The commons is an understanding of relationships that bind communities together. They are created by collectively caring for social networks, knowledge, cultural practices, heritage and resources which are shared for the benefit of everyone in the community.

Common resources can be natural, cultural or digital and are accessible by all members of the commons. Commons are preserved, managed and democratically governed through communal stewardship, ownership and use to reassure interconnectedness among people, communities and the environment. Contrary to profit-oriented, private ownership and individuality ways of being, the commons are people-led systems that promote sufficiency, care and wellbeing.

Prior to the transition to capitalism, most people managed and lived off common land and resources, which were then privatised through colonial violence and enclosures, disrupting communal ways of being, living and provisioning. Contemporary, neoliberal policies continue to erode common spaces, resources, and ways of organising life.

The concept of the commons as a resource is rooted in the idea that resources are best managed collectively by those in close proximity to or regular use of the resource rather than privately or by the state to ensure that they remain accessible for future generations.

Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for Economic Science for demonstrating how communities can manage commons through collective and non-hierarchical decision making and governance without resorting to top-down regulation or privatisation. Feminist perspectives, like that of Silvia Federcici, also understand reproductive labour and care work as part of the commons to amplify the importance of social relations that create and sustain the commons.

In the clothing commons, clothing is made by the people, for the people. Fashion, clothing and textiles culture exists, not to serve profit-growth but the customs and needs of ordinary people and their communities. We need fashion, clothing and textile systems that are based on connections and relationships between people, nature and all beings. This will look differently in various places and among different groups; there is no single way to build a clothing commons. Around the world there are communities and fashion projects that are upholding and celebrating traditional practices and others who are reimagining what fashion could be. This could mean groups that are upcycling and hosting clothing swaps, or equally those practising regenerative community-led agriculture or preserving traditional techniques. OurCommon.Market celebrates a world of diverse, community-rooted clothing systems and brings them together.

Fashion is a culture that has become entwined with capitalism. It has become an extractive industry that pursues growth at any cost, leading to rampant overproduction and overconsumption. Fashion practices that exist within the commons don’t need to solely pursue growth. They exist to provide for the needs of communities and steward their surrounding ecosystems, collective wealth and culture for future generations. But with little need for growth, they become hidden under the shadow of a consumption-based Fashion system. By joining together a network of clothing commons, we can move away from excess and towards sufficiency, regenerative practices and a thriving diversity of fashion, textiles and clothing cultures. OurCommon.Market aims to connect and support these local projects, creating a space - a digital common so to say - for exchange, learning and solidarity between different people and communities.

On top of bringing visibility to different fashion, clothing and textiles commoners, OurCommon.Markets wants to cherish a commoning culture on our social media platform OC.M square, in which different people and communities come together to foster reciprocal sense of exchange and collectively manage knowledge and resources shared and created on the platform.