Circular Fashion

Within the research group Circular Business we study a variety of sectors, but the expertise of professor Kim Poldner is centered on the fashion industry. On this page you find an overview of her activities and key publications on this topic.

Beeld: Kim Poldner dressed in a digital outfit by PositiveFibers.com.

• A Q&A with Kim Poldner on the questions she often receives when it comes to circular fashion.

Projects

• The Circular Fashion Lookbook showcases a diverse range of Dutch brands and novel business models in the circular fashion landscape. Published by P+, a Dutch magazine for sustainable entrepreneurship, in collaboration with Stichting Doen. Read the P+ special: Dutch Hausse,
• Circular Fashion Lab at Wageningen University & Research. Founded by Kim Poldner in 2017.

Education

• Circular fashion: Design as a catalyst for transformation. Msc course taught at EDHEC Business School, Lille, France.
• Circular fashion: Design, science and value in a sustainable clothing industry. edX MOOC developed by Kim Poldner, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands.
• Sourcing in a circular economy: How supplier management practices can drive a clothing label’s capability to design circular apparel. PhD project Nina Schmid, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Co-supervised by Kim Poldner, Judith Walls and Karolin Frankenberger.
• Digital fashion: a vehicle for the expression of identity on social media to combat depression amongst Generation Z during lockdown situations. Bsc graduation project Mariia Khvorostenko, The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Co-supervised by Kim Poldner.
• A positive business case for circular fashion brand Unravelau. Bsc graduation project Rianne van Etten, The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Co-supervised by Kim Poldner.
• The impact of digital fashion on the SDGs. Bsc graduation project Edyana de Sousa Vaz Martins, The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Co-supervised by Kim Poldner.

Key academic publications

• i-did: Social impact through circular business. Teaching case published by Emerald (2022).
• Reconsidering the circular economy rebound effect: Propositions from a case study of the Dutch Circular Textile Valley. Article in Journal of Cleaner Production (2021).
• Performing affirmation: Autoethnography as an activist approach to entrepreneurship. Book chapter (2020).
• Fashioning ethical subjectivity: The embodied ethics of entrepreneurial self-formation. Article in Organization (2019).
• Embodied multi-discursivity: An aesthetic process approach to sustainable entrepreneurship. Article in Business & Society (2017).
• Un-dress: Stories of ethical fashion entrepreneuring. PhD dissertation Kim Poldner (2013).