I was aware of the Eileen Fisher brand of clothing, but never knew the scope of her mission for sustainability and social responsibility. Upon reading of her brand’s initiative and the feats accomplished, it seems like EF has gone into just about every aspect of the fashion business and sought plans to make them more sustainable. From choice of fabrics to dyeing to second hand selling to worker benefits to empowering women, Eileen Fisher has really gone all out in ensuring that her brand leaves a positive impact on the industry and consumer. This is the first brand that I am aware of that has had such a profound commitment to moving towards better practices.
I find it incredible that Fisher has such passion towards sustainability as well as empowering people. Not only does she aim for lessened impacts on the earth, she is a strong proponent for women’s empowerment and encouraging employees to take more leadership. Fisher seems like the complete opposite of a competitive, for profit CEO. She is willing jump through as many hoops as possible to become more sustainable, even if it means spending large amounts of money on new developments, as shown in her drive to find a solution to chlorine usage in wool. Rather than seeking the spotlight, she encourages her employees to make contributions that can strongly impact the brand positively.
It is wonderful that Eileen Fisher is such as accessible brand, because the more people shop there, the more the brand is able to reach its sustainability goals. It was a smart move to take initiative to include younger consumers in their target market because sustainability should not only be for a certain age range. Young people have more and more buying power with much more influence on the fashion industry. Bringing more younger women into their brand will only make it more widely known and more popular to buy sustainable clothing. While the brand now targets a younger crowd, it is still good that EF has maintained their classical silhouettes that do not follow the fast changing trends. With similar designs over the years, consumers don’t need to constantly buy more and can keep their EF merchandise for a much longer time. Ultimately, EF has an incredible vision and initiative that should be emulated in many other clothing brands, and I hope they are able to reach their Vision 2020 goal.
Hethorn had a unique solution of how to use design thinking to push fashion into a more sustainable direction through focus on the individual rather than categories of people. Her emphasis on the value of clothes in relation to individual people showed that while there needs to be a change in how the fashion industry functions, there also needs to be a change in how designers view the effects of fashion on people. From the beginning of the fashion life cycle, the designer must envision clothes’ relationship with their wearers in order to design them to carry value. With such design thinking, customers can establish emotional attachments to clothes and keep them around longer, rather than tossing them out.
Looking to my own experience and relationship with my clothes, I definitely relate to Hethorn’s words. Specific pieces of clothing in my closet have been worn frequently for years, because they either have much versatility or have unique design elements that make me want to wear them more. With each wear, I become more and more attached to specific pieces, since they have been with me through so many different experiences. Even if I could easily find a replacement for these garments, I wouldn’t want to. I’ve noticed that the pieces that have become staples in my closet are usually ones with specific designs that I don’t see most people around me wearing. These garments allow me to stand out, empowering me to feel unique. While they weren’t necessarily sourced by sustainable means, they are sustainable in their relationship to my individuality. Meanwhile, my clothes that are marketed to the masses to match new trends have only been worn a handful of times before they retreat to the back of my closet. People’s own emotional attachment to their clothes is a powerful tool for sustainability, because these pieces are less likely to be thrown out and replaced. Thus, I understand Hethorn’s advocacy towards designing for the individual.
However, I wonder how this can be fully implemented into the fashion industry for consumption by the masses. Individual designing would no doubt allow for more increased value attached to clothing, but how does this operate on a large scale? With millions of consumers with specific and differing tastes, how do companies go about designing for individuals without having to increasingly hike up their prices? Custom tailoring exists, but these aren’t the most accessible to many people. Hethorn’s points are very convincing, so I look forward to seeing how they can be applied to the real world.
During this recitation, I paired with Jonathan Lin to build three circuits with Arduino. The materials used were:
1 Arduino Uno
1 USB A to B cable
1 breadboard
1 buzzer
2 LEDs
2 220 ohm resistors
2 10K ohm resistors
2 pushbuttons
2 arcade buttons
A handful of jumper cables
1 Multimeter
Circuit 1
Building this circuit was relatively easy, since we used the picture provided on the Arduino site to build on the breadboard and Arduino. We made sure to get the LED positioned in the right way with its polarity, connecting the resistor to the breadboard, then to the Arduino. After copying the code from the Arduino site into Jonathan’s computer, we were able to get the LED to dim and brighten.
Circuit 2
This circuit was also very easy to assemble. We only needed to connect the speaker to the breadboard, then connect the breadboard to Arduino with two jumper cables. The result was a short tune after the code was run.
Circuit 3
This circuit was the most challenging to build, since there was so much going on in the picture given by Tinkercad. To make this two person button clicker game, I focused on putting the speaker, LEDs, buttons, and resistors on the breadboard while Jonathan connected wires from the breadboard to Arduino. We made sure to use the right resistors in the correct positions by testing their charge with a multimeter. Once everything was put in place, the code would run, but the LEDs wouldn’t light up when the time was up. The code was running normally, since we could see which button had won, but it wasn’t relaying on the board. We then switched the LEDs around to make sure we weren’t putting them in the wrong direction, which led to some progress. However, it still wasn’t right, since only one LED would light up, regardless of which button was pushed more times. After calling Tristan over, we realized that the resistor on the side of the LED that kept turning on wasn’t connected properly to the other elements. After making this adjustment, we were able to get the LEDs to work properly, and thus began competing with each other to see who could push the button the fastest. With this success, we proceeded to replace the switches with buttons made in the previous recitation, and were able to get the same effect.
Schematic
Circuit 4
With some extra time, we attempted to construct a four person clicker game with the group across the table from us. Jonathan worked on altering the code to accommodate for the two extra buttons. We then disconnected the other team’s breadboard from their Arduino and proceeded to connect the loose wires into our Arduino, plugging into power, ground, and ports 4 and 5. With the two breadboards connected to the Arduino, we tried running Jonathan’s altered code, but unfortunately only the original two buttons showed up on the screen. By this time, class had ended, so we weren’t able to successfully complete this circuit.
Question 1
Technology is one of the most important elements of my daily life. It is integral for me to communicate with people, write papers, take pictures, get around, and consume entertainment. Technology is embedded into most people’s lives. In today’s age, people have become dependent on technology, such as phones and computers, in order to carry out basic functions, such as talking to someone or getting lunch. Technology is such a prevalent part of my life that the first thing I do in the morning is check my phone for updates. Whenever I have a spare couple minutes, I always turn to my phone to keep myself occupied. Now, it is more and more unimaginable to go a day without a phone or laptop, since everything is on our phones or computers. In China, keeping a phone on you is even more necessary, with the usage of QR codes and mobile paying, making even cash obsolete.
While my daily technology usage comes from complicated and sophisticated new innovation and design, I also engage with technology in simpler ways, as in the circuits built in this recitation. Through these circuits, we were able to build our own little pieces of technology by connecting different elements together. Through physical and computer programming, we were able to make an LED dim, play a tune on a speaker, and compete with each other on a simple game console. These circuits show that technology isn’t always super complicated, instead, it only takes a few components to recreate real life technologies on a breadboard.
Igoe and O’Sullivan’s text explains the basics of physical computing, breaking down the different elements of a computer and how to distinguish different kinds of hardware functions. They write that a computer stores information, defying time and space in order to rearrange ideas and follow commands. Computers see us as sedentary creatures simply pushing buttons, clicking, and listening in order to make commands. However, we should express ourselves fully in order to create new forms of the computer, so that it can be more advanced. This leads to my definition of interactivity, which is two or more participants engaging with each other, taking in information and putting out a response unique to that action. It isn’t premeditated or controlled, but follows the natural course of both participants’ actions. It isn’t as simple as pushing a button and getting feedback, it’s having a conversation in which responses depend on each other’s unique actions.
Question 2
With 100,000 LEDs at my disposal, I would use them in a large interactive art piece in public spaces, connecting two parts of the world. 50,000 LEDs would be on one side of the world, while the other half would be on the direct opposite side of the world. At each location, the LEDs would be arranged on a large wall, acting as a mirror to those walking in front of it. Through motion and heat sensors, a person walking in front of one LED wall would see their figure lit up in the LEDs in the color red, but they would also see the shadows of the people walking in front of the LEDs across the globe in blue. When both LEDs have people standing in the same location, the overlapping points would light up purple. Thus, both sides of the world can see what people at the other location are doing and where they are positioned.
Technology has developed so much over the past couple of years, bringing us more sustainable lifestyles with electric cars, more water efficient appliances, paperless education, and so forth. Surely, with constantly improving technology and more awareness of our impact on the earth, we can use technology to create sustainable textiles and fashion practices. Currently, many companies have been using technology to their advantage to create more sustainable fibers and textiles. Teijin has created Maestley, a man made leather, and Modern Meadow has used collagen to grow leather from DNA, reducing the large amount of water used to raise cows and CO2 they emit. Levi’s and EVRNU have used technology in taking cotton waste, a large consumer of water, and turning it into new quality denim. Additionally, companies have turned to other natural sources for fiber, such as hemp, pineapple, and lotus. Many of these natural fibers are taken from product waste, parts that farmers would throw away anyways, making it so that these fabrics leave as little waste as possible. With this new tech, these fibers can also lead to biodegradable fabrics that will lessen the amount of waste generated from unworn clothes. However, it may take a while for these new innovations to reach the mass market and be utilized on a grand scale.
Scaturro mentioned that one of the most sustainable things consumers can do is buy second hand clothes, which is easily enabled by the internet’s connecting of sellers to buyers. Among young people, thrifting has become a trend with the rising popularity of older styles. Many of my peers enjoy thrifting because of unique finds and good discounts, but don’t think of it specifically from a sustainable standpoint. Regardless, online services such as Ebay, Etsy, Thredup, and a plethora of mobile apps such as Depop and Poshmark have made thrifting all the more easy and popular. Sellers on Depop have made careers out of their online stores, earning thousands of dollars per year. Thus, the internet has furthered trends that have put us in the direction of sustainability, whether we realize it or not. The internet is extremely powerful in spreading trends and awareness, so if sustainable practices can be made trendy and easily accessible, the masses can be mobilized in the right direction.
Payne’s article is an extremely revealing account of garments’ life from start to finish. Each section is easily readable and goes through each distinct stage of garments’ production and usage. She lays out current harmful practices within each stage along with suggestions of how manufacturers and designers can make conscious decisions to mitigate these negative impacts. Further, connections made to Australia’s textile industry show how these problems can be combated on a more local level as well as give insight to how they are making progressive movements towards more sustainable practices.
Usually when shopping previously, the only factors I paid attention to were style and price point. I never thought of what it took to get a garment onto the shelf, or of the consequences my own treatment of clothes had on the environment. Payne’s article has changed this mentality, since now I know that with each step of garment creation, there are negative effects. With this in mind, I am more conscious of how people’s excessive consumer habits perpetuate the harmful cycle of waste and simply drain our wallets unnecessarily. I now know that thrifting not only is a current trend that provides a more unique touch to people’s closets, but also is an integral part of sustainability that gives new life to worn garments.
Within these stages there may also be contradictions of how to maintain sustainability. Quality and comfortable materials will allow for longer lifespans, decreasing the amount of material waste, but these materials may require large amounts of water to produce. Sustainable disposal of unworn clothes can be achieved with compostable materials, but how will these last for long periods of time without the consumer needing to buy replacements? Additionally, ethical working conditions are imperative for the progression of sustainability, but the high price tags may deter customers without enough purchasing power and push them further to fast fashion companies who can provide the same style for cheaper. Finally, classical designs definitely make clothes less likely to be quickly thrown out, but these universal styles may make it difficult for people to uniquely express themselves and stand out in a trend-central society.
