Author: srh450

In this reading the authors expose a lot of different issues that the fashion industry still needs to deal with in order to be truly sustainable. Therefore they propose the “cradle to cradle”, or in other words, a circular economy, as the approach to take when doing fashion. Although nowadays more and more brands, including some fast fashion such as H&M, are launching sustainable campaigns in order to reduce their impacts on the environment, a lot of improvement has to be done on every aspect. For instance, the authors mention how the CO2 produced when manufacturing clothes could be reused by putting it back on earth instead of leaving it go into the atmosphere.  I found really interesting how they say “everything is food”, as every waste we produce can be used for another thing as if it was a nutrient. This is exactly what has to be done in the fashion industry in order to really work as a cradle to cradle industry. I also liked how the authors encourage us to think how we can do more good instead of less bad as I think companies often focus on impacting less and create these sustainable campaigns, but they do not really try to tackle the real problem, which is their whole business system. If more and more companies start to think circularly I think the future impact will be significantly reduced.  

Link to Medium 

https://medium.com/@salolo.rh/welcome-to-my-closet-a-sustainable-fashion-ethnography-6973e40f4b3d

Link to website 

https://salolorh.wixsite.com/welcometomycloset

Link to slides 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XUPe9XUYMyZfuNWDKwrlkcsa-HTJ6KjWD3Aw3lRfdGY/edit#slide=id.g54855fdf88_0_89

Link to video 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zq636C-3JNCfSAFaYX8I6sECsO69pMv6/view?usp=sharing

Idea evolution: After presenting my idea to the class and getting feedback from my classmates and the professor, I decided to design an actual fashion garment with clothes I do not wear anymore but that I keep on my wardrobe, as I like on hands work and I can put my creativity into it. I could make a video tutorial in order to show people how they can transform their own clothes into something else. I could post this videos on the website I am creating and I was thinking about opening an instagram account where I post the garments I create.   

Research update: My final project focuses on the top two categories of the waste pyramid: reduce and reuse. After analyzing my own wardrobe and finding patterns among the clothes I wear the most, I hope to get conclusions and a better idea of what kind of clothes I should buy in the future, if any,  in order to reduce my consumption, and how I can keep reusing the ones I already have

I have been watching many video tutorials on how we can convert any kind of clothe we do not use anymore into something else such as a bag, a vest, a pillowcase, etc. However, I am trying to find a design that does not produce a lot of waste for its creation as my goal is to try to use the whole fabric. I have also looked at different websites and blogposts of people who have done similar projects. For instance, I found a girl who keeps track on a list of the number of times she wears every single one of her clothes and after six months she donates those she did not wear that often. This is one idea for the garment

Asset development: I have created a website where I will be posting pictures and videos.  I have taken pictures of my everyday outfits and also pictures of all the clothes I have in order to make an inventory. Tomorrow I will start working on the garment. I have a squares shirt I never wear and I thought it could be good to turn it into a tote bag that I could use in order to bring my lunch. If I have more time I will try to create more than one garment, but I could also talk about some clothes I transformed in the past and aspects I did not consider at that time, such as fabric waste, water waste, etc . These are some pictures I have taken so far 

Eileen Fisher  is a clear example of a sustainable company that is really engaged in following a circular economy model. From the selection of materials, such as organic cotton and linen, the use of green techniques to dye the clothes, the design of the garment, to the worskspace, the recycling process, this company has implemented sustainable measures at every stage of the chain. Most companies should follow this model as Eileen Fisher is the proof that a company can be both successful and sustainable. Something that I found interesting is how the owner, Eileen Fisher, transferred some shares to the employees so they could also own part of the company. This way the employees become more valuable for the company as they understand how the company works and how it can improve. It is in their best interest therefore to look for the well being of the company as they are owners too, rather than simple employees. In the text, for instance, they mention how certain employee suggested to reduce the use of plastic and the company actually took measures regarding this issue, so this company seems pretty open to suggestions as they are really interested in changing the way fashion is done and every small change could reduce a lot the impact it  has on the environment.    

I checked Eileen Fisher’s official website and noticed their desings are quite simple, minimalistic and loose. They do not try to impose the perfect fit like most brands do, so the clothes seem really comfortable. However, they do not have a lot of variations of colors and patterns but I guess this might be due to the dying techniques they use as they use less water and less  chemicals. I think some people would not buy their clothes as they prefer more colorful clothes with crazy patterns, given that fashion is not only about comfort and functionality, but also a way to represent ourselves, to create an identity, as we saw in the last reading. Therefore, I think this is something the company could work on, like they did before by designing leggings, jeans, tank tops, etc in order to attract the young.  Regarding the price, it seem high but it might actually be a fair price for the quality and sustainability involved in the production of these clothes, but the question is if more and more people are willing to pay these prices, if they are willing to switch from fast fashion to sustainable fashion.  

Team: Ji Hwan Shin and Salomon Ruiz

Zine: zine2

Video:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B_kmb_jXKCiJI7ygCZWd2NHCJ3nIDsL1/view?usp=sharing

Ethnographic research of the Shanghai Notions Market and the South Bund Fabric Market 

For our research we focused on both consumption and the types of materials being sold at both the Notions and the South Bund Fabric Market. Before going to the markets, we prepared some questions for both the customers and the shop keepers, such as “How did you find about this market?”, “Why are you buying X material?”, “Is it for personal use?”, “In general, what kind of costumers come to your shop?”, etc. 

Once we arrived to the Notions Market, we noticed there were not many people at that time, so it was a bit difficult to find customers we could interview.  We started by interviewing and recording some of the shop owners. Eric used his Chinese skills in order to communicate with them as they did not speak English. Some of them agreed to participate in our research, but some of them did not want to answers our questions. Regarding the pictures, most of them agreed that we photograph their merchandise, although a policeman near the entrance told us we could not take pictures. We made about 6 interviews in this market and took many pictures. Here are some of the pictures 

At the South Bund Market, we noticed there were many foreigners shopping and most of the shop keepers were trying to sell us their products or order a tailored attired. Also, most of them knew some English as this is a popular place among expats and foreign tourists. We interviewed both local and foreign customers as well as some shop keepers. The prices were a bit high but bargaining can be done to lower the price. This market was bigger and busier. Different types of fabrics are sold and used for the tailored clothes. Here are some pictures of the market 

After our field trip, we had a workshop during the class in order to have an outline of our research narrative and some conclusions. We arrived to the conclusion  that the notions market is more targeted to local and artists, while the South Bund fabric market focuses on foreigners and locals looking more often for a tailor-made attire, such as a suit or dress. Another thing we assume is that the first market has a business to business and business to costumers models as they outsource to other companies and also sell to regular consumers. The second market is mostly based on the business to costumer model, as there is a strong relation and consumption from direct costumers. Last, we listed the types of materials we found in each market, as you can see in the pictures below

  

For the zine, we used Indesign. We organized the zine in two parts, one for each market. For the front cover we chose a picture of a woman working on a garment as it relates to our research topic. For each market we chose pictures showing or related to the interviews we made during the field trip and some about the materials.  We added descriptions about the pictures and also summed up our conclusions about each market. We played around with the positions of the pictures to make it more interesting and less linear. At the beginning we planned to print it in size A5 but we had some issues with the printers so we ended up using A4. 

Our video highlights the types of labor involved in each market and how this affects the consumption habits of consumers. We made the video using iMovie. We asked around different store vendors and customers about their experiences. We included these interviews in the video and put some subtitles for the conversations in chinese. Upon further observation, we concluded that the notions market tends to draw a more local and artistic pool of customers. Their business to business and business to customers models make the area suitable for direct purchase from both consumers and businesses. Whereas in the fabric market, foreigners are keen to shop here due to recommendations from their coworkers or sites like Trip Advisor. They believe that the quality of products and tailoring services are worth the premium pricing. There still lies the questions like why they import fabrics and whether outsourcing business to business or via the web is more common due to its heavy business to consumer model. Many of these are left unanswered because of confidentiality kept by shopkeepers and because of the short time of this research.