Soul-Shopping: Autoethnography, Upcycling, and Post-Growth Fashion

Abstract

Upcycling transforms the historically dominant, but increasingly exhausted, linear producer–consumer–waste model of the fashion ecosystem into something more circular. The recent rise in fashion upcycling transcends stereotypical perceptions of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) needlecraft or thrift. Mainstream fashion retailers offer incentives to customers for returning their unwanted clothes to store in return for a gift card, with some garments returning to the production cycle, for reinstatement in-store, and re-marketisation as exclusive upcycled fashion. Although this contributes to the upcycling movement, it misses the core ethos that the upcycling of fashion should not only contribute ‘to sustainable shopping as a whole, but also serve as art pieces, cultural commentary and a sense of connection’. This chapter introduces how to disrupt the fast-fashion system by reducing mindless fashion consumption, not from the point of design and production, but from that of the consumer; not as the end-point of the supply chain, but as the driver of the chain, whereby demand dictates supply—through the practice of soul-shopping.