Sustainability in fashion: Past creativity as an inspiration for the future

Abstract

Even before the emergence of the fashion sustainability movement, some European and Japanese fashion designers were active in inventing new creative principles. Key examples of such designers are: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake. They have created a completely new, different and personal style in fashion, as a consequence of exceptional aesthetic creativity. With their ingenious creativity and by pushing the boundaries in fashion design and artistic creation, they managed to create a basis for the development of modern sustainable fashion. Among the creative-experimental solutions available to a fashion designer as a strategy for sustainable fashion design, the creation of clothes without fabric waste ("zero-waste") stands out. The inspiration for such a creative-experimental design solution can be found in methods and techniques of traditional Japanese paper folding skills - origami, as well as in traditional Japanese costume - kimono. The introduction of this concept into fashion provides an opportunity not only to reshape the relation between body and clothing, but also has the potential to create clothing design based on sustainability and a new universality in the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, following the approach of famous designers, it can be seen that for success in sustainable fashion design is necessary to master the fundamentals of traditional and sometimes forgotten craftmanship, which could surely lead to further progress by upgrading one's own ideas.