Education for Sustainable Fashion: Transformative Learning, Literacy, and Systemic Responsibility

The environmental and social impacts of the global fashion industry demand educational responses that extend beyond technological innovation and regulatory reform. This paper advances a theoretical framework for Education for Sustainable Fashion grounded in transformative learning and sustainability literacy. Situating fashion within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the study highlights the industry’s interconnections with climate action, responsible consumption and production, labor justice, and economic resilience. Drawing on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the analysis argues that sustainable fashion education must integrate systems thinking, ethical reflection, critical digital literacy, and experiential engagement. Transformative learning theory provides the pedagogical foundation for challenging dominant consumption paradigms and fostering shifts in values, identities, and professional orientations. The paper further conceptualizes Fashion Literacy as a domain-specific articulation of sustainability literacy, encompassing cognitive understanding of lifecycle impacts, critical evaluation of supply chains and sustainability claims, and the enactment of responsible consumption practices. Emphasis is placed on curriculum integration, institutional transformation, and participatory learning environments capable of bridging knowledge and practice. By aligning fashion education with broader sustainability transitions, the framework contributes to the preparation of designers, educators, policymakers, and consumers who can participate critically and constructively in systemic change. Sustainable transformation in fashion is thus positioned as fundamentally educational, requiring reflective, ethically grounded, and culturally informed engagement.