Slit- och återanvänd - ett nytt samhälle : Att tolka en svensk hållbar klädindustri i hållbara diskurser

Sammanfattning: This bachelor’s thesis aim is to evaluate the discussion of recycle and upcycle as two approaches to interpret sustainability in the clothing industry of a Swedish contemporary context. The companies Rave Review and Swedish Stockings will exemplify companies working with and, above all, communicating their work with upcycle and recycle. We will analyze how choosing to work with the approaches can create value, for both the companies and within the discourses of the two approaches. The research material for the thesis are, except for the websites of the two companies, a variety of articles from well-established fashion magazines to news sites and financial press. This enables a more faceted analysis, mixing sources from different industries. The selected material consists only of contemporary sources dated between 2017 and 2020 to delimit the analysis for a contemporary Swedish fashion industry. We will analyze the discursive construction of upcycle and recycle within a narrative of sustainable fashion. Through a codification of the material certain recurrent themes were identified, which later maps out the foundation of the analysis. Our contribution to previous research will touch on the symbolic values attributed to clothing that has undergone a sustainable process, in this case upcycle and recycle. The thesis proves that the kind of attention the companies gain from a variety of different magazines and press can legitimize credibility and symbolic assets to the companies. The result shows that working with the creation of sustainable fashion depending on how this is communicated can ascribe value to both the company and the approach they work with.