Design Activism

The fashion industry is becoming more aware of environmental sustainability issues, however there are many who do not wish to sacrifice their creative designs to meet the requirements for sustainable design.  The luxury apparel industry and the conspicuous consumers who purchase extremely high quality apparel and textile products usually do not have sustainability as a priority for purchasing. In order to change this, we need to focus on making sustainable design a more luxurious industry. To use the idea of design activism, we must create an event that will be for high class, wealthy, high status individuals who care about the social aspect of buying products. In the article Design Activism, Alastair Fuad-Luke quotes Ann Thorpe defining activism as, "taking intentional action to instigate change on behalf of a neglected group." The neglected group would be the consumer as defined earlier in this post.

I would like to create an event that would happen as often as fashion week in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan, etc. It would be a several day long event that would include shows and parties featuring 'socially active design' as Fuad-Luke states, "where the focus of the design is is society and its transition and/or transformation to a more sustainable way of living, working, and producing." To be able to attend the event, one would have to bring old clothing items that could either be recycled (if it was made from natural materials and natural dyes) or repurposed. It would be important to have an extensive, impressive guest list to encourage those to come, and join the "trend" of sustainable design. The hope would be to bring knowledge to this group of consumers, and to showcase the importance and also popularity of the new wave of environmental sustainability.

The most important thing I learned in this class is the affect of textiles and the production of fibers on the environment, and that there are high quality alternatives. I plan on using this information in the future while designing clothes, and using environmentally sustainable materials. This is also what I would like to learn more about after this class. I would like to learn more about the extensive textile alternatives, and the new developments that are currently in process.

Creative Composting

It is hard for many people to imagine turning old clothes into new clothes because it is rarely ever seen, and it is definitely not easy. As a result of all of the different restrictions and strict rules on what can and can not be recycled, it is a turn off for those who have any interest in composting their clothes. As we have seen in the model from C2CAD, one important aspect of sustainable and compostable apparel is the type of dye that can be used. There are certain dyes that are natural and do not harm the environment when composted. This idea gave me a new idea to make it easy and fun to purchase materials that are not only made from natural fibers, but that are also only dyed in natural and environmentally safe dyes.

I would create a storefront that housed a "do it yourself" design house. Customers would be able to come in, choose from a variety of different basic clothing items (t-shirts, blouses, skirts, pants, etc.) made of natural cotton and undyed. They would then be able to choose what color they want the item to be, and it would be dyed for them on an individual basis. The garments would dry over night and they would be able to come and pick up their merchandise the next day. This way every person could have a customizable wardrobe, and when they are done they can bring back their item to be recycled or composted by the store, and receive a discount on their next item.