Design Direction Tackling Fashion Overconsumption with a Mindset Change

Overconsumption is artificially established through demand creation and planned obsolescence to grow profits eternally. The reasons for the mindless consumption of fashion include an endemic sense of insecurity and a worldview that perpetually keeps fundamental human needs unsatisfied, such as a sense of belonging and esteem. A vicious cycle of consumerism is systemically maintained with fashion’s strategies and growth mechanisms. Designers are one central part sustaining this system through creating myths and signals, more than material products, however aware or willing. A paradigmatic shift would rethink the designer’s role, valuing soft skills over ‘star quality’. The worldview that allows this system to perpetuate is based on competition and individualism, having little regard for others and the interconnectivity of all living. Through mindfulness and radical compassion, an alternative mindset and ways of action can be achieved, the designer being in a suitable position between production and consumption to drive it. Already value-oriented designers telling a story in fashion products should ask themselves which stories are worth telling. This paper investigates the topic with a literature review on the psychology, sociology, system, and economics of fashion. The use of the method of Causal Layered Analysis offers analytical perspectives to preferable fashion futures and a foundation for a paradigm shift.