Sustainable Garment Biographies: Young adults’ use practices in fashion
- Participants from Kolding School of Design
-
Ulla Ræbild
- Research and development project type
- Research and development
Ph.d. - Project period
- Jul 2025 - Feb 2029
- Project management
Anne Louise Bang, Center for Applied Research in Textiles, Design & Circularity - VIA University College
- LAB
- Sustainability and Design
- LAB theme
- Everyday Life
Material Life - Collaboration partners
- Anne Louise Bang (project lead)
Tina Bull Nielsen (PhD student)
Ulla Ræbild (main supervisor, senior researcher)
Malene Haarsae (project supervisor, senior researcher)
Rune Thorbjørn Jason Clausen (senior researcher)
Kirsi Niinimäki, Aalto (host for research stay)
The key question of the project
The aim of this project is to support experience-based assumptions
of relevant design decisions for garment longevity with important and needed research-based knowledge of young adults’ use practices of fashion. The project is guided
by the following research questions:
- How can research-based knowledge of young adults’ use practices of fashion inform design decisions aiming for garment longevity?
- How can these insights drive a paradigm shift in fashion towards more sustainable and regenerative practices?
Objective of the project
The fashion and textile industry needs knowledge about the reason why we choose to wear some clothes many times and other clothes very few times. This is called Design for Longevity, and it is politically highlighted in national strategies, as well as in EU strategies and regulations as a relevant and valuable solution for how we can eliminate overproduction and overconsumption of clothing, and thus reduce the CO2 impact from the fashion and textile industry. The project's goal is therefore to investigate how design and product development can contribute to high usage frequency and long-term use of clothing. It is particularly important to focus on young users, as they are the users of the future and will have a decisive role in the future consumption of fashion.
The Methods and Outcome of the project
The design research project lies within the field of Research-through-Design and Constructive Design Research. A combination of wardrobe studies and cultural probes will be developed aiming to attract and maintain the young adults’ active participation over 12-18 months. The research team will secure the collection of quantitative as well as qualitative data over the long time-span. The aim is to interact with the respondents enabling them to perform their own wardrobe studies framed as a cultural probe. This will provide an extensive amount of quantitative and qualitative data on use practices of garments, with the aim of bridging the gap between assumption-based and research-based knowledge.
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