Sustainable fashion in the English language mirror

Keywords: eco-conscious lexis, conscious fashion, ethical fashion, green fashion, sustainable fashion

Abstract

The research is conducted in the critical eco-linguistics domain, an umbrella term for diverse academic inquiries and empirical evidence. The aim of the article is the analysis of English words and lexical structures used to verbalize two major aspects of sustainable fashion as a new movement and world vision – ethical fashion and conscious fashion with the focus on animals in fashion and thrifting. Sustainable fashion has a number of dimensions categorized as conscious, green, and circular, eco-friendly fashion, ethical fashion, vegan fashion. The goal of conscious fashion has much in common with environmentalism and green marketing. Ethical fashion focuses on exploitation in fashion, of both animals and humans, and encompasses animal rights, fair trade of animal-related products, working conditions in fashion industry what are quite often not decent. Vegan fashion promotes non-animal plant-based textiles and man-made fabrics. Circular fashion centres on clothes recycling, extending terminology to upcycling, downcycling and regenerating. Thrifting, renting, and sharing are to popularize slow fashion and conscious fashion. Coverage of fashion sustainability in mass media resulted into coinage of new eco-conscious words and word collocations and their increasing frequency. Several word-forming models dominate in the sustainable fashion terminology including numerous V-ing words to describe manufacturing processes and activities, non+N, non+Adj coinages to emphasize denial of traditional practices. Some words (animal, cruelty) and word-forming components (eco-) have become more noticeable in sustainable fashion in the past decade. The adjective 'sustainable' is among 1% top words in Modern English (Merriam-Webster dictionary online, n.d.) though the collocation ‘sustainable fashion’ is not fixed yet by this dictionary or its counterparts. Thus sustainable fashion is to be conceptualized to find its way to dictionaries as well as to mentality of fashion designers, clothes manufacturers and consumers worldwide. Increasing vocabulary of sustainable fashion should become more familiar to consumers to push them to rethinking their lifestyle, clothing choices, becoming eco-conscious.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Animal aesthics. (n.d.). Animals used for clothing. Retrieved from https://www.animal-ethics.org/animals-used-for-clothing-introduction/
Assoune, A. (n.d.). The Use of Animals in the Fashion Industry. Wearing animal fur is cruel. Retrieved from https://www.panaprium.com/blogs/i/use-animals-fashion
Cope, R. (2021, November). Oil heiress Ivy Getty marries in fashion extravaganza wearing mirrored dress by John Galliano. Tatler. Retrieved from https://www.tatler.com/article/oil-heiress-ivy-getty-marries-in-fashion-extravaganza-wearing-mirrored-dress-by-john-galliano
Cowley, S. (2014). Bio-ecology and language: A necessary unity. Language Sciences, 41, 60–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2013.08.007
Davies, C. (2019, July). 6 fashion jobs created by circular economy. Vogue business. Retrieved from https://www.voguebusiness.com/talent/articles/6-fashion-jobs-created-by-the-circular-economy/
Derni, A. (2008). The Ecolinguistic Paradigm: An Integrationist Trend in Language Study. The International Journal of Language Society and Culture, 24, 21-30. Retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.586.2402&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Devall, B., & Sessions, G. (1985). Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, UT: G.M. Smith.
Durden, T. (2022). The last days of the COVIDian cult. Retrieved from https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/last-days-covidian-cult
Elwes, A. (2020). The 10 most famous dog-and-owner combinations in history, from Churchill and his poodles to the Royal dog with its own footman. Retrieved from https://www.countrylife.co.uk/out-and-about/dogs/the-10-most-famous-dogs-in-history-from-churchills-poodles-to-the-royal-dog-with-its-own-footman-213172
Fibre2fashion (2014). Ethical and sustainable fashion. Retrieved from https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/7238/ethical-and-sustainable-fashion
FOUR-PAWS. (2020). Animal Welfare in Fashion 2020 The 'New Normal' Intergrating more kindness to animals in a sustainable fashion future (Report June 30). Retrieved from https://media.4-paws.org/3/0/f/5/30f5ed3f4bd074fb228525ec2346d75d4594b126/FOUR-PAWS-2020-Animal-Welfare-in-Fashion-Report.pdf
Good On You (n.d.). Sustainable and ethical fashion brand ratings. Retrieved from https://goodonyou.eco
Karmakar, S. (2020). Ecolinguistics: the integrity and diversity of language systems. Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 4(1), 58-69. https://www.academia.edu/44029032/Eco_linguistics_the_integrity_and_diversity_of_language_systems/
Katcher, J. (2019). Fashion Animals. Danvers, MA: Vegan Publishers.
Laemel, B.N. (n.d.). Appendix B: Friend, Foe, or Frock: Animal Rights in Fashion. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-good-corporation-bad-corporation/chapter/appendix-b-friend-foe-or-frock-animal-rights-in-fashion-by-briana-n-laemel/
Lakritz, T. (2021). 10 of the most expensive royal wedding dresses. Insider. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/royal-wedding-dresses-most-expensive-ranked-2021-2
McFall-Johnsen, M. (2020 January). These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution/
Merriam-Webster online dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Robertson, L. (2021). Fashion and Animal Welfare: Everything You Should Know BeforeYou Buy. Retrieved from https://goodonyou.eco/animal-welfare-fashion
Ruijie, Z., & Wei, H. (2021). Ecolinguistics and ecosophy: For a harmonious relationship between people and place through the intermediate medium of language. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 14(3), 261–297. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.36843
Schwab, K., & Malleret, T. (2020). COVID-19: The great reset. Geneva: World Economic Forum publishing. Retrieved from http://reparti.free.fr/schwab2020.pdf
Shevchenko, I. S. (2018). The correlation of the informational and phatic functions a problem of ecolinguistics. Cognition, Communication, Discourse, 10, 114-132. https://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2926-2015-10-08
Smith, M. (2021, February). A hatful of horror: the Victorian headwear craze that led to mass slaughter. History Extra. Retrieved from https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/victorian-hats-birds-feathered-hat-fashion
Steffensen, S.V., & Fill, A. (2014). Ecolinguistics: the state of the art and future horizons. Language Sciences, 41(A), 6-25. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259129590_Ecolinguistics_The_state_of_the_art_and_future_horizons
Stibbe, A. (2005). Counterdiscourses and the relationship between humans and other animals. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People and Animals, 18 (1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279305785594289
Fill, A.F., & Penz, H. (Eds.). (2018). The Routledge handbook of ecolinguistics. New York, NY: Routledge.
Thorne, T. (2020). CORONASPEAK – the language of Covid-19 goes viral. Retrived from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/coronaspeak-the-language-of-covid-19-goes-viral
Tilikidou, I., Adamson, I., & Sarmaniotis, C. (2002). The measurement instrument of ecologically-conscious consumer behavior. New Medit, 4, 46-53. Retrived from http://www.iamb.it/share/img_new_medit_articoli/218_46tilikidou.pdf
Toureille, С. (2022, January). Keeping it in the family! Queen Letizia of Spain recycles Valentino dress worn by her mother-in-law Queen Sofia in 1977 as she and King Felipe VI host diplomatic reception in Madrid. MailOnline. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10410517/Queen-Letizia-Spain-recycled-outfit-worn-mother-law-Queen-Sofia-1977.html
Vocelle, L. (2014). Cats in the 19th century (Part 1 – Backgroumd). Retrieved from https://www.thegreatcat.org/cats-19th-century-part-1-background
What does the term ‘green’ fur mean? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.madisonavenuemalls.com/what-does-the-term-green-fur-mean
Yuniawan, T., Rokhman, F., Rustono, & Mardikantoro, H.B. (2017). The Study of Critical Eco-Linguistic in Green Discourse: Prospective Eco-Linguistic Analysis. Humaniora, 3(29), 291-300. https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/197257-the-study-of-critical-eco-linguistic-in-513e9b70.pdf
Zhou, W. (2022). Ecolinguistics: A half-century overview. Journal of World Languages, 7(3), 461–486. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0022
Published
2022-12-30
How to Cite
Belova, A. (2022). Sustainable fashion in the English language mirror. Cognition, Communication, Discourse, (25), 9-18. https://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2926-2022-25-01