The Emotional Life of Clothes: Leveraging the connection between emotion and clothing to support circular fashion through sustainable lifestyles

Sustainable fashion initiatives exist, but they struggle to actually change how people behave — largely because they overlook what clothing means to people personally (Kania et al. 2018; Faludi 2025). Most current approaches rely on broad, one-size-fits-all assumptions about behaviour and impose top-down solutions. But without understanding what clothes personally mean to people, sustainability initiatives are unlikely to succeed. This project builds behavioural insights rooted in people’s emotional connections to their clothes. Focused on one UK region, it feeds into UN and UK circular fashion strategies and supports Economic and Social Research Council’s “understanding behaviour” priority.

Emotions aren’t fixed reactions — they’re judgements shaped by what we’ve learned (Dixon 2023), which means our emotional responses, and the behaviours they drive, can change (Barrett 2018). Emotion plays a major role in fashion, since how we buy and wear clothes is shaped by our personal histories (Banister 2023). Yet the fashion industry’s marketing rarely reflects this — it focuses instead on novelty and aspiration, creating a mismatch between how the industry sells clothes and how people actually feel about them (Wild 2016; 2024; Findlay & Reponen 2023). Even current debates about “emotional durability” in fast-fashion policy show that this emotion–fashion link is still poorly understood (Benson 2024; Fletcher 2012). This project addresses that gap by studying how people’s emotional attachment to clothing is experienced and how it changes over time. It deliberately reframes people as “wearers” rather than “consumers,” to emphasise their active role in caring for garments rather than simply buying and discarding them. The aim is to generate new insight into how emotion can shape the stories and policies around buying, repairing, recycling and replacing clothes — and to clarify the role fashion intermediaries play in supporting responsible growth within regional fashion economies.

The project is guided by one central question: How can the connection between emotion and clothing be leveraged to support circular fashion through sustainable lifestyles? This informs three objectives and corresponding phases of work.

The research is based in Greater Manchester, one of the UK’s recognised “creative capitals” (Labour 2024). Cities are major hubs for buying and discarding clothes, and local authorities play a key role in shaping behaviour (Mörsen 2024; Vladimirova et al. 2024). Manchester — sometimes called the “world’s fast-fashion capital” because of its high rate of single-use clothing (Hawkins 2024) — is an ideal setting for this research thanks to its diverse population and its significance in UK clothing consumption. Biannual surveys commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) also show that local attitudes to sustainable living (e.g. environmental care, recycling) closely match national trends.

The project draws a distinction between big “F” Fashion — the industry — and small “f” fashion — the everyday practice of wearing clothes (Jansen 2020). By examining the gap between the two, it aims to show how greater emotional awareness could support more sustainable lifestyles. This means focusing on three groups — wearers, intermediaries (journalists and influencers), and the relationship between them — since this relationship plays a central role in shaping what fashion means to people.

The study brings together four stakeholder groups across Manchester’s fashion ecosystem: higher education (fashion academics and students), wearers (community groups), fashion intermediaries (journalists and influencers), and GMCA’s Sustainable Consumption and Production team. The approach treats a shift in mindset as a necessary first step toward real change, aiming to drive sustainable lifestyles and circular fashion through better cooperation and resource use — empowering local participants in the process (GMCA 2022). Ultimately, the project offers a model that could be replicated in other UK metropolitan areas, supporting locally-led decision-making.

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC: UKRI6344)

Project value: £650,000.

Project team (Group members in bold):

  • Dr Benjamin Wild, Man. Met. (Lead)
  • Professor Emma Banister, University of Manchester (Co-Lead)
  • Dr Jo Jenkinson, Man. Met. (Co-Lead)
  • Jolene Sheehan, Joy Ethic (Co-Lead)

Project partners:

  • Greater Manchester Combined Authority: Sustainable Consumption and Production Team
  • Heard Storytelling

Project duration: 30 months: October 2026 – March 2030