Wearing is an Agricultural Act
“Clothing is so much more than just fashion it sends important signals about our place in society, both actual and perceived, and is a critical element of our personal narrative—the daily, even hourly, choices we make to communicate our histories, desires, affiliations, and self-image.” - Rebecca Burgess
Our clothes carry the stories of culture, place, and ecosystems. Yet, these rich narratives are often lost within the complex, untraceable supply chains and globalised production systems. To acknowledge wearing as an agricultural act means choosing to nurture a local, regenerative and transparent fashion culture. A fashion culture that supports local farmers, producers, and skilled makers by nurturing ecosystems and strengthening the communities they depend on.
By focusing on place-based clothing, we deepen our understanding of the labour and resources involved in creating our clothes. When we can visit the sheep that provide wool, observe the care they need to thrive, and meet the people who make our clothes, we develop a profound respect for the garments produced. These relationships between people, land, makers, designers, and processors become the true story of the garment, giving it meaning beyond brand narratives. Investing in these relationships encourages people to assume more responsibility for how they wear and use their clothes.
The movement was founded in 2010 by Rebecca Burgess, following a personal mission to create and wear a wardrobe for one year made from locally grown fibres and natural dyes produced by local labour, all within her region in Northern California. What started as a relationship-building process with the local farmers, designers, and producers led to the formation of the first Fibershed, supporting the development of local fibre-producing communities and the creation of regenerative soil-to-soil textiles.
A Fibershed describes a geographic region that produces garments and textiles using local labour, dyes and fibres and is based on a watershed or foodshed and is a regional network of farmers, processors, designers, makers and consumers. The Fibreshed ethos goes beyond sustainability to something that is truly regenerative, it strengthens regional resilience through increasing sovereignty over fibre and clothing production. It considers the entire system in which fibres, textiles, and garments are produced, worn, and disposed of. The movement honours local, place-based cultural practices of land stewardship and skilled craft to diverge from destructive legacies associated with the textile and fashion industry’s extractive colonial heritage. Following Rebecca’s footsteps, other individuals and organisations began to envision an alternative to the business-as-usual current fashion supply chain, and her work has inspired a global movement of over 50 Fibreshed affiliates.
Shifting the current broken fashion system towards a future built on local, relational supply networks and meaningful purpose-made clothing is no small task. However, radical transformation is possible. It will require reframing fashion within the context of situating fibre and fashion within local food production systems centred around collaboration. It must balance global perspectives with hyper-local solutions, ensuring changes are culturally informed and based on alternative materials and resources available in each area.
Recognising that wearing is an agricultural act invites us to champion transparency, accountability, care, and reciprocity in the relationships that influence what and how we choose to wear, wherever we fall along the supply chain, from farmers to conscious consumers.
Words by Tasha Clements
This article is part of our first Issue Nº1 Wool – you can order it here.
