Crafting Sustainable Fashion: Dimensions of Care in Wearer-Clothing Relationships

The manufacturing, overconsumption, usage, and disposal of clothes generate a significant ecological burden. Clothing care has been perceived to mitigate the negative sustainability impacts of clothing consumption. Prior studies indicate that textile care strengthens the bond between the wearer and the garment, resulting in a dedication to maintaining the product and extending its usage over time. However, there is a need for more nuanced analysis concerning different levels of care, as well as their relation to sustainability and the wearer-clothing relationship. By analyzing interview data from Finnish consumers, we identify four dimensions of clothing care: excessive care, balanced care, inadequate care, and non-care. These dimensions indicate how consumers’ approaches to care range from avoidant to overcaring and from negligent to nurturing. Furthermore, we study how this variation connects with varying levels of the wearer-clothing relationship, particularly focusing on the degree of commitment to clothing care. We suggest that consumers’ caring activities are diverse in nature and can either enhance or reduce the longevity of a garment, thus making the sustainability outcomes of clothing care more complex and self-evident than is perceived.