A better textile life

Abstract

One of the biggest downsides to the growing fashion
industry is its unsustainable and wasteful character.
Currently, the fashion industry produces, distributes and
utilizes clothing in a linear way, making it among the main
industries responsible for the negative environmental
and social aspects of sustainability (Madsen, Hartlin,
Perumalpillai, Selby, & Aumônier, 2007).
In recent years several studies have addressed the potential
of the Circular Economy by taking a more consumer led
approach to reduce the environmental and societal impact
of the fashion industry (Armstrong, Niinimäki, Kujala,
Karell, & Lang, 2015; Laitala, Boks & Klepp, 2015; Mugge,
2017). However, the role of educating consumers by design,
something that is seen by industry leaders and researchers
as crucial if we want them to play more active roles in
enabling a circular fashion economy, remains unanswered
and is therefore explored in this thesis.
Fashion prototypes that fill the gap between fast fashion
and slow fashion are used as design case studies and offer a
different perspective on designing for a more efficient and
thoughtful use of resources. By qualitative interviews with
four types of millennial consumers and the identification
of six opportunity areas, the sock service SwapSocks was
designed, that improves the environmental impact of
socks by saving 38% of CO2 emissions and 50% of energy,
compared to traditional socks. In addition to this, it
educates consumers towards a better textile life by actively
involving them in the swapping process and encourages them by means of packaging design, a website and online
community to apply the principles of the service to other
fashion items in their wardrobe as well.
By providing a suitable solution for sustainable fashion
consumption, this thesis addresses the potential of
design to educate consumers towards a better textile life
and therefore contributes to ongoing research efforts
in the field of the circular economy and circular fashion
design. As our changing mindsets are going to be key for
our circular futures, the report illustrates, several future
opportunities for the fashion industry specifically for
millennial consumers, and identifies four types of millennial
consumers. These, together with the final design solution,
could help to inspire the fashion world and bring industry
actors across the network together in finding solutions for a
better textile world.