Abstract

To tackle global sustainability challenges of the Fashion Industry and ensure long-term viability, companies have slowly started integrating circular approaches. This paper explores if and how fashion designers can aid the transition towards a circular economy. For this purpose, 15 interviews with ten fashion designers working in medium and large international fashion companies and five key expert informants were conducted. The results are summarized in the ORFDCE model (Organizational Roles of Fashion Designers for Circular Economy) and suggests designers can take up three central roles in the transition process, if they expand their sustainability-related knowledge and are supported by four central systemic organizational changes. The model enables companies to identify their specific standing in the transition process and develop designer training and support measures aimed at realizing their designers’ full potential. The article also issues several recommendations for further research, to enable the transition from linear to circular fashion.

摘要

为了应对时装业的全球可持续发展挑战并确保长期生存能力，公司已经慢慢开始整合循环方法。本文探讨了时装设计师是否以及如何帮助向循环经济过渡。为此，我们对 15 位在大中型国际时装公司工作的时装设计师和 5 位关键专家进行了采访。结果在 ORFDCE 模型（循环经济时装设计师的组织角色）中进行了总结，并表明设计师可以在转型过程中扮演三个核心角色，前提是他们扩展了与可持续发展相关的知识并得到四个核心系统性组织变革的支持。该模型使公司能够确定其在过渡过程中的具体地位，并制定旨在实现其设计师全部潜力的设计师培训和支持措施。本文还为进一步研究提出了一些建议，以实现从线性时尚到圆形时尚的过渡。