Team Members: Salomon Ruiz, Ji Hwan Shin
With the assistance of the Sarah Scaturro’s reading, “Eco-Tech Fashion: Rationalizing Technology in Sustainable Fashion”, our group looked at the connection between technology and the fashion industry, and how technology can be used to make the fashion industry more sustainable. Each of us looked at a different section of the industry: Ji Hwan focused on the manufacturing aspect, I focused on the consumption aspect, and Salomon focused on the disposal aspect.
For the consumption aspect of technologies involvement in the fashion industry, I felt it was important to highlight Scaturro’s argument that the connection experienced between individuals online allowed small businesses, which tend to use more sustainable processes to create garments, to have a platform for reaching out to local consumers and allows individuals to sell their used clothing, effectively prolonging the life of the garment. The two websites that Scaturro specifically mentioned were etsy and eBay. Etsy is a website that tends to focus on slow fashion practices, making each order as it is ordered, and to the specific details of the consumer, while outlining the sourcing of the materials, and the practices used to create the garment. On top of this, I thought about how technology has impacted me as a consumer. This instantly brought me to research further into interactive technology that allows consumers to be appropriately fitted, thus ensuring that the longevity of the clothing will be significantly increased due to the continual usability of the garment. I have used this method once, and it was honestly the best experience, and the best pair of pants I ever purchased, and still use to this day (probably about 6 years ago). For me, it was really exciting to see how this technology has advanced since then, moving to mobile apps rather than a stationary machine in the middle of the mall. This definitely makes this technology more accessible.