Abstract: This article explores the possibility of opening up fashion as a practice of commoning. Understanding and practicing fashion as an ecosystem of commons helps us see that honoring social relations and shared cultural values in common spaces is how the creative, aesthetic and imaginary power of fashion can thrive. More and more fashion practitioners aim to work and live from within alternative value systems, privileging personal and social wellbeing over economic value, especially in an industry driven by global capitalism. In doing so, these practitioners are, in fact, reversing the process of making fibers, yarns and fabrics into fashionable objects of consumption. They are dissolving the enclosures of luxury fashion. One could argue that these practitioners are reinventing fashion as an ecosystems of commons.
Citation: D. Bruggeman, ‘Opening up Fashion as a Practice of Commoning’, Press & Fold: Notes on Making and Doing Fashion (1), November 2019: 17-22.
