Beyond Fashion: Posthumanism as a Sustainable Business Model (2000 - 2025)

This thesis investigates whether posthumanist values can inform viable business models in the fashion industry. Against the backdrop of intensifying environmental and social critiques of fashion, the research examines how posthumanism, a framework that reconsiders value, agency, and responsibility across human and nonhuman actors, can move beyond theory into applied practice. The analysis is structured around five key posthuman principles: distributed agency, relationality, material agency, becoming, and undoing dualisms. A comparative case study method was used, drawing on expert interviews, internship-based fieldwork, other primary sources and secondary sources. The study focuses on Die Kees, a Dutch brand rooted in posthuman philosophy, and Allbirds, a global fashion sustainability-oriented company. Die Kees demonstrates strong material ethics and design integrity, but faces constraints in visibility, capacity, revenues and scale. Allbirds, while embedded in the dominant market system, offers insights into how aspects of communication, framing, and growth might inform posthuman-aligned models, supporting the broader aim of exploring whether posthumanism can function within the very system it critiques. Situated within the historical evolution of sustainable fashion, following the rise of fast fashion in the early 2000s and shaped by shifts from ethical to circular, regenerative, and now posthuman design approaches, this research positions posthumanism as a distinct framework for fashion business innovation. The findings suggest that although posthuman values are difficult to sustain under current economic pressures, they can nonetheless shape viable business models when supported by narrative clarity, strategic compromises, and financial adaptability. At the same time, scalable brands like Allbirds offer practical insights into how visibility and framing might be adapted, while also revealing the tensions and trade-offs that come with aligning ethical values to market expectations.