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Social issues in the Fashion Industry

The goal of these small projects were to create critical designs to make us think critically about a variety of social issues in the fashion space.

CONTEXT

Purdue UX Learning Studio Spring 2020

TEAM

This was a solo project:)

CONTRIBUTIONS

Primary + Secondary research, visual design, prototyping, user testing

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF FASHION

The Glamorous Garbage jacket is a jacket that connects to the user’s at-home garbage can. As the user produces more garbage in their garbage can, the jacket begins to light up. The more waste the user contributes, the more the jacket dazzles.

Social Issue | The fashion industry is a major contributor to textile waste, watercontamination, and greenhouse emissions. Even though brands have been making someefforts to reduce their environmental impact, the impact the fashion industry has on theenvironment is still staggering, especially with social media heightened fast fashion.

Social Norm | This jacket is meant to be a conversation starter to force the wearer toacknowledge the impact they personally have on the environment and the impact thatfashion has on the environment. This challenges the social norm to ignore the detrimentalimpacts the fashion industry has by making it the center of attention.

INEQUALITY, FORCED & CHILD LABOR

The My Fashion Creator for Kids sewinggame gives children the glamorous vision ofworking in the fashion industry! Parents usethe connected app to place clothing ordersto be fulfilled, and the sewing machineautomatically multiplies the order by ten forthe child.This game keeps kids busy for hours! Parentswon’t be able to stop placing orders becausethey will be so impressed with their workoutput.The game also comes with a complimentaryface mask.

Social Issue | The laborious tasks within the fashion industry usually calls for low-skilled workers. Fast fashion especially seeks out children from impoverished areas to hire to fill those low-skilled jobs. With promises of good wages and conditions, children are often subjected to awful working conditions that risk both their health and safety.

Social Norm | This children’s game is to bring attention the often-ignored child labor involved within the fashion industry and recreates how a promised future (or promised fun)can easily turn into manipulation of a child. It also represents how a game for some is the reality for others within the fashion industry.

INEQUALITY & SUSTAINABILITY

The Pay-Me Shirt is dedicated to ensuring the user can feel they are contributing their moneytowards the most sustainable shopping method: not shopping. In order to keep the shirt fullyopaque, the user must have their garment connected to their personal banking app and paya weekly deposit to keep the shirt from going fully transparent.

Social Issue | Sustainable fashion brands dedicated to using organic materials, ethical laborpractices, and carbon neutral impacts, often have higher prices embedded on their pricetags. The idea of sustainable fashion is great but consuming these somewhat pricier brandscan bring to question how affordable it really is to get into this practice.

Social Norm | This shirt is meant to feed on continual want to buy new clothes while keepingto sustainable practices. It is also meant to highlight inequality embedded in sustainablefashion - higher prices means not everyone is able to contribute as they would like to. Thisdesign is meant to make reflect on if it is fair to make everyone contribute to moresustainable practices.

SUSTAINABILITY, ELITISM, & COPYRIGHT

The year is 2056 and people are no longer pressured to buy new clothes because of the introduction of the Curation Mask. These digital shields cover the face and allow people to upload images that show their personal style. With Curations, the power of fashion is intact, but more accessible because anyone can wear anything to represent their style. Physical clothing production is a thing of a past. Curations can be tailored to the user’s lifestyle and represent what they would wear if buying clothes was still a thing. Instead of seeing faces when walking down the street, everyone sees Curations. When we put what we create onto our faces, the textiles we wear and how our faces appear are obsolete to how people view us.

Social Issue | The internet has caused fashion to be easily accessible and digestible. The increase in social media has helped create a consumerist culture, where people continuously want to buy to make an image for themselves. Also, with the lack of strong IP-fashion protections, there has been an increase in copyright culture as well. People can recreate and sell ideas easily, making stealing ideas more accessible than ever.

Social Norm |This design fiction is meant to challenge us to think about the role fashion plays online vs. offline, and if clothing production even matters if we shift our attention to online. It is also meant to challenge our ideals about what is luxury fashion, and if that fashion is worth the price or if recreation that may step on copyright claims creates equality.

Thanks for checking out my work! Let’s design something amazing together.
Emily Zaretzky