2026

May

FAN representatives host a panel at the Eco-Socialism Conference with Ruth Ogier (War on Want), Kirsten Scott, Neelam Raina and Talia Hussain on Fashion and Unequal Exchange.

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2025

September

FAN representatives speak at the Festival of Commoning

June

FAN representatives speak at the Degrowth Conference, Oslo

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May

 

Sandra Niessen's chapter, 'Defining Defashion', is published in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth. FAN hold a launch event at the Islington Climate Centre

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FAN host an event at Kairos, London on Clothing Commons

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2024

 

FAN members work towards the launch of OurCommon.Market

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October

FAN members hold discussion at the Global Fashioning Assembly 2024 on Reclaiming Community Practices: from Fashion Industry to Fashion Commons

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2023

 

December

 

Funding: FAN awarded a grant of £2500 from The Nature Save Trust towards onboarding communities from the UK to OurCommon.Market

 

November

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Panel: FAN member, Sandra Niessen featured in Expanding the Frontiers of Commoning,  part of Schumacher Conversations, facilitated by David Bollier and hosted by Schumacher Center for New Economics, on 16th November, where she discussed OurCommon.Market. Watch the recording here

 

Funding: FAN Awarded a €28,000 grant as part of the Culture of Solidarity Fund from the European Cultural Foundation. This will go towards revitalising the fashion commons through FAN project, OurCommon.Market and onboarding of communities from Europe and beyond. Read about this on their website​

 

September

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Conference Participation: Members of FAN participated in the first conference dedicated to defashion: Defashioning Education at Berlin University of the Arts, Hosted by The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education and Fashioning Education, 15th and 16th September. View the conference website here. FAN Participation included:

• Workshop: What is Defashion? coordinated and hosted by Dirk de Waal, 15th September. Development initially led by Sandra Niessen and Zoe Gilbertson. Workshop discussion facilitators included Zoe Gilbertson, Sarah May, Kirsten Scott, and Michelle Jones. Discussions involved Sara Arnold, Sandra Niessen, Jenny Morisetti, Karishma Kelsey, Margaret Lolley and Sophie Barr.

• Presentation: Learnings from a Post-Fashion Making Lab, presented by Sara Arnold, Karishma Kelsey, Jenny Morisetti, and Sarah May, 15th September 

• Presentation: Defashion Walk- A sensory fashion media walk, presented by Sophie Barr and Sarah May, 15th September

• Provocation:  De-Fashion: from Fossil Fuel Fashion to a fashion Pluriverse, keynote by Sandra Niessen, 15 September

 

Podcast: FAN member Sandra Niessen is a guest on Fashion is a Great Teacher - The Fashion Education Podcast in an episode on “Anthropology, Anger and Activism”, hosted by Renate Stauss. Listen to Episode 10 here

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July

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Campaigning: FAN supports Fashion Revolution's call for a global living wage

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June

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Event: Sandra Niessen presented Fashion as a Social Mirror at Kairos, London, a space exploring ideas for radical social and cultural change in response to the climate and nature crises. Many FAN members among others in attendance

 

May

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Project Development: OurCommon.Market 

 

Event: FAN member, Jenny Morisetti, held a 2 day event, Defashion Dorset, on the 26th and 27th May, an Initiative of to explore local clothing culture and showcase local fibre producers and makers. Sara Arnold presented a talk on The Urgent Case for Defashion. A panel discussion entitled Why Defashion? was also hosted, together with regenerative farming expert Elizabeth Keach and fashion historian Rachel Worth

 

Workshop: FAN Members Sarah May and Sara Arnold hosted a workshop, Defashion Making Lab - exploring creation beyond the fashion paradigm at the Collective Thinking and Making Conference, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, May

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April

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Talk: Sara Arnold presents The Urgent Case for Defashion at Rethink Dorchester, a sustainable fashion event in Dorset, UK. 

 

February

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Collaboration: Sara Arnold and Sandra Niessen proposed and defined the following words: sacrifice zones; deFashion; post-Fashion, for ‘Climate Words’ to develop a lexicon for a climate-aware world

 

January

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Press: FAN members quoted in an article on degrowth in Vogue by Bella Webb 

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2022

 

October

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Podcast: FAN members Sara Arnold, Cindi Clark, Sam Weir and Sandra Niessen interviewed for a podcast Defashioning and Creating a Pluriverse of Clothing Systems hosted by Elizabeth Joy for her ‘Conscious Life and Style’ podcast 

 

June

 

Presentation: FAN presented Defashion: a strategy of radical care of people and Planet, Unveiling the concept at the State of Fashion Biennale, ‘Ways of Caring’, Arnhem, Netherlands, on the 6 June. This included the profiles of two indigenous weavers. 

•  Uli’s Voice from a Sacrifice Zone of Fashion profiled Uli from Indonesia, filmed by MJA Nashir, directed by Sandra Niessen, produced by Fashion Act Now 

• Matico’s Voice from a Sacrifice Zone of Fashion profiled Matico from Ecuador, edited for Fashion Act Now 

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May

 

Panel: Fashion Act Now hosted a panel Imagining alternative futures: Can commoning help fashion? with guests David Bollier, Ana María Durán Calisto, and Dave from One Army, moderated by Bel Jacobs. Watch here

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March 

 

Collaboration: Created a definition of Defashion with @EntryLevelActivist for Fashion Revolution’s Definition Series 

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February

 

Podcast:  FAN members Sara Arnold and Sandra Niessen are guests on podcast Moving Towards deFashion and degrowth hosted by David Bollier’s on his ‘Frontiers of Commoning’ podcast. Listen here

 

 

2021

 

December

 

Podcast: Sara Arnold, Bel Jacobs, Clare Farrell, Sandra Niessen, Shonagh Marshall and Sam Weir represent FAN on We think it’s time to defashion. Hear us out… on Clare Press’s ‘Wardrobe Crisis’ podcast, episode 152. This is the first public use of the word ‘defashion’. Listen here

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May

 

Talk: Fashion Act Now and Extinction Rebellion host the third edition of their Fashion and Degrowth talks with guest Sandra Niessen on Exploring the Link between Decolonisation and Sustainability. Watch here

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April

 

Talk: Fashion Act Now and Extinction Rebellion host the second edition of their Fashion and Degrowth talks with panelists: Clare Farrell, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion; Asad Rehman, director, War on Want; Simone Cipriani, founder and head of the Ethical Fashion Initiative on the topic Who Pays the Workers? Watch here

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Talk: Fashion Act Now and Extinction Rebellion host the first edition of their Fashion and Degrowth talks with guest Giorgos Kallis on the topic What is Degrowth? Watch here

 

 

2020

 

September 

 

Press: FAN interviewed by High Snobiety about Fashion’s trend for citing nature as inspiration 

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Campaigning: Fashion Act Now calls on fashion to transform our culture of consumption and destruction in an open letter, in video form, to the fashion industry. Video directed by Tessa Edwards and voiced by Tori Tsui

 

Press: FAN co-founders Bel Jacobs, Alice Wilby and Sara Arnold, interviewed for Vogue: Why Extinction Rebellion is demanding that ‘Fashion Act Now' 

 

Funding: £11,000 raised via crowdfunding to kickstart Fashion Act Now

 

July 

 

Incorporation: The company, ‘Fashion Dreamscape Ltd’. was established in the UK by Sara Arnold, Bel Jacobs, Alice Wilby and Martina Sorghi to support activism aimed at transforming fashion culture, in light of the social and environmental polycrisis. Fashion Act Now became a project of Fashion Dreamscape Ltd. 

 

Inception: Fashion Act Now began as a project within Extinction Rebellion’s Fashion Action group in the summer of 2020 to design a crisis response from the Fashion industry and from dominant Fashion culture.