Professor Kate Fletcher
Professor of Sustainability, Design and Fashion Systems
Kate Fletcher (PhD) is a Professor of Sustainability, Design and Fashion in the Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Adjunct Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Her work, including that on systems change, post-growth fashion, fashion localism, decentring durability and nature relations both defines and challenges the field of fashion, textiles and sustainability. She has written and/or edited 13 books available in eight languages, and in 2022 she was identified by author Margaret Atwood as a visionary. Kate is a co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. Her most recent work is about design, clothing and nature.
Photo credit: Rafa Aparicio
Research
Books
Fletcher, K., 2024. 'Fletcher's Almanac Nature Encounters and Fashion Systems Through the Year', Quickthorn.
Fletcher, K., 2022. 'Outfitting'.
Fletcher, K., Pierre, L.S., Tham, M., 2019. 'Design and nature: A partnership'.
, 2019. 'Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan'.
Fletcher, K., 2019. 'Wild Dress Clothing and the Natural World', Uniformbooks.
Fletcher, K., 2016. 'Craft of use: Post-growth fashion'.
Fletcher, K., Tham, M., 2014. 'Routledge handbook of sustainability and fashion'.
Fletcher, K., 2013. 'Sustainable fashion and textiles: Design journeys, second edition'.
Fletcher, K., Grose, L., 2012. 'Fashion & Sustainability Design for Change', Hachette UK.
Fletcher, K., 2012. 'Sustainable fashion and textiles: Design journeys'.
Book Chapters
Fletcher, K., 2025. 'A LARGER, LESS HUMANIZED DESIGN COMMUNITY'. In Design Beyond the Human Transdisciplinary Conversations about the Planet, pp. 247-262.
Fletcher, K., 2024. 'IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT MOUNTAINS YOU KNOW: NATURE-CLOTHING WRITING AS DESIGN PRACTICE'. In Designing Knowledge Emerging Perspectives in Design Studies Practices, pp. 239-253.
Fletcher, K., 2020. 'Fashion, Fast and Slow'. In Time in Fashion Industrial Antilinear and Uchronic Temporalities, pp. 69-72.
Fletcher, K., 2019. 'Folding in'. In Design and Nature A Partnership, pp. 193-197.
Fletcher, K., 2014. 'Design for Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles'. In Handbook of Fashion Studies, pp. 557-574.
Fletcher, K., 2014. 'Other fashion systems'. In Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion, pp. 15-24.
Fletcher, K., 2013. 'Sustainable Fashion'. In Handbook of Design for Sustainability, pp. 283-298.
Fletcher, K., 2009. 'Systems change for sustainability in textiles'. In Sustainable Textiles Life Cycle and Environmental Impact, pp. 369-380.
Journal Articles
Maldini, I., Klepp, I.G., Fletcher, K., 2025. 'Avoiding synthetic fibres by choice: Strategies employed by businesses and their policy recommendations', International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles, 4 (2), pp. 299-317.
Fletcher, K., Fitzpatrick, A., 2024. 'Braiding As Research Method: Building Relational Understanding for Fashion', Fashion Practice, 16 (2), pp. 311-328.
Fletcher, K., Fitzpatrick, A., 2024. 'Decentering Durability: Decarbonizing and Decolonizing Ideas and Practices of Long-Lasting Clothes', Fashion Theory Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 28 (7), pp. 1015-1041.
Fletcher, K., 2023. 'Gender, fashion, sustainability', Clothing Cultures, 10 (2), pp. 117-130.
Fletcher, K., 2022. 'Life Writing as an Ecological Research Method', Fashion Practice, 14 (2), pp. 193-202.
Fletcher, K., 2022. 'Perspectives: earth rising', Sustainability Science Practice and Policy, 18 (1), pp. 129-131.
Fletcher, K., Maki, R., 2022. 'Transnational Fashion Sustainability: Between and Across the Gulf and the UK', Fashion Theory Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 26 (4), pp. 509-524.
Fletcher, K., 2020. 'An Interview with River Dean', Fashion Theory Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 24 (6), pp. 959-962.
Fletcher, K., Grimstad Klepp, I., 2018. 'A Note from the Editors of Fashion Practice', Fashion Practice, 10 (2), pp. 133-138.
Fletcher, K., Vittersų, G., 2018. 'Local Food Initiatives and Fashion Change: Comparing Food and Clothes to Better Understand Fashion Localism', Fashion Practice, 10 (2), pp. 160-170.
Fletcher, K., 2018. 'The Fashion Land Ethic: Localism, Clothing Activity, and Macclesfield', Fashion Practice, 10 (2), pp. 139-159.
Fletcher, K., 2017. 'Exploring demand reduction through design, durability and 'usership' of fashion clothes', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, 375 (2095).
Brooks, A., Fletcher, K., Francis, R.A., Rigby, E.D., Roberts, T., 2017. 'Fashion, sustainability, and the anthropocene', Utopian Studies, 28 (3), pp. 482-504.
Fletcher, K., Williams, D., 2013. 'Fashion Education in Sustainability in Practice', Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, 17 (2), pp. 81-88.
Fletcher, K., 2012. 'Durability, Fashion, Sustainability: The Processes and Practices of Use', Fashion Practice, 4 (2), pp. 221-238.