Meeting in Difference: Relational Responsibility in Fashion Encounters on the Silk Road

Abstract

This article reflects on the tensions and possibilities emerging from the 2023 Responsible Fashion Series held in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Drawing on situated perspectives from Kazakh, Indian, Celtic, and Aotearoa contexts, the paper explores how fashion can shift from extractive aesthetics to relational, pluralistic, and decolonial practices. Through collaborative workshops, dialogic encounters, and embodied practices, we examine how fashion can be reoriented as an affective site of cultural survivance, joy, and ecological reciprocity. We argue for pluriversal futures that centre land, language, and collective making as ethical foundations of responsible fashion.