[Commlist] Call for Papers: ‘Sustainable Fashion and Textile Futures: Intersections of Heritage, Craft and Innovation’

Call for Papers: International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles

Special Issue: ‘Sustainable Fashion and Textile Futures: Intersections 
of Heritage, Craft and Innovation’

Special Issue Guest Editors
Pratibha Mishra
Professor & HoD, Department of Fashion Design & Department of Interior 
Design, School of Architecture & Design, Manipal University Jaipur, India
(pratibha.mishra /at/ jaipur.manipal.edu) 
<mailto:(pratibha.mishra /at/ jaipur.manipal.edu)>

Deepshikha Sharma

Associate Professor, Department of Fashion Design, School of 
Architecture & Design, Manipal University Jaipur, India
(deepshikha.sharma /at/ jaipur.manipal.edu) 
<mailto:(deepshikha.sharma /at/ jaipur.manipal.edu)>

To view the full call click here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-sustainable-fashion-textiles#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-sustainable-fashion-textiles#call-for-papers>

The International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles(SFT) invites 
contributions to the Special Issue ‘Sustainable Fashion and Textile 
Futures: Intersections of Heritage, Craft and Innovation’. The issue 
investigates how heritage knowledge, craft practices, material cultures 
and carefully governed technological innovation can contribute to 
socially just, culturally grounded and environmentally responsible 
fashion and textile systems.

Fashion and textiles sit at a difficult intersection. The sector is 
under pressure to reduce resource use, waste and emissions, while also 
addressing opaque supply chains, precarious work, cultural extraction 
and short product lifecycles. Heritage craft systems are frequently 
presented as an easy sustainability solution. That claim needs scrutiny. 
Traditional craftsmanship contains accumulated knowledge of materials, 
repair, local production, natural processes and intergenerational skill 
transmission; UNESCO’s safeguarding framework explicitly recognizes the 
skills and knowledge associated with traditional craftsmanship as 
intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO 2003). Yet craft is not 
automatically equitable, low-impact or economically secure. Artisans may 
remain excluded from design authorship, intellectual-property rights, 
data ownership and the financial value generated from their cultural labour.

Cultural sustainability in fashion requires more than incorporating 
craft motifs or handmade techniques into commercial collections. It 
concerns the continuation, recognition and fair transmission of textile 
knowledge, skills and cultural expression across generations 
(Boța-Moisin 2017; Fletcher 2014). It also demands attention to who 
defines innovation, who owns the resulting data and designs, and who 
benefits when heritage is translated for contemporary markets. Research 
on craft-led sustainability therefore needs to address material and 
environmental questions alongside labour, gender, community agency, 
cultural rights, market access and governance.

Technological change intensifies these questions. Digital documentation, 
virtual archives, traceability systems, e-commerce platforms, artificial 
intelligence, augmented reality and smart materials may assist 
preservation, provenance and market access. They can also reproduce 
unequal control over knowledge and data.

In the European policy context, Digital Product Passports are being 
developed to provide standardized digital access to product information 
that can support sustainability, circularity, traceability and 
regulatory compliance (European Commission 2026). Their relevance to 
fashion and textile value chains is clear. Their implications for 
artisan enterprises, informal producers, small firms and heritage-based 
production systems remain insufficiently examined.

This Special Issue seeks rigorous work that moves beyond celebratory 
accounts of both craft and technology. It welcomes empirical, 
conceptual, methodological and practice-based submissions that examine 
the conditions under which heritage, craft and innovation can contribute 
to sustainable fashion and textile futures. Particular attention is 
encouraged for scholarship based in the Global South, work with artisan 
communities and craft clusters, and research that takes community 
knowledge, consent, attribution and benefit-sharing seriously.

Suggested themes

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  *

    Heritage crafts, traditional textiles and sustainable fashion systems

  *

    Craft communities, artisan livelihoods, social sustainability and
    equitable value creation

  *

    Indigenous, vernacular and place-based textile knowledge

  *

    Traditional dress, identity, memory, folklore and cross-cultural
    fashion narratives

  *

    Cultural heritage conservation, regeneration and contemporary
    fashion practice

  *

    Craft revival, craft clusters and collaboration between artisans,
    designers, brands and industry

  *

    Material heritage, natural fibres, local materials and sustainable
    textile innovation

  *

    Traditional knowledge systems, repair, reuse, remanufacturing and
    circular textile practices

  *

    Zero-waste design, low-impact production and resilient craft-based
    material systems

  *

    Gender, labour, care work and intergenerational knowledge
    transmission in craft sectors

  *

    Cultural appropriation, authorship, intellectual property, consent
    and benefit-sharing in fashion and textiles

  *

    Digital documentation, digital archives and preservation of textile
    and craft heritage

  *

    Digital Product Passports, provenance, traceability and transparency
    in heritage and craft value chains

  *

    Data ownership, digital inclusion and technological capability in
    artisan and small-enterprise contexts

  *

    Artificial intelligence, parametric design, augmented reality,
    virtual reality and the ethics of craft digitization

  *

    Smart textiles, sustainable technologies and material innovation

  *

    Digital platforms, e-commerce and market access for artisan enterprises

  *

    Sustainable fashion communication, consumer engagement and
    representations of heritage

  *

    Museums, exhibitions, tourism, retail and the commodification of
    craft heritage

  *

    Participatory design, co-design, design education and
    community-centred methods

  *

    Climate adaptation, material scarcity and sustainable futures for
    textile and craft communities

  *

    Methodological and conceptual advances in heritage, craft and
    sustainable fashion research

This list is indicative, not exhaustive. We invite submissions that 
critically examine the intersections of cultural heritage, craft, 
sustainability and innovation in fashion and textile contexts.

Contribution types

SFT invites contributions in the following formats:

  *

    Research Articles:6000–8000 words

Submission guidelines

Please submit via the link below:

https://submission.pubkit.co/publisher/29/journal/670/login 
<https://submission.pubkit.co/publisher/29/journal/670/login>

All submissions must follow Intellect’s house style:
https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-editors-and-contributors#style-guide 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-editors-and-contributors#style-guide>

Authors are responsible for securing permissions for all copyrighted 
images, illustrations, tables and other third-party material. All 
manuscripts will be assessed through the journal’s independent and 
anonymous peer-review process. Final acceptance remains subject to 
editorial decision.

Provisional schedule

The special issue is scheduled for Volume 7, Issue 1 (2028). The 
following timeline is proposed for approval:

· Full-paper submission deadline:30 April 2027

· Peer-review process completed:30 September 2027

· Final revised manuscript deadline:30 January 2028

· Issue publication:30 April 2028

All dates are subject to confirmation by the Journal Editor and 
Intellect Limited.

References cited in the CFP

Boța-Moisin, A. (2017), ‘The cultural sustainability of fashion: The 
role of traditional craftsmanship’, in K. Niinimäki (ed.), Sustainable 
Fashion in a Circular Economy, Aalto University, pp. 1–14. [Please 
verify page range and final bibliographic details against the source you 
wish to cite.]

European Commission (2026), ‘Digital Product Passport’, European 
Commission,https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/digital-product-passport_en 
<https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/digital-product-passport_en>. 
Accessed 29 August 2026.

Fletcher, K. (2014), Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, 
2nd ed., London: Routledge.

UNESCO (2003), Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible 
Cultural Heritage, Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Organization,https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention 
<https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention>. Accessed 29 August 2026.
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