Project Brief
Fast fashion has disastrous impacts on the environment, including massive water pollution. Overproduction and overconsumption of cheaply made clothing affect the global water crisis in multiple ways. Fast fashion heavily pollutes rivers and oceans all over the world with plastic wastes and toxic chemicals.
The textile industry uses enormous amounts of hazardous chemicals for farming, washing, bleaching, dyeing, finishing, and treating fabrics. It pollutes the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.
Current Solutions
1. “Eco” Collections From Fashion Brands
One way is to make clothes more sustainably. Several firms have launched “eco” collections which use organic and recycled materials, including H&M Conscious, Adidas x Parley and Zara Join Life.
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2. Purchase or Rent Second Hands Clothes
Another way is to buy second-hand clothes from charity shops and jumble sales to extend the life of clothes. Renting clothes is another way to access new pieces.
Why threadify?
There are so many clothes recycling projects, what sets threadify apart from the others? As I know, there are brands have the system allows customers trade their clothes in for credits. However, there is a crucial problem: those credits are meant to be used for purchasing new clothes, which creates more demand of production. Threadify files every recycled pieces with their material and give the user credits based on the material, instead of the original price. How the customer uses credits is to redeem materials that equals to what they recycled, then they can either choose a ready-to-wear product using the same material or make their own pieces in a workshop with guidance.
User Research
To gain a better understanding of the consumption cycle of the fashion industry, research based on customer behavior is crucial. A recent survey provides insights into how people handle their unwanted clothes and their attitudes towards secondhand fashion. By analyzing this data, we can gain a better understanding of how to encourage more sustainable fashion practices and reduce textile waste.
Part 1: Questionnaire
01. What's your age?
02. How often do you buy new clothes?
03. How do you typically acquire new clothing items?
04. What is the most important factor for you when selecting a new fashion item?
05. How do you dispose of or re-purpose clothing items that you no longer want?
06. What kind of cement is the best for a plate of pasta?
07. Are you open to wearing second-hand clothing?
08. Why are you hesitating or unwilling to wear second-hand pieces?
- More than half (52%) of the participants get new clothes within every 3 months, or even every month, this indicates a trend towards fast fashion.
- Appearance is the main factor that motivates the participants (53%) to buy new fashion items, price and comfortableness are also significant.
- 95% of the participants tend to get new clothes than thrifting, and most of them (56%) prefer to shop online. This suggests that online shopping has become a more preferred option due to its convenience.
- A considerable proportion of participants (44%) are willing to wear second-hand clothes, while only a minority (25%) are not willing.
- Although many people are open to wearing used clothes. The result suggests that only a few participants (5%) consider thrifting as their primary way to acquire clothing items. This maybe because there is still a stigma attached to wearing used clothes due to their concern about hygiene (44%) and quality (27%).
Part 2: Interview
