Redefining Authenticity: A Philosophy for the Future of ~Fashion

This paper aims to reconsider our cultural - and industry wide - reliance upon authentic identity in terms of fashion. Clothing has come to signify our personal beliefs and values, allowing for incessant (but acceptable, even honourable) consumption and change. Inadvertently, the shaky foundations of chasing 'authentic' identity have destabilised environmental pursuits in fashion, fostering individualistic ideologies which dissolve existing community relationships. The contemporary fashion system finds itself at a crossroad between sustainable development and continued capitalist growth. Cultural beliefs, particularly in the global north, centred on discovering an essential 'true self' have bled into consumer desires and our cultural relations with clothing. Consequently, expressing identity through personal style is rewarded as an outward display of the authentic self. Yet, the search for and conclusion of our authentic desires is not an uninfluenced journey, especially amidst the post-modern world of advertising. Authentic style and desires may be less personal, and more tied to external socio-cultural positioning, than previously thought. Trend cycles accelerate with no pause in sight, spurred on through the instantaneousness of the internet and modern technologies, redirecting the goalpost for authentic fashion at each turn. Nowadays, authenticity can easily be mistaken for performativity, as it is based upon self-idealisation instead of autonomy and pushes one towards commodity consumption.
In this paper we argue that re-assessing our cultural necessity for normative authenticity is vital towards re-directing fashion's development towards a less exploitative and pollutant path. Moreover, by contesting the notion of authenticity in personal style, we can help deconstruct individualistic approaches to fashion identity which only encourage consumptive behaviours and hinder active engagement with sustainable and ethical fashion.