Abstract
Many studies on design for change, especially from a fashion perspective, focus on the need for environmental awareness and behavioural change in industry. Fashion as a system can be used to reflect narratives, a form of reflexive storytelling that goes beyond the material, into the materiality of clothing. However, fashion activist artefacts alone cannot change social and political systems. They can, however, trigger the necessary conversations. Fashion is a political activity when placed in context. Studies such as Mazzarella and Black’s (2023) Fashioning Change: fashion activism and its outcomes on local communities, looks at the preservation of culture, identity, and economic empowerment through craft. Therefore, there lies a gap in exploring the principles that inform application to practice, the principles that make fashion activism a tool for social activism, particularly in the South African socio-political and fashion context.
This study focused on fashion activism in South Africa; understanding how South African fashion designers interpret and approach the praxis, in order to develop the principles that inform fashion design activism as a vehicle for social change. There are limited studies that interpret fashion activism from a South African perspective, especially from the position of gaining in-depth knowledge on how fashion designers in South Africa think about fashion activism against the backdrop of South Africa’s history, politics and socio-economic domains. The study was based on the Five Capitals framework of Fuad-Luke (2009), specifically focusing on the Human, Social, Cultural and Symbolic capitals, to explore how professional designers and design students approach design activism, in particular fashion activism.
A qualitative research and case study method was used to explore the various manners and mediums in which South African designers employ fashion activism as a methodology within fashion practice, from a social activist perspective – using it as an agent for socio-political conversations and social awareness. The research included exploring a multitude of constructs such as activism, design, design culture, style-dress-fashion, and social awareness amongst others, with the intent to contextualise or re-contextualise what fashion activism is and can be within South African fashion.
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The findings revealed varying opinions, approaches and criticism to the fashion activism praxis. The findings include examples of approaches to fashion activism, gaps in the South African fashion industry on the memorialisation of sartorial dress practices, the politics of signification and the rhetoric in design activism.