Colonialism and Fast Fashion: Colonial representations in the fashion industry and the resistance of colonial mindset in alternative fashion entrepreneurship

The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries and it is a representation of the unsustainable status quo business model. The fashion industry is built on a capitalist system. This research aims to discover the root cause of the fashion industry’s unsustainability beyond the business model and way of production. We take a look into the history of fashion and how the human psyche is connected to how we consume fashion. Sustainable and circular fashion have been discussed under research, but not enough connection has been made between colonialism and how consumers behave and how companies operate. Small and micro-business with different core values and practices changes the direction of fashion into a sustainable direction through spreading awareness and changing the fundamental understanding of fashion which is to decolonize the functionality of fashion. Decolonization has been a central topic in many sectors of the social justice movement. The paper argues that lack of culture, value, and consumer behaviour changes is a symptom of colonial legacy, therefore, fundamental changes in mindset brought by small and micro businesses have the potential of revolutionizing the fashion industry as a whole.