1.1 Background
Fast fashion is a phenomenon that has been booming since the past decade. There are many problems with fast fashion, one being that it is negatively affecting the environment. The fashion industry is the second largest consumer of the world’s water supply, and pollutes the ocean with microplastics. More than 5,000 gallons of water is used to make a T-shirt and jeans and cotton requires tons of water to grow. Additionally, too many clothes are thrown away due to the cheap material. This causes people to buy more clothes, resulting in overconsumption. More than 50% of fast fashion garments are disposed of within a year of being produced and an average American disposes of 70 pounds of textiles and clothes every year and producing clothes has doubled since 2000. Overconsumption leads to wastefulness, both in manufacturing the clothes and throwing away “old” clothes, resulting in negative environmental impacts.
1.2 Core Tension
Essentially, fast fashion is destroying the planet due to the production and disposable nature, which makes people spend recklessly on clothes that they think are worth the money because of how cheap and “trendy” it looks.
1.3 Overview of Core Players and People
The core players and people that contribute to the destruction of the environment are primarily the consumers and the higher-ups running factories that produce all the clothes for fast fashion stores. Consumers play into the idea of disposable fashion, since they can afford to spend less money for more clothes. Due to the cheap quality and constant change in fashion line, people are tempted to keep buying more clothes. Additionally, the higher positions within fast fashion companies, such as CEOs, are aware of the effects that fast fashion has on the environment, but choose to do very little about it. Factory workers are also key players in manufacturing the clothes, but they have no control since they are just doing their jobs.
1.4 Goal
The project is supposed to make people aware of how much clothes they buy, as well as reflect on the environmental impact that fast fashion has. The purpose is to make the user rethink their actions and consider sustainable alternatives when buying new clothes.
1.5 Concept Description
The “Never-ending Cycle” refers to a washing machine that never stops and the cycle of buying and throwing away clothes. It is a simple diorama that has one washing machine, created using a DC motor, and an LCD screen displaying the wash time countdown. When the time reaches zero, it displays and error message and restarts the cycle. Essentially, people can never open the washing machine, which leads to clothes piling up around the machine, illustrating the continuous production of clothes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CVUolRQDPox7wmoPQ2vpDPbLehF9lre/view?usp=sharing