The Research Journal of the Costume Culture (복식문화연구)

The Costume Culture Association (복식문화학회)
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Development of a system for sustainable fashion from recycled clothes - Based on U.S. fashion brands -

  • Song, Hwa Kyung (Dept. of Clothing and Textiles, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Lewis, Van Dyke (Dept. of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, Cornell University)
  • Received : 2013.01.10
  • Accepted : 2013.02.06
  • Published : 2013.02.28
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Abstract

Fast fashion companies have generated enormous amounts of clothing and large quantities of unsold or short-lived clothing end up in the landfill. As if to counter fast fashion, sustainable fashion has arisen for environmentally friendly garments at different levels from the fiber stage to production stage. However it is still fraught with uncertainty of systems in the industry. Therefore, this study proposed a system to create re-valued clothing from recycled garments for retailers. The target companies are large-sized retailers like Levi's, Polo, Gap, or J-Crew which are consistently producing basic items such as Levi's 501 or Classic Polo shirts with middle-prices. At the material stage, this study recommended additional requirements of designing a garment with a long life cycle based on criteria of an ideal garment developed by Patagonia clothing company. Then, this study explored innovative ways that retailers might connect with consumers to allow direct interaction between them in terms of the process of collecting used clothes. Using recycled clothing as a source material, this study strove to offer a process of redesign where the concept of 'waste to fashion' is developed as reconstructions where old forms are transformed into new ones.

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References

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