, feature a cross-section of practice-based and theoretical approaches, reflecting the varied research interests within the growing field of critical fashion studies.

With essays drawn from the inaugural Critical Fashion Studies symposium, hosted at the University of Melbourne in mid-2019, the issue contributes to the growing field of critical fashion studies. Contributors include scholars addressing a range of topics, including: rethinking value; the feminisation of responsibility in the broader ethical and sustainable fashion dialogue; tensions between local practices and global markets; the idea of digital fashion activism; systems of design longevity; practices of scale; networks of creativity and solidarity; and potential sites for resistance and mobilisation. In addition to these scholarly research articles, the issue also includes an industry dialogue with Australian fashion practitioners Yatu Widders Hunt (Australian Indigenous Fashion), Courtney Holm (A.BCH) and Teslin Doud (The Threads).