No. 5 (2025)
Essays

Meeting in Difference: Relational Responsibility in Fashion Encounters on the Silk Road

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  • Jennifer Whitty,
  • Angela Jansen,
  • Richa Sood,
  • Alua Duisenbek
Angela Jansen
Independent Researcher, Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion
Bio
Richa Sood
Indian Institute of Art and Design (IIAD), New Delhi, India
Bio
Alua Duisenbek
Independent Researcher, Republic of Kazakhstan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3600

Published 30-06-2025

Keywords

  • decolonial design,
  • Pluriversal fashion,
  • Extractive aesthetics,
  • cultural sustainability

How to Cite

Whitty, J., Jansen, A., Sood, R., & Duisenbek, A. (2025). Meeting in Difference: Relational Responsibility in Fashion Encounters on the Silk Road. Fashion Highlight, (5), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-3600

Copyright (c) 2025 Jennifer Whitty, Angela Jansen, Richa Sood, Alua Duisenbek

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article reflects on the tensions and possibilities emerging from the 2023 Responsible Fashion Series held in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Drawing on situated perspectives from Kazakh, Indian, Celtic, and Aotearoa contexts, the paper explores how fashion can shift from extractive aesthetics to relational, pluralistic, and decolonial practices. Through collaborative workshops, dialogic encounters, and embodied practices, we examine how fashion can be reoriented as an affective site of cultural survivance, joy, and ecological reciprocity. We argue for pluriversal futures that centre land, language, and collective making as ethical foundations of responsible fashion.

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References

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