Fashion for Social Innovation

Fashion Designers as Facilitators, Activists, Strategists, and Cultural Promoters

Abstract

This study examines design practices for social innovation in fashion through Ezio Manzini’s four modes of designer engagement: facilitator, activist, strategist, and cultural promoter. Using a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach based on literature review and comparative case analysis, the research investigates how designer engagement may contribute to social innovation and sustainability within the fashion system. The study analyses the practices of Stella McCartney, Ronaldo Fraga, Eileen Fisher, and Nalimo Atelier. The findings indicate that Manzini’s modes operate as predominant and overlapping orientations rather than as fixed categories and reveal mechanisms of resource recombination, collaboration, and capacity to act across the cases. They also highlight differences in scale, continuity, and potential replicability, showing that socially relevant design interventions should not be equated with industry-wide systemic transformation. By applying Manzini’s framework through comparative analysis attentive to transformative potential and limitations, the study contributes to a more critical understanding of fashion design as a practice of social innovation.