University in Hong Kong

could be nurtured, by de-emphasizing what is seen and heard (i.e.

fashion“buzz”), to one that values actual, tactile experience. How that

approach can be transferred to fashion remains to be seen. However, the

promise is evident, provided the focus is shifted from fashion as image,

to the materiality of fashion.

While dreams and desires feed consumer behavior, they must be constrained

if sustainability is to be viable. Young consumers will need to embrace

a significant shift in consumerism: no longer routinely purchasing

on impulse, and no longer routinely viewing their acquisitions through

the lens of short-term thinking. In fact, sustainable fashion should become

their dream, and all stakeholders in the fashion industry should strive toward

this goal, with luxury fashion playing a major role in the transition.

Aesthetics plays a key role in this transition, calling upon the consumer’s

ability to discern and value artisanal quality. Heidegger argues

that a work of art is never finished when the artist stops working on it;

rather, it needs a viewer to make present the “being of a thing” (Atwood

2004: 48). The same can be said of luxury: only once a luxury item has

become an element of a consumer’s self-definition, with its innate appeal

both reflecting and reinforcing the consumer’s individual aesthetic, can

it be said to be fully complete.

Luxury brands can become the leaders in sustainability because of

their emphasis on artisanal quality; why toss an item designed to last, with

292 Annamma Joy, John F. Sherry, Jr, Alladi Venkatesh, Jeff Wang and Ricky Chan

timeless—as opposed to deliberately time-limited—style? Dissuading

consumers from fast fashion poses a significant challenge, however, given

their acute addiction to its transient thrills. However, since identity is

continually evolving, and requires a materially referential imagining of

an individual’s identity, an alignment of fashion with saving the environment

could make dissuasion possible (Parkins 2008). Such a process

cannot be tied to the conceit of a self that is fully transparent to itself and

to whom we are able to assign agency (Butler 2005). As Binkley (2008:

602) notes, “Ambivalence itself is no longer the enemy of identity, but

the basis for an on-going project of the self, tuned to the endless preproduction

of fluidity, mobility, and indeterminacy as a permanent state

through a variety of life choices, daily practices, and on-going projects

of the self.” We tend to believe like Butler (2005) does, that the basis

for morality is not so much self-identity but the exposure to others—the

continued desire and attempt to not close down the task of narrative

itself. Fashion, especially sustainable fashion, lends itself to such creative

practice (Entwistle and Rocamora 2006). As Wilson (2004: 381) suggests,

“Fashion, the epitome of consumerism, is also its stealthiest critic.”

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge receipt of an SSHRC grant No:

410-2004-1497 in Canada and an internal grant from the Hong Kong

Polytechnic University in Hong Kong.

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