Clothed Loop
The fashion industry is far away from being fully circular. Too many clothes are wasted and incinerated in landfills. Unfortunately, they don‘t only end up there at their end of life, but often in an unused state when being returned. But how can we combat unnecessary returns, and reduce the impact of fashion on the environment?
The Problem
Fashion is the second-largest polluter in the world. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is burned in landfills. An estimated 500 billion dollar value is lost every year due to clothing that’s barely worn and rarely recycled.
Despite the problems fast fashion is causing for our planet, the industry is still growing rapidly. Buying fashion items being this easy and affordable sends the wrong message and ignores the problems that come with it. And yet, we are buying more clothes than ever – the average consumer now buys 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago. While this problem might be caused by the broad mass, it is not yet widely acknowledged.
System Cycle
The fashion industry is far from being fully circular. It has many open ends, one of them being incineration in landfills. Also you can see what happen to returned clothes: They either get returned and appear directly back in stock, get washed first, recycled or directly incinerated.
Storytelling
To create a relatable narrative, the character shows similarities to the target audience in behaviour. The storyboard shows how the character establishes this behaviour pattern, buying repeatedly multiple clothes online while keeping one and sending back the rest.
As it is common in stories, the character goes through an event, which is the moment of transformation: Watching a documentary about the impact of returned clothes. The character realises that their shopping behaviour is not sustainable and they should be more considerate, and thus decides do appreciate what they have instead of buying more and more. To support the transformation in the narrative, we put special emphasis on the emotions through distinguishable facial expressions.
Website
The website provides more detailed information and advice on how to be more sustainable. Furthermore, an interactive map shows different solutions: Clothing recycling bins, second hand stores, sustainable fashion stores and repair shops. Everyone can suggest new places to be added to the map, so it can constantly grow and be updated.
2021 | Teamwork with Yagmur Aydogmus