Anneke Smelik

In this lecture I will explore how to take off from 3D: how to move on, ahead, or sideways from the ‘de’ in decolonizing, deconstructing and decentering the field of fashion. By now, as fashion scholars we probably know how to do interdisciplinarity. We may know how to go beyond binary oppositions by multiplying and diversifying theories and perspectives in fashion studies. We may recognise how to construct inclusive communities of scholars and practitioners. We are (albeit belatedly) learning to decolonize our teaching and our writing. And yet. We may need to push further towards an ethics of care if we want to achieve a more ethical fashion system as well as more radical and inclusive fashion studies. I suggest to employ the Buddhist practice of mindfulness as a way of achieving such deep processes of change. Mindfulness is understood as compassionate care, loving kindness and openhearted attention. A mindful approach to our practice as scholars will enhance not only our ethical competence, but also the quality of our research work, infusing knowledge production with a distributed and wide-ranging, transnational sense of justice, care and love.