Have you ever
had a garment that you loved the feel of the fabric, but did not really care
much for the style? This could be one reason why consumers are likely to throw
garments away. The website eHow.com, states that four
million tons of textiles are sent to landfills each year, that’s 4.5% of solid
waste. The book Design Activism:
Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World, by Alastair Fuad-Luke,
discusses that one of the reasons why people are more apt to throw garments
away is because they have no emotional attachment to them. He labels consumers
into two different groups: under consumers, groups of people who are trying to
meet their basic physiological needs, and over consumers, groups of people who
must reduce their massive consumption habits and adopt more sustainable
strategies. As he continues to discuss the over consumer group, he develops
different strategies that can help these consumers become more sustainable. One
of these strategies is called a co-design strategy and is the inspiration for
my design concept.
My concept this
week is to develop a business that uses a co-design strategy, meaning consumers
work with designers to develop a customized product, which allows the consumer
to form an attachment to the product because they feel as though they made it.
This type of company will target the over consumer group and allow them to feel
as though they are helping the under consumer group. Within my business
customers will bring a couple of their garments they no longer wear to our
store, where they can assist designers in reconstructing a new garment that
they can rewear again. Another selling point of the company to gain a stronger
clientele, will be that if the customer does not want the left over scraps, we
will salvage them and develop them into another garment that will be donated
overseas to people who would be classified as under consumers. This concept is
one way of preventing garments from being sent to land-fills, while still
helping people in the under consumer category and the over consumer group.
Chayla-
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I like how you discussed a way to deal with both "overconsumers" and "underconsumers" concepts that are talked about in Design Activism. Sending left over scraps overseas is a great way to help with underconsumers. Also, if customers have garments that are falling apart they could still have it redesigned but then send the new garment overseas instead of just the scraps. Good job!
Great job on your blog! One thing that I wonder about is where the money is coming from to send clothing overseas. Would the clothing be more expensive to cover shipping costs? It would be neat to send them the ingredients of a piece of clothing (the scraps) with instructions so they could make the clothing and feel like part of the process of making their clothes. This would give them the sense of pride and closeness to an object talked about in Design Activism. Also, if we could help other countries make things themselves and teach them how to make a living, they would be better off rather than just giving them everything. Its like the saying "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach him HOW to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea! As for sending the scraps overseas, I would make the garments a little more expensive and justify charging more by making customers recognize they have a "one-of-a-kind" garment.
DeleteThis is a great concept, Chayla! In our past readings it has been made known that the apparel industry is one of the main reasons the land-fills are the way they are today. Similarly, Fuad Luke discussed how over-consumers with their mass flow of consumption have a large impact of the causes of global issues. Allowing customers to add their own personal touch is a great strength to this idea. Bringing in old garments and creating new unique pieces is something that has great potential to develop in the near future!
ReplyDelete