valentina@chirkes.com.ar @adamo.studios I @valenchirkes
The current fashion system exists in a paradox between what businesses and customers perceive as valuable.
Submit your answer to www.adamostudios.com
Each year, the average U.S. shopper discards
81.5lbs of clothing
Of shoppers encounter problems frequently or occasionally when buying clothing
THE PROBLEM
Currently, fashion business defines value as growth fueled by scale, while fashion consumers consider value based on factors like comfort, fit and empowerment. This disconnection between the system and consumer is held in place by intentionally distancing the “designer” from the “user” by time, physical distance and understanding, resulting in loads of fashion waste and the problems customers face when shopping
THE HYPOTHESIS
Adamo imagines a new fashion system as co-creation between designer and the fashion client. The thesis concept was prototyped with four “clients” to create garments to reflect their individual taste, fit, and needs. This participatory process brought the designer and wearer into direct conversation to define and expand value from the customer’s perspective.
The Fashion System Today: Designed for Disconnection
New System: Reimagining Fashion Through Co-Creation
Involving the user in the design process reframes the value we place on clothing moving towards preferred conscious fashion practices.
It often takes the introduction of a radical concept - or simply the introduction of an unfamiliar way to undertake familiar tasks - for users to actually stand back and recognize the sheer banality of the objects with which they have been mindlessly interacting up to that point.
Jonathan Chapman, Emotionally Durable Design
Meet the Collaborators
Rose is a 32 year old designer for Coach, and she leads the Coach (Re)Loved project which focuses on upcycling secondhand product and giving old items a new circular life.
Cristina is leather goods designer from Italy living in NYC for over 10 years. Most days she wears her “uniform” of leather pants and an oversized blazer.
Designed with Rose
Designed with Cristina
Ariela is a 23 year old creative strategist and stylist from San Diego based in NYC. She prioritizes style over comfort or function and loves to thrift and find pieces nobody else has.
Violeta is a 23 year old therapist from Buenos Aires. She loves clothes, has a very unique fashion sense and struggles to find cool and original pieces in Argentina that fit her style and body.
Designed with Ariela
Designed with Ariela
Designed with Violeta
Designed with Violeta
Waste is symptomatic of failed relationships
Jonathan Chapman, Emotionally Durable Design
These garments build relationships
Things to consider to INCREASE A GARMENT’S VALUE
Purchase Material Fit
Who are you shopping with? Why? When?
Does it feel good? Is it comfortable? Will it last? How do I care for it?
Does this fit properly? Does it make me feel confident?
Price
What’s the return on investment? What’s the price/quality relationship?
Need
Do I need it?
Do I have something similar?
Care
Can I get it tailored or mended?
Am I reading the labels and washing it properly?
Disposal
Can it be fixed or redesigned?
Does the brand have a take-back plan? Is it recyclable? Can I donate it?
A garment’s value is greatly influenced by your actions, make sure to make conscious decisions as often as possible when it comes to your clothes.
Sustainable consumption involves pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. Louise R. Morgan and Grete Birtwistle, An Investigation of
Fast fashion is designed to be worn less than 10 times.
Relevant Thesis Readings
• Emotionally Durable Design, Jonathan Chapman
• Meaningful Stuff: Design That Lasts, Jonathan Chapman
• Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
• Circular Design for Fashion, Ellen McArthur Foundation
• Thinking in Systems, Donella H. Meadows
• Defined by Design, Kathryn H. Anthony
• Fashion: A Manifesto, Anouchka Grose
• Consumed, Aja Barber
Designed objects can work to slow us down and help us gain temporal stability by enabling us to shift value from material objects to experiences that perhaps help us tune our consciousness
Ann Thorpe, Design’s Role in Sustainable Consumption
END OF LIFE QUIZ
Is something wrong with it?
Do you love this garment?
Stains or tears Size or fit Do you use it?
Do you use it?
Take this quiz to choose the best solution for your garment’s end of life
GIVE YOUR GARMENT A NEW LIFE
ALTER & EXTEND
RE-DYEING
Try at home with fabric dye
CUSTOMIZATION
Can be DIY, or try New York Embroidery Studio or local artists
REDESIGN
Try a local tailor or designer, Eva Joan, or reach out to me :)
TAILORING
Explore your local tailors or find one with Alternew
SHARE & CIRCULATE
RENTAL
Try Pickle, local Facebook groups or start your own exchange group
RESALE
Find the platform that best fits your style and needs:
• No selling fee
DEPOP
• Low price point
• Self-managed
• Low selling fee
POSHMARK
• Immediate deposit
• Self-managed
FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE
LAST RESORT
RECYCLING
Government facilities, Helpsy, Fabscrap
THE REALREAL
• Not fashion exclusive
• Focus on local pickup
• Self-managed
• High selling fee
• Luxury authentication • Full service
THREADUP • Low payout • Good for selling in bulk • Full service
