Re:Create - The behavioural implications of sustainable service design in the fashion industry

Abstract

Due to emerging climate concerns, a growing pressure is put on the fashion industry to adopt circular business models which encourage sustainable usage of clothing. The clothing supply chain is currently both complicated and polluting. Paired with rising quantities of clothing sales, technological solutions will only temporarily tackle the symptoms of a deeply rooted issue, namely mass-consumerism and underutilisation. How can fashion companies encourage consumers to use their current clothes more often whilst consuming less, in a way that’s also attractive from a business perspective? This project investigates the behavioural implications of creating such a sustainable clothing service. Research is conducted in the context of King Louie: a Dutch, vintage-inspired womenswear brand.

In-depth interviews and surveys focussing on women around their 30s have revealed the following:
- Clothes can be appreciated due to functional needs (practical value or monetary/material value) or psychological needs (the value of self-expression, social levelling, having a hobby or aesthetics).
- Most women reorganise their wardrobe bi-anually; this makes them reflect on clothes.
- Friends and relatives can highly influence how clothes are valued and when new clothes are sought.

For most of these women, having and using clothes is part of a hobby and their identity, which increases the desire to own more clothes. These ‘Experiential clothing users’ would benefit from a clothing service that renews their clothes’ self-expression value through a social, qualitative experience... starting with a wardrobe re-organisation.


Based on this, Re:Create was developed: a digital wardrobe and peer-to-peer styling app. This service was designed by using an interdisciplinary method, combining service design with behavioural science (using the Behaviour Change Wheel approach).

The behavioural science behind Re:Create focusses on the use of ‘Persuasion’, Modelling’ and ‘Training’. Furthermore, it taps into women’s sense of identity and takes them on an emotional self-discovery journey that emphasises on the value of self-expression.

The sustainability vision behind Re:Create is that women can ‘shop in their own wardrobe’ before purchasing something new; this stimulates product-life extension and the reduction of consumption. If ‘new’ garments are needed, Re:Create’s second-hand webshop encourages re-using someone else’s clothes as a means of collective product-life extension.

The business value of Re:Create is that it helps a cluster of high-quality, sustainable brands gain brand exposure and possibly meet new consumer segments through its ‘network effect’. In the future, revenue from a self-controlled second-hand market can elevate circular business model implications.

Testing the behavioural principles of Re:Create reveals that the app can indeed be an enjoyable and valuable service. Participants learned to re-value clothes they hadn’t worn in a while, by matching
them in a different way. Although digitalising one’s wardrobe requires effort, women were willing to do this again in retrospect because the experience with Peer Stylists has given them a new perspective on their own wardrobe.

From a business and sustainability point of view, more research must be done in terms of viable partnerships that could help raise Re:Create to a fully sustainable yet financially-attractive level.