Unlocking insights in the everyday: Exploring practices to foster sustainable maximum use of clothing

Each stage of the fashion clothing lifecycle exerts multitudinous negative impacts on the planet. To date, research and policy interventions toward sustainable clothing consumption have largely concentrated on the initial and final life-stages of clothing production, and garment disposal. However, such efforts, even alongside industry technological advances, have failed to balance ever-expanding fashion consumption demand. More recently, alongside wider sustainability debates on sufficiency and consumption corridors, the active use phase of clothing lifecycle is emerging as a vital piece of the sustainability puzzle. An in-depth exploration of users’ real-life everyday interactions with clothing can facilitate a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of wearer garment interactions and use practices with implications for sustainable consumption. This paper presents the findings of an empirical, qualitative research study on the active use phase of clothing consumption in Ireland drawing on a complex intergenerational dataset gathered using in-depth problem-based interviews and wardrobe studies. Findings reveal that participants were largely unaware of both the positive impacts of prolonging wear and the adverse impact of frequent washing on clothing longevity and sustainability. A range of other barriers and enablers to sustainable clothing consumption also emerged, such as the impact of social media on repeat garment wear, the widespread disregard of garment care labels and the considerable acceptability of second-hand clothing wear. In providing such a snapshot into actual everyday clothing wear and care practices, we argue that it is possible to unlock insights into the various ways sustainable maximum use of clothing can be supported and we present implications for future sustainable policy development. We advocate that existing good practice in anti-consumption and sustainable maximum use must be recognised, understood, and promoted to become increasingly more widely culturally and socially acceptable and therefore, impactful in supporting sustainability transitions.