Author: Marula Tsagkari
This policy brief was elaborated by Marula Tsagkari based on the report “Extraction Fashion” by War on Want and R&Di.
Abstract
A study conducted by Research & Degrowth and War on Want found that fashion-related consumption in the EU in 2021 alone required:
- close to 230,000 square kilometers of land
- close to 190,000 kilotons of minerals and 46,000 kilotons of metals
- Over 4.5 million years of human labor in wage hours
The report reveals a stark geographical asymmetry: fashion for the EU is not produced locally, but rather through large-scale appropriation of land, resources, and labor largely from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, there are a number of national and international policy frameworks aiming to regulate the fashion industry and its impacts. However, these are often limited to voluntary commitment and self-reporting by corporations or consumer awareness strategies. These are insufficient. Strong regulation is required to incur a material and a mental shift away from clothing systems based on colonial extraction and exploitation.
This policy brief proposes the adoption of a degrowth lens to transform the fashion industry.
next steps
The report written by War on Want and R&Di will be available on December 10th.
With the Policy Brief, our aim is to position the issue of degrowing the fashion industry firmly on the political agenda. Help us do so by sharing this summary within your network or by reaching out to us or the author to organize an event, an interview, or any other project.
contact us!
Policy Brief author: Marula Tsagkari
E-mail: marouko.tsagkari@uab.cat
Publisher: Research & Degrowth International
E-mail: project@degrowth.org
further reading on degrowing fashion
· Hoskins, T. E., & Lemos, M. H. (2025). Extraction Fashion: unequalexchange and degrowth explored. Research & Degrowth International.
· Niessen, S. (2022). Defining defashion: A manifesto for degrowth. International Journal of Fashion Studies, 9(2), 439–444.
· Cosciemee et al. (2022). Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable: Resizing Fashion for a Fair Consumption Space. Hot or Cool Institute
· Tomé, C. (2025,). Fashion Commons: A Cap-and-Share Model to Tackle the Fashion Industry’s Overproduction Crisis. Equal Right: Economic Justice Without Borders.
The report and the policy brief have been produced as a result of the crowdfunding launched in 2023. Thanks to all the kind donors for making this possible.