Call for papers: International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles

Special Issue: ‘Use for Longer: Opportunities and Barriers to Extending the Clothing Lifetimes’

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-sustainable-fashion-textiles#call-for-papers

Special Issue editors:

Kirsi Niinimäki, Aalto University, Finland, kirsi.niinimaki@aalto.fi

Claudia E. Henninger, University of Manchester, UK, Claudia.henninger@manchester.ac.uk

Submissions are invited from both industry professionals and academics on all aspects of ethical and sustainable fashion and textiles which address the key themes of the Special Issue call for papers.

The fashion and textile industry has been reported to cause the ‘fourth highest pressure on the environment and climate, following consumption of food, housing and mobility’ (EEA 2024). One of the reasons for such high ranking is fashion’s waste problem, accelerated and fostered by low-cost (ultra) fast and now instant fashion sales, which reduce the perceived value of clothing and normalize the mindset of disposability.

While fashion’s waste issue is not new – the 2011 Waste Hierarchy illustrates that waste can be minimized through prioritizing reduced acquisition of new items and reuse, before moving into recycling, recovery of materials and the ultimate disposal – the problem is persistent. To support the reuse aspect, a WRAP (2017) report outlined that actively using our garments for an additional nine months can reduce the carbon, water and waste footprint by between 20–30%, given that we reduce the acquisition of new clothing accordingly. Yet, a decade later, the fashion and textile industry seems to still be stagnating with questions being raised on how to design for longer product lifespans and reuse.

This Special Issue seeks conceptual and empirical contributions that focus on the following areas:

1.Physical durability – how can the industry shift away from the (ultra) fast fashion model that produces high volumes of low-cost garments with high environmental and social costs, while retaining a viable long-term business? Between 50–75% of the garments we dispose of are not worn out (Köhler et al. 2021; van Duijn et al. 2022). When does increasing physical durability prolong the lifespans, and are there situations when it can be counterproductive, for example, due to increased material use? The focus here is on design attributes and also technical aspects.

2.Emotional durability – what can we learn from empirical evidence on long-term use of clothing? Are there ways to foster emotional durability of garments through decisions at the design stage? What best practice examples are in place to showcase design attributes that enhance emotional durability? What practical steps can users/designers/manufacturers of clothing and/or (fashion) journalists take to support the mindset of emotional durability?

3.Garments intrinsic and extrinsic properties – what may aspects such as warranty rights, repairability, price as well as other items in the wardrobe play in order to foster longevity?

4.Methodologies – how can use practices be explored and investigated through research and design practice? How can garment lifetimes be more accurately assessed through quantitative and qualitative methods? Are there new, previously unexplored parameters, that need to be brought into the understanding of clothing longevity?

This list is not exhaustive. We welcome contributions on other topics connected to sustainability and durability.

SFT invites contributions of the following:

• Research Articles: 6000–8000 words

• Industry Reports: 5000 words maximum

• Case Studies: 1500–2000 words

Submission guidelines

Please submit via the submit button on the journal’s homepage: https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-sustainable-fashion-textiles.

All submissions must follow Intellect’s house style: www.intellectbooks.com/journal-editors-and-contributors. 

It is the author’s responsibility to clear the usage rights for all images to be published in the manuscript.

• Full papers to be submitted by 30 November 2025

• Peer review process to be completed by 31 March 2026

• Final paper deadline (if accepted): 31 July 2026

• Issue publication: November 2026

References

DEFRA (2011), ‘Guidance on applying the waste hierarchy’, DEFRA, June, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a795abde5274a2acd18c223/pb13530-waste-hierarchy-guidance.pdf. Accessed 25 September 2024.

Van Duijn, H, Carrone, N. P., Bakowska, O., Huang, Q., Akerboom, M., Rademan, K. and  Vellanki, D. (2022), ‘Sorting for circularity Europe: An evaluation and commercial assessment of textile waste across Europe’, Fashion for Good, September, https://reports.fashionforgood.com/report/sorting-for-circularity-europe/. Accessed 25 September 2024. 

EEA (2024), ‘Textiles’, EEA, 17 September, https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/textiles#:~:text=Our%20assessments%20show%20that%2C%20compared,materials%20and%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions. Accessed 25 September 2024.  

Köhler, A., Watson, D., Trzepacz, S., Löw, C., Liu, R., Danneck, J., Konstantas, A., Donatello, S. and Faraca, G. (2021), Circular Economy Perspectives in the EU Textile Sector, EUR 30734 EN, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125110. Accessed 25 September 2024. 

WRAP (2017), ‘Valuing our clothes: The cost of UK fashion’ WRAP, 17 July,  https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/valuing-our-clothes-cost-uk-fashion. Accessed 25 September 2024.