Fashion Ethics

Sue Thomas is Assistant Professor of Fashion at Heriot-Watt University, UK. Having taught in the UK and Aotearoa, New Zealand, it was in Australia that she began teaching fashion design for sustainability. A public speaker and broadcaster, she champions ethics and sustainability. She contributed a chapter on faith in design in The Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion (2014).

‘Thomas breaks new ground by examining the fashion value chain through a lens of ethics. Fashion Ethics provides a comprehensive view of the fashion landscape, from industry stakeholders to the end user, and points to both a radically altered global fashion system and new research areas for fashion studies for years to come.’Timo Rissanen, Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability, Parsons School of Design, New York 'Sue Thomas expertly leads the reader through an insightful and challenging critique of the ‘fast fashion’ system. The coverage of serious impact of over-production and consumption on humanity and the environment are unravelled in her highly accessible book on fashion ethics. She is an inspirational advocate for change!' Liliana Pomazan, Senior Lecturer, School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University, Australia'In Fashion Ethics, Sue Thomas uses her commanding knowledge of the fashion industry and engaging writing style to guide readers through a breadth of uncomfortable ethical issues that demand reflection and consideration. Thomas advocates for shared responsibility and collaboration to "dream big" about how to integrate compassion for all stakeholders into the industry – and then for making the choices necessary to secure the future of the fashion industry and the planet. A must-read for every first year fashion student and for any industry professional whose work intersects with the design, production, marketing, wear, or disposal and reincarnation stages of the product lifecycle.' Marsha Dickson, Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, University of Delaware, USA 'In this informative and topical text, Thomas introduces the reader to a wide range of subjects and debates concerned with ethics, and the production and consumption of fashion products. In the chapters we explore themes that have been (and perhaps still remain) largely "invisible" to the fashion system – from ageism, sizeism, and racism, to concerns for environmental impacts and intellectual copyright. Throughout the text, Thomas challenges designers, retailers and consumers to consider what it is to be ethical, and how this should/could be demonstrated in the way that we make, sell and use clothes. Fashion Ethics has to be a must read for all burgeoning fashion students and consumers.'Alison Gwilt, Reader in Fashion Design and Sustainability, Sheffield Hallam University, UK"I would recommend this book to anyone who works within or is interested or engaged in the fashion industry. In fact, I reckon it should be required reading for all fashion students, as they (we) are the future of the industry and we need the moral backbone to back up our decisions and their impacts."Urbanity, November 2017

• 1. Introduction 2. Design, ethics, and the designer 3. Production 4. Marketing 5. Wear 6. Disposal and reincarnation 7. Future ethics 8. Conclusion