Chapter 1: Introduction

The importance of the role that fashion plays within current society is underestimated, and often dismissed as superficial. Yet arguably the fashion industry is important economically, culturally and psychologically, and is relevant in a historical context. In 2021, the global revenue of the fashion industry was 1.55 trillion US dollars with predictions that this will increase to around 2 trillion dollars by 2026 (Smith, 2022). Fashion United (2022) report that in 2021 3.45 billion people were employed within the global fashion industry, out of the global population of 7.84 billion, and that fashion industry commerce offers a GDP per capita of 16,300 US dollars. The importance of the fashion industry to the economic growth of countries, both developed and developing in the Global North and South, for trade and employment is evident in those figures and future projections. Fashion and textile trade has a long history, and although countries producing textiles and fashion have changed, for example the UK had a thriving textile and production industry until buyers began outsourcing to developing countries to reduce pricing (Jones, 2006), this core element of fashion and textiles as a commodity of economic exchange remains pivotal.