Colour.me: a fashion and lifestyle magazine for conscious consumerism

colour.me

a fashion and lifestyle magazine for conscious consumerism.

By Eloisa Ferraro Artuso

MA DESIGN FUTURES Writing as: a fashion researcher Internal readers: Hannah Jones and Mathilda Tham External reader: Box 1824 This work is a tool to reimagine consumption, redefine values and explore the communication of fashion in order to inspire Millennials towards more sustainable lifestyles.

Printed 10th September 2013

Contents

List of figures

7

Tetrahedron

9

Introduction

11

1. The role of research in my work

17

2. Consumer society

22

3. Reimagining consumption

28

4. Communication platform

34

Conclusion

48

Glossary

50

Appendix A – assessment diary

51

Appendix B – interviews

61

Bibliography

72

Key words map

28. Reimagining consumption conscious consumerism

29. Pathways to sustainable consumption

34. Communication platform 45. Digital fashion magazine: digital fashion magazine

colour.me

24. Prosumers: Millennials

and their consumption habits millennials

40. Audience: Millennials 33. Communicating

communicating sustainable fashion

sustainability

34. Communication platform

List of figures

Cover: image by author.

Figure 1: graph by author. Page 14 Figure 2: self-assessment map by author. Page 16 Figure 3: “the design process cycles through four main phases: initiation, investigation, integration and implementation�

(Augustin & Coleman 2012). Page 19 Figure 4: photos by Ana Albanez, from http://desconsumir. wordpress.com. Page 21 Figure 5: image from Girl girlmeetsdress.com. Page 27

Meets

Dress

http://www.

Figure 6: image from Materia Brasil http://materiabrasil.com.

Page 27 Figure 7: Patagonia Anti-Consumption Campaign, from http:// www.patagonia.com/email/11/112811.html. Page 33 Figure 8: image from Designed designedgood.com. Page 38

Good

http://www.

Figure 9: image from Eluxe Magazine http://eluxemagazine. com. Page 39 Figure 10: illustration by Silene Kas. Page 41 Figure 11: Colour.me cover by author. Page 46

7

Tetrahedron

The tetrahedron is a structure created to identify the four main elements in the work, which are the author, the reader, the context, and the design proposal. Their interconnections and relationships therefore, aim at providing adequate flexibility and clarity to the development of ideas and considerations throughout this dissertation.

I see it as a design-based approach to writing that helps to framework my particular purpose and writing style.

It is a non-linear method of writing […] It assumes that academic writing is a productive way to explore and guide the practice of design […] it can also be applied to help designers to become more self-reflexively in touch with their entrepreneurial and professional roles in the world. (Wood 2002)

To that end, the tetrahedron here represents the main structure and the theoretical basis for a design proposal that intends to be creative and functional in both academic and professional contexts. It works as a tool that enables the articulation and manipulation of information within my research work that also reflects my personal and professional aims and contexts.

AUTHOR I graduate in BA Fashion Design at Santa Marcelina College in São Paulo, Brazil in 2004, and since then I have been working as a fashion designer for Brazilian brands, creating women’s clothing and accessories. In 2012, I came to London to do the MA Design Futures at Goldsmiths, and throughout the course my outlook on fashion has changed; now my perspectives on fashion industry are broader and my work is grounded on the space between sustainability, culture, and communication in fashion.

I assume the role of a fashion researcher interested in the fashion consumer culture.

My role as the author, moving from a designer perspective to a researcher perspective, is to explore the consumerism complexity with a holistic view. I intend to take a socioecological approach, rather than a commercial driven approach to research in order to place environment and society’s needs and aspirations in the core of a creative work. It takes a focused narrative on more sustainable consumption practices, placed in a contemporary scenario in Brazil.

CONTEXT As sustainability and ethics involve critical reconsiderations of prevalent production processes and consumption habits in a Western contemporary society, it becomes relevant to drive efforts and attention to how relations between products, people and resources interact within a larger and long-standing system.

Consuming fashion products is in general - more or less consciously - embedded

9

in the routines of everyday life, usually conducted in public spaces with social interaction, and as a practice, it is shaped in a historical and cultural context, closely related to trends and values within social groups.

To the point that I realize the problematic of non-sustainability to be at centre not only in the fashion design practice but also in practices of consumption - considering a mass culture context - therefore, I see the need to expand and deepen the understanding of consumerism and how it reflects on our routines.

Since present society is seen as a consumer society, it is important to recognize the profound role of consumer culture in defining lifestyles, and to understand it not only as a complex system but also as a group of small practices driving everyday life. The context where I place my work is the contemporary consumer culture in fashion, more specifically in relation to the young generation, the Millennials, in Brazil.

PROPOSAL My objective here is to promote behavioural change and take sustainable fashion from niche and make it the new normal by reimagining consumption practices and improving the quality of consumers’ buying choices through more conscious decisions. For this reason, I will focus on the motivations, values and beliefs of young consumers, addressing their relationships with products within a cultural context regarding social and environmental rapid changes.

I propose the development of a digital magazine that uses fashion as an optimistic tool to stimulate and re-orientate current behavioural trends towards co-sustainable futures. The idea is to provide alternative values and set new trends with creativity to inspire and engage the audience, who is capable to influence and define more sustainable lifestyles in Brazil. I believe this can work as a platform to share knowledge and experiences with an innovative presentation, which could be hosted by the Brazilian research agency Box 1824 as a means to complement its current projects and services.

READER My reader is Box 1824, a Brazilian research agency specialising in behavioural sciences and consumer trends based in São Paulo. Box 1824 has large-scale companies as clients, including major fashion brands, to whom they provide inspirational content, collaborative processes and co-creation; Box develops along with its clients projects that generate and transform ideas in innovation.

I chose Box to take the role of my reader due to our shared interests in bringing innovation based on consumer and cultural research. In directing my project to Box 1824, I believe I can provide knowledge and relevant information about fashion and insert sustainability into the agency’s practices; communicating not only to brands, but also to consumers.

10

Introduction Introduction I aim at exploring the issues around consumerism and sustainability in fashion that producers, designers and consumers face whether at their professional or personal lives. The two terms, sustainability and fashion, seem fairly contradictory as fashion is all about seasonal changes and ephemeral trends whereas sustainability is all about preservation. However, fashion is an important mechanism supporting the economy and an important contributor to the contemporary intensification of material culture.

Fashion consumption supports the individual expression of people coexisting in society, connecting people within particular social groups, and means at the same time, a collective and an individual experience. On that account, there is an urgent need of discussing new ideas about how to consume fashion with more socially and environmentally responsible attitudes and consciousness.

Sustainability within fashion means that through the development and use of a thing or a process, there is no harm done to people or the planet, and that thing or process, once put into action, can enhance the well-being of the people who interact with it and the environment it is developed and used within. (Hethorn and Ulasewicz 2008: xviii)

As in any business sector, sustainable development comes as a real necessity of our time, stimulating changes in management models, use of materials, product creation and the development of processes. Likewise, within fashion industry, initiatives that challenge current standards are increasing and enabling the emergence of new opportunities guided by creativity and innovation across the world. The term sustainable development was popularized by the Brundtland Report, which refers to the publication of Our Common Future in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development. It describes sustainable development as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

To integrate sustainability in business is challenging, and it also depends on changes in consumer behaviour. These changes are not so simple and are related to long processes of cultural change as consumers are continuously stimulated to maintain lifestyles supported by consumption. Many factors should be considered influential on consumers’ buying decision, such as cultural, personal, social and psychological, which are all interconnected. Therefore, attempts to understand consumer behavior or to influence buying processes are very complex goals. Companies are gradually establishing closer and collaborative relationships with consumers, whom at the same time, are beginning to adopt more conscious attitudes, and demanding for products that combine price, quality, and style with an ethical and sustainable approach.

11

FASHION INDUSTRY’S IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY The main reason that brought me here to discuss consumerism in fashion is my concern about the high impact that the whole fashion system causes on the environment and society. It is a complex system with multiple interrelations from production to consumption, where both fashion businesses and consumers are accomplices in the intensification of nature’s damages as well as social issues in relation to workers.

Many elements within the production processes raise a whole series of questions about the real social, economic and environmental costs incorporated into the making of a product. We all wear clothes, but how often do we reflect on who makes our clothes, where and under what conditions? How often do we think about where the value lies in a product?

The high cost of implementing clean processes, like the use of natural fibres managed through sustainable processes, is a real challenge for the fashion industry. One example is the impact of cotton cultivation, which is the natural fibre that fashion industry uses the most: it occupies nearly 4% of the cultivated land on the planet and its cultivation accounts for 25% of all pesticides used in agriculture worldwide.

Moreover, thousands of farmers die every year contaminated by these toxic chemicals (Rebouças and Salgado 2011 a).

For the past months, I have worked as an editor assistant at the Ethical Fashion Forum online magazine called Source, where my work was based on researching and writing about ethical and sustainable fashion in the world. One of the articles I wrote was about detoxing fashion through the reduction of harmful chemicals in supply chains; there I discussed about the use of considerable quantities of water and a large number of harmful chemicals in the textile dying and finishing industries. The environmental pollution caused by these substances is a widespread problem across the world and the clothing industry is not addressing it adequately at the moment (Ethical Fashion Forum 2013).

Certainly, these kind of problems are not limited to high scale companies, but surely the huge amount of garments produced by them increases the impact, starting with the large quantities of water and chemicals used during the first steps of production, passing through questionable labour conditions until the commercialization of products. Nowadays, clothing industry has significant carbon footprints throughout the whole chain, including the stages of use and disposal of products by consumers.

Likewise, the growing movement of the fast fashion business model brings with it a few dilemmas, as Kate Fletcher stresses: Fast fashion isn’t really about speed, but greed: selling more, making more money. Time is just one factor of production, along with labour, capital and natural resources that get juggled and squeezed in the pursuit of maximum profits. But fast is not free. Short lead times and cheap clothes are only made possible by exploitation of labour and natural resources. (Fletcher 2007 a).

For the past two decades, fast fashion has been increasingly adopted by several high street brands across the world and still expands continuously worldwide, bringing along its way a variety of issues. For the past years, fast fashion suppliers were

12

mainly concentrated in developing countries such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Cambodia, Turkey and Romania. However, when factories are small, they are not very competitive, and consequently, not able to adopt the fast fashion model adequately, thus this is where social and labour problems tend to happen more frequently. These problems occur in many companies, especially in those from countries with informal economy, or where labor legislation is ineffective (Akatu 2013).

In order to produce fashionable products, workers are often paid very low wages and face the reality of sweatshop conditions. Hence, companies should, along with their suppliers, have a special duty to ensure that both environmental and social policies and performances are consistent throughout the whole manufacturing process, so disasters like the collapse in Bangladesh won’t happen again (the tragic factory collapse happened in Savar, in April 2013 and has reached over 1100 workers, and about 2,500 survivors, making it the worst disaster in Bangladesh’s garment production history). Hundreds of workers and citizens have protested across the world against terrible working conditions in garment factories. Clearly, fashion industry must take responsibility for all the impacts it causes, and everyone involved should help take actions to move it towards better futures.

MY ROLE IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY Encouraged by problems I have faced in my daily work as a fashion designer, such as the lack of sustainable and ethical practices in the production and consumption sectors of fashion industry, not only in Brazil, but across the world, I decided to move professionally, from a fashion designer’s perspective to a new perspective, built upon the research and communication of sustainable fashion. For the past year, my outlook on fashion has changed and I realized that the challenges brought by the combination of fashion and sustainability, are very stimulating and inspiring. I feel very motivated by the idea that we can change the way business have been done so far in order to reduce the environmental and social impacts. I believe everyone is responsible, individually and collectively, in personal life and work life, for helping improve everyone’s lives and harm the planet less.

In changing my outlook but still working within the fashion industry, I believe I can bring all the knowledge and experience I have acquired from my profession throughout the past decade to address the theme sustainability to the consumer culture. I hope to bring into view the mutually constitutive relations between production, consumption and communication with a specific focus on communicating conscious consumerism. The combination of these areas reveals that the fashion system cannot be simply reduced to products, factories, shops, or consumers, but rather it should be understood in terms of relationships, as a repeating cycle that is characterised by complexity and connections. The following graph represents my current areas of interest in fashion, as well as where I am located in relation to them.

13

figure 1

PROPOSING NEW PERSPECTIVES Integrating more conscious practices into fashion consumption brings many challenges, initially due to the lack of communication, information and education around such issue. As I see sustainable brands are not properly addressing their sustainable values to engage consumers. After analysing a set of interviews I made with young consumers in S達o Paulo and London (see Appendix B), I confirmed that most of the time the problem is not about buying or not buying a sustainable product, but instead, it is about the lack of knowledge around socially and environmentally responsible products, as well as where to find them.

Therefore, my proposal here consists in the creation of Colour.me, a digital magazine focusing on fashion and lifestyle that is dedicated to inform and promote conscious consumerism to the young generation, the Millennials. I intend to create a clear and aspirational vision of more sustainable lifestyles, to inspire my audience, by proposing alternative cultural values and new considerations that will help them evaluate their consumption practices. My intention with the creation of a communication vehicle is to raise awareness and provide new directions that will guide fashion consumers when making their buying choices, taking sustainable fashion from niche and making it the new normal.

CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM Throughout this work I raise the discussion about consumerism, specifically theories, practices and challenges concerning sustainable consumption in fashion. The term sustainable consumption is used by many people and organizations, including

14

me, along this dissertation. However, I particularly prefer the term conscious consumerism, because to be sustainable is extremely complex and embraces many economic, environmental and social levels, be it in personal or professional spheres.

To be sustainable means that one carries the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, under ecological, economic, political and cultural balance, which is a fairly challenging task. Therefore, when using the word ‘conscious’ I intend to explore the idea of one being aware of such interconnected and immense system that, we humans are inserted in, and in doing so, will be able to consume consciously to help maintaining the world for us and future generations.

HOW THIS WORK IS STRUCTURED I start this work mentioning the role of research in it, showing how I have managed to align a methodology to my creative process, as well as the tools I have used to gather all the information I needed to achieve my objectives. On the second chapter, I present theories around the consumer society, how it is now and where it is moving to with the emergence of new consumption habits and trends. The following chapter offers an overview on the importance of shifting from the consumer culture to a sustainable culture through new consumption attitudes, looking at the challenges faced by businesses and consumers and the way it has been communicated so far.

Subsequently, on the fourth chapter I propose the development of my communication platform Colour.me, the digital fashion magazine, framing it in relation to its purposes and audience, including information about the first edition.

ASSESSMENT DIARY At the MA Design Futures I was encouraged to develop an Assessment Diary along with my dissertation writing process in order to reflect upon my practice in a meaningful way, in both academic and professional contexts. The idea of creating a diary was a helpful method in the beginning of my journey, as it gave me the opportunity to frame my interests, focus my research and pursuit the outcomes that I had projected. By looking at real issues and pursuing my aspirations, I was able to develop an academic work that will be extremely relevant for my professional growth. In reflecting upon my strengths and weaknesses before starting this dissertation (see following map), I could approach appropriately to subjects that would help enhance my professional skills and my learning pathway and at the same time communicate adequately to my reader. On this diary I established an assessment criteria based on inward and outward principles, including self-knowledge, curiosity management, professional development, reader empathy, communication, creative research and ethical cosustainment. In combination to these standards, I used the feedback I had received upon the presentation of my initial proposal to set my values as a designer practitioner and the author of this work, as well as to frame the scope of my exploration (see Appendix A).

15

figure 2

16

1.

The role of research in my work

WHY RESEARCH CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR? The world has shifted to an increasingly rapid pace of life, where people learned to produce fast, consume fast, and live fast. While humans are adaptive and some people may enjoy the aspects of this rush, there have been significant negative consequences for the planet, such as the current consumption rate of the Earth's natural resources.

Most people in many emerging and developed countries live under economic standards guided by a mass consumption culture. Despite growing concerns over the environment and sustainability, current society appears to be completely dependent on industrial over-production for a saturated market that over-consumes all kinds of products. There is where we can find a culture with a profusion of objects sustained by a mass media that encourages people to have more and more as a means to fulfil expectations and satisfy deep needs and desires.

Baudrillard identifies consumption as the area where important and contemporary concerns are placed or related to (Baudrillard 1998). But on the other hand, like never before, consumers are demonstrating a sense of purpose with more active participation to help create a more sustainable economy (BBMG et al 2012). Thus, from my point of view, consumers have an extremely important role in society and have great potential in generating new values and changing paradigms.

Therefore, I intend to use research as a means to expand knowledge and gain insights over consumer attitudes, motivations and behaviors, with a socio-ecological approach in order to place environment and society’s needs and aspirations at the core of innovation.

Building a research expertise can have powerful effect on design futures [‌] A research orientation promotes greater insight into viable practices and methods [‌] It enhances the body of knowledge that becomes the foundation from which all professionals derive solutions. (Augustin & Coleman 2012: 1)

The research process is used here to broaden my practical frames of reference as a former designer, and to provide a theoretical narrative with respect to issues relevant to environmental and social sustainability, and consequently to face the challenges in changing mindsets. In combining my previous professional skills and experiences as a fashion designer with a research methodology, I can enhance my understanding about sustainable consumption in fashion with new information to stimulate new

17

ways of thinking. In obtaining new data from a broader perspective, I can inform and address responses to this particular issue more adequately and with creativity.

The proposal of alternative futures and lifestyles for a young generation can work as a helpful method to reimagine the present consumption scenario. My idea is to use research as a tool to create a bridge between present and future in order to build more harmonious relationships between society and the environment. With a focus on the consumption culture, this work aspires to make sense of the future in fashion by taking a role in framing the capacity and complexity of consumer’s buying decisions. My idea is to focus on the motivations, values and beliefs of consumers around sustainable consumption in order to analyse the relations between people and products and to uncover what drive their interests in living sustainable lives.

ALIGNING RESEARCH METHODOLOGY TO MY CREATIVE PROCESS As Crouch and Pearce point out, methodology works as a map and as the lens to conceptualize the research journey (Crouch & Pearce 2012). For this reason, since I have established where I want this research to take me, and the main issues I intend to investigate, now it is time to define my methodology. The sense of purpose inserted in this work and the decisions I will take along my research process are my “methodological decisions” and they work as the guide for the entire project, “from data gathering through analysis to the final presentation” (Crouch & Pearce 2012: 53).

Therefore, my methodological framework comprises myself as a fashion researcher, looking through a socio-ecological lens to the contemporary consumer society. To that end, my research methods are based on specific literature, websites, surveys, interviews and case studies. In order to amplify my research scope and yet keep the adequate language supported by relevant and fresh information to communicate with my reader’s interests, I am not restricting my data gathering to books only, I am also using Internet sources, such as articles from online magazines or newspapers, and more importantly, consumer behaviour surveys and studies launched very recently, between 2012 and 2013.

Likewise, another important point to be considered are my research values that consist in promoting socially and environmentally sustainable practices in fashion consumption with creativity allied to quality in information in order to take sustainable fashion from niche and make it the new normal. These values are particularly originated from the reflection on my personal and professional interests and contexts and consequently will be very influential along the entire work.

In addition, Augustin and Coleman present ways to align research methodology with the design process to maximize the access to new and relevant information gathered along the design progress. It shows how to integrate a systematic research-based methodology into practice in order to appropriately analyse and apply the available information using a design process cycle. It includes four main phases, which are the project initiation, investigation, integration and implementation (Augustin & Coleman 2012).

18

figure 3 (Augustin & Coleman 2012)

Subsequently, I can use the cycle as a template to illustrate my own methodological map, which in this case I rather call it my ‘research’ process cycle. In doing so, my initiation step corresponds to the beginning of my exploration around the fashion consumption impacts on society and the environment as a way to narrow my initial proposal. Following the cycle to the next step, the project investigation means to apply my research methods to build a statement to this complex issue. The third phase is where I integrate into the process my values as a researcher and use them to refine my approach to my audience. Finally, the implementation phase “is when research becomes a means to evaluate and document measures of success” (Augustin & Coleman 2012: XIV), which in this context corresponds to my design proposal, the digital magazine, which is the final product of my research process.

INTERVIEW AS A RESEARCH TOOL Inspired by Ramia Mazé’s research work on socio-cultural practices in daily life and specifically on ‘ways of doing’ cooking (Jong & Mazé 2010), I have developed my own method of gathering information from fashion consumers on ‘ways of doing’ shopping. I have posed a small set of questions for young people, the generation known as the Millennials, living in London and São Paulo, in order to analyse their relationships to sustainable fashion products, and to what kind of information they expect to find in a fashion magazine.

In surveying only young people by the initial stage of this work, my intention was to collect information from the audience I intend to relate my digital magazine to.

Although the responses provided me a general perspective, it was an important key for my early investigation. The data collected from the interviews was helpful to frame a strategy to propose a more efficient and focused service based on the audience’s needs and aspirations.

19

Interview results: I conducted the interviews with eleven people between 18 and 28 years old, from different cities across the world but currently living in London and São Paulo, and the findings were very interesting. One thing I learned that particularly stood out was the fact that there is a huge lack of information when it comes to sustainable fashion.

When the interviewees were asked if they would buy more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if they had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible, ten out of eleven strongly agreed. By environmentally and socially responsible products I mean those products that are manufactured with low environmental impact materials and processes and under fair work conditions. In addition, ten of the interviewees strongly agreed they would purchase these products if they were easier to find and wear.

One of the participants even questioned “why environmentally and socially responsible products are so ugly” (see Appendix B, 5), which reminded me of Lynda Grose arguing in an interview that sustainable fashion is not hippie fashion and that many people still think it is not possible to combine style with sustainable materials (Cardoso 2013). There seems to be a disconnection between the two ideas, where many consumers sacrifice fashion for ethics or more often, ethics for fashion, which again, leads me to the point that in fact there is a problem in communicating and promoting sustainable fashion.

Although the majority of interviewees answered they would pay more for products with social and environmental benefits, one of them complemented the response saying that “products with social and environmental benefits aren’t more expensive, they are just signaling us how much it costs to produce respecting time and space” and that essentially other products prices are undervalued (see Appendix B, 4).

In relation to communication, the most part of interviewees use digital means to get informed about fashion such as digital magazines, blogs, and other resources like brands’ websites, Facebook, online shops or Instagram. Moreover, while they can easily find information about fashion trends on these platforms, most of them mentioned they would like to see more information about products, materials and processes. One of the interviewees also stated that “it is easy to find a lot about trends and what products to buy, but I never read anything about fashion’s impact on the environment and society […] I think it is important that fashion magazines address the issue in a fair manner and that this kind of information is more readily available (not only in specific publications about the issue)” (see Appendix B, 8). Another interviewee argued that most of fashion magazines, digital magazines or blogs do not stimulate readers with relevant issues and do not encourage them to ask questions and think beyond the fashion trends (see Appendix B, 9).

CASE STUDY AS A RESEARCH TOOL The primary focus of a case study is to support the research’s object of interest, and for this reason I have chosen a few cases to present along this work. The first

20

one I wish to comment on is completely embedded in my scenario and presents Ana Paula Albanez, a young girl from São Paulo, who created a blog/diary to reflect upon her consumption practices. In taking this case to analyse I learn and gain some more understandings about the relationships that consumers establish with fashion products and consumption within an everyday life context.

In March 2012, Ana Paula proposed herself a big challenge: not to buy any kind of product (besides food, drinks or essential toiletries) for 90 days, which is a hard task for a very consumerist person like her. To that end, Ana, who was used to “buy at least one superfluous item every day” realised she could look at her wardrobe, analyse it, and rearrange it in order to “detox and save some money”.

Additionally, she created a blog/diary with the aim to not only relate and share her experiences, but also to provide a space to exchange ideas, suggest mindset changes and above all, to learn how to live without an obsessive consumption habit. The blog is called Desconsumir, which could be translated to English as something like ‘Deconsumption’ and along with her narrative, she posted photos of her reinvented looks from the ‘old’ wardrobe.

figure 4

This blog is a good example of how fashion can be used as an agent of change and creatively engage an audience into the discussion of alternative consumption practices. In this case, such practices include mending or turning old clothes into new ones, or swapping clothes and accessories with friends. Another important element that I want to consider here is the use of digital platforms as powerful communication agents to a profuse public (Desconsumir).

21

2.

Consumer society

CONSUMER CULTURE Consumption has always been part of human culture in societies, but only in this century, it has taken a foundational place, rather than just a phenomenal characteristic. Possibly, the central motor of contemporary society is consumption and not production, as Marx argued before. (Corrigan 1997)

The consumption dynamic the way we see it today, was boosted by the industrial and technological progress over the past century. Whereas the expansion of prosperity in both emerging and developed societies increases the consumption of more goods and services, it brings along serious environmental and social impacts. As sustainability and ethics involve critical reconsiderations of prevalent production processes and consumption habits, it becomes relevant to drive efforts and attention to how the relationships between products, people and resources are originated and built, as well as how they affect a large and long-standing system. “With ‘dysfunctional’ consumption, both individual and collective, rising more quickly than the ‘functional’, the system is basically becoming parasitic upon itself.” (Baudrillard 1998: 41). Therefore, I realized two important areas of inquiry: first, the understanding of people's aspirations, desires and needs within a consumer culture, and second, the consumption culture in relation to sustainability and fashion.

Since contemporary society is seen as the consumer society, it is important to recognize the profound role of consumption culture in defining lifestyles, and to understand it, not only as a complex system but also as a group of small practices driving everyday life. “Consumers are active agents, and shopping is not only a necessary activity for survival but the dominant mode of social interaction and primary way for people to participate in social and public life” (Micheletti 2000, cited by Luke 2008: 93). I can say that the consumption of fashion products is in general - more or less consciously - embedded in the routines of daily life, usually conducted in public spaces with social interaction, and as a practice, it is shaped in a historical and cultural context, closely related to trends and values within social groups.

Likewise, consumption structures and organizes everyday life in a way that everything is taken over and transformed in an easy translation of happiness and comfort, which frequently may come from the merely resolution of anxieties. People consume their own fantasies that are encapsulated in the objects; they consume an image rather than the product itself.

The consumer society has been defined as a system where wants are satisfied through a market or as a society with mass production and mass marketing of goods; it can be based upon the role consumption plays in identity formation or as a pervasive element in the society studied. (Löfgren 1994: 50)

22

The consumer culture supports the individual expression of people coexisting in society, it connects people within particular social groups by revealing individual identities, thus it means, at the same time, a collective and an individual experience.

That is where we can find a culture with a profusion of objects sustained by a mass media that encourages people to have more and more as a means to fulfil their expectations and satisfy ephemeral needs and desires.

Such idea makes me think of what exactly are the matters that make people feel deeply fulfilled. What if these feelings of completion are projected in something else than consuming goods? Or is it possible to uncover and propose alternative values to guide people’s buying choices and yet fulfil their expectations? The truth is people will never be able to satisfy their deep needs with products and for this reason they will always face dissatisfaction and consequently buy more and more; because when a desire is fulfilled, many others will appear to take its place and thus, this insatiable consumption dynamic is maintained.

Campbell points out that the very essence of modern consumption involves an apparently endless pursuit of wants and that it comes from the ‘revolution of rising expectations’, when societies go through processes of development or modernization (Campbell 2000). From this point of view, products are made to meet existing wants and expectations, and if they are effective in doing so, new wants and expectations will arise therefore, the production for consumption dynamic will always expand, and subsequently, it will impact progressively and rapidly on the use of natural resources.

Moreover, the rapid pace seems to be the imperative guiding theme for current fashion production system in order to meet avid market demands. For instance, large high street fashion chains sell big amounts of low price products with doubtful quality everyday across the world. For the last two decades, the fashion retail configuration has been happening so fast that shops can renew their styles even twice a week.

Accordingly, Baudrillard argues, “that it is wasteful, superfluous consumption that allows people and society to feel that they exist” and that “what is produced today is not produced for its use-value or its possible durability, but rather with an eye to its death” (Baudrillard 1998). As a result, the human footprint on Earth increases as fast as fast fashion does, mostly because of all these unsustainable consumption habits.

However, it takes only a little reflection to realize that consuming fast and massively no longer contributes to self-satisfaction, as people sometimes, spend more time and energy affording and managing all the products they think they need to fulfil the sense of lack of socio-cultural expectations and interactions. In addition, Jonathan Chapman points out that it is possible to reduce consumption and waste by increasing the durability of relationships established between users and products by exploring new ways of designing objects capable of supporting deeper and more meaningful qualities (Chapman 2005).

Now is the crucial moment to finally understand that prosperity is more than simply to produce for a saturated and demanding market in order to increase material gain.

It has to be seen from the perspectives of other values such as “being”, instead of “having”, with the aim to close the equation of a finite planet. The world calls for innovation and development of new languages and models where creativity and

23

collaborative efforts can bring new solutions and shared knowledge, based mainly on business ethics and respect to the environment. Although, fashion businesses will not change merely by reorienting economic models, social pressure from consumers is also needed to encourage changes. If humanity wants to live better and less unequal, the option is to rethink the way the market centred economy is organised, how it generates and distributes wealth and how goods are consumed.

TIME TO MAKE A SHIFT: CONSUMER CULTURE X SUSTAINABLE CULTURE Sustainability is not a new concept in the history of fashion. It has been part of the fashion repertoire, albeit in various guises, since the 1960s, when the counterculture rejected mainstream styles. Yet long before the over abundance of good available to consumers today, economical use of resources was a way of life.

(Welters 2008: 7)

As I have discussed on previous essays along the MA Design Futures course, my intention is to present a definition of sustainable consumption culture and to defend a shift from a culture of consumer to a culture of sustainability. Changes towards sustainable futures demand fundamental transformations on the way fashion goods are produced and marketed. Therefore, to require a systemic transformation it is necessary to complement the whole process of change with an important point, which is the way we consume.

Shifting from the traditional consumer culture to a sustainable culture requires a new model of brand-consumer collaboration. “The brand is no longer just a promise, image, or badge – for many companies it should become a relationship” (Tapscott 2009: 217). As consumers begin to demand more innovative and sustainable products and services, it creates a new dynamic, where both purchaser and producer can benefit and also support the long-term health of society, based on environmental and ethical concerns. Getting there requires the engagement of less conscious consumers in driving positive change whilst fulfilling their needs. It is a systemic movement to help everyone making their buying choices with the less personal, environmental and social impact.

In relation to Millennials and their values regarding consumption, Tapscott stresses: “honesty, consideration, accountability, and transparency are the foundation of trust for this generation” (Tapscott 2009: 217). Likewise, one of the positive things about fashion is the fact that it constantly demands new solutions to stimulate the market and to create competitive advantage. Thus, in this case, fashion could facilitate the construction of a new system whose values would have to be considered not only in terms of profits but also in terms of the balanced equation between society, economy and the environment.

PROSUMERS: MILLENNIALS AND THEIR CONSUMPTION HABITS The term prosumer was coined by Alvin Toffler in 1980, in his book The Third Wave (Toffler 1981) where he defined prosumer as someone who combines the definitions of consumer and producer, because they are “neither producers or consumers in the usual sense”, these people consume what they themselves produce” (Toffler 1981:

24

277). Toffler used the term to define the economic activity, or the “invisible economy” (Toffler 1981) in the agricultural phase of civilization. In Addition, Don Tapscott describes “prosumerism” as the “manifestation of interest-based communities working together to solve a problem or improve a product or service.” (Tapscott 2009: 209). In bringing the combination of these two perceptions to our current economy, I can say that this segment of engaged consumers can become agents of positive changes in fashion industry, by helping and pushing brands to make the right choices and improvements in relation to the production of goods, based on real social and environmental needs of our time.

In 1980, Toffler also pointed out “the rising significance of the prosumer” and “an awesome change looming that will transform even the role of the market itself in our lives and in the world system” (Toffler 1981: 278). Thus, for the past decades, consumers have been more and more involved into the production process, and Millennials, in their turn, proved to be active consumers willing to contribute, cocreate and co-build a brand, a product or a service. According to Tapscott, this generation wants to buy things anyplace, where and when they want, while helping shape the brand, and the product, where integrity will be one of the key elements to build consumer loyalty (Tapscott 2009). Over the years, the term prosumer has been spread and has given meaning to a variety of interpretations, but in a overall sense, I believe it can also be understood as someone who makes little distinction between his or her personal and professional lives, especially when considering a co-creative or ‘do it yourself’ activity, in which one engages in practices belonging to either spheres, regardless of time or location, which may even change the way we see these institutions and the world.

According to Toffler, “prosuming involves the ‘de-marketization”, and in relation to that he also stressed that prosumers would sharply alter the role of market in society (Toffler 1981: 287). Likewise, nowadays, we can see that prosumers are keen adopters of online products and services, and that the Web is a space that combine innovation, global marketplaces, and advanced technologies, which completely changes the way people buy, retailers sell, and products are marketed. Prosumers usually engage in digital technologies such as social networking and other Internetbased tools and services that allow people to stay connected whenever and wherever they desire. “Companies are making friends with customers online by listening to what consumers have to say about their product or service“ (Tapscott 2009: 204).

The mass communication technologies allied to the Millennials’ collaboration abilities allow digital communities to develop and succeed. It is this connected lifestyle to which young prosumers are enthusiastic and early adopters.

DIGITAL CONSUMPTION TRENDS Market is redesigning itself and the way products are marketed with the improvement and creation of new technologies, and according to Toffler, current society is the “’trans-market civilization’”, a civilization “able to move on to a new agenda” (Toffler 1981: 298). In relation to that, Millennials are leading the marketplace to a digital sphere, and more than ever they are looking for differentiated products and betters services with business transparency, in order to meet their true values. Nowadays, the

25

Internet is the main research tool for products to buy, places to go, prices comparison, including the benefit that people can use it anytime, anywhere.

Consumers, mainly young ones, are forming their online communities, where they can collaborate on projects, share knowledge and experiences about products and services, engage in e-commerce and additionally swap advices, tools and goods.

Therefore, the power and reach of these social networks on the shopping habits of the young generation is immense, according to Tapscott, Net Geners influence 81% of their families’ apparel purchases (Tapscott 2009:188).

The power of the Internet to widespread and decentralize information has stimulated an enormous shift in power from the producers to the consumers. “The successful companies view befriending customers in these social networks as a relationshipbuilding exercise� (Tapscott 2009: 202); where authenticity and honesty are the most important qualities when advertising products or services.

When working as the editor assistant at the Ethical Fashion Forum, I also worked on a piece related to key trends and market opportunities and I came across the model of Collaborative Consumption, also know by Shared Economy, Circular Economy, or Collaborative Economy. This new economic model is growing fast (Geron 2013), becoming a viable business model and a driver of innovation in a socially enabled market (Lim 2013). This emerging alternative economy presents a shift in consumer values, from ownership to accessibility. Communities around the world are using network technologies to rent, lend, swap and share, transforming business and market into more sustainable practices.

A number of factors have come together to influence this new practice, such as the worldwide recession, the growth of trusted networks generated by social media, and a growing need for community. It's a new consumer mindset that values transparency, participation, and collaboration (Hardaway 2013). Moreover, the real benefit of a collaborative economy turns out to be social, when sharing things, even if on an online environment, allows us to make more meaningful connections.

CASE STUDIES Some online resources for collaborative and conscious consumerism:

Collaborative Consumption: it is an online resource for collaborative consumption

worldwide, and network for the global community. It offers news, content, events, jobs, studies and resources from key media outlets and industry blogs. The website also includes a searchable database of companies from several sectors and services.

26

figure 5

Dressed Up, Girl Meets Dress, and Fashion Hire: are some

examples of online rental shops that lend designer clothing and accessories for all occasions. Each website offers different rental time and also the option to purchase the products.

figure 6

Materia Brasil: is an information centre for innovation and

conscious economy. The website provides a database for materials and responsible products made in Brazil. They work as a link between materials with low environmental impact and innovative research and development. Materia Brasil analysis is based on materials and products lifecycle and generates data for designers, architects and other professionals.

27

3.

Reimagining consumption

In the past decades, people have been more and more concerned about the global environmental crises due to the rapid growth of economic activity and human population as well as the reduction of natural resources. Increasingly, the fashion productive sector moves towards scarcity and restricted conditions of resources due to the emergency point that the world has reached. Processes within the whole fashion production chain that impacts on society and the environment have become more evident and it is time to make a decisive picture change.

For this reason, sustainable fashion appears as a natural and fundamental reaction against this framework. The perception of inconsistencies in the current economic system is much larger now and more people are questioning business models and realizing that it has no long-term lifespan. A growing part of fashion entrepreneurs has finally realised that sustainability is no longer a catchword, but essentially a real need, that also open doors to new possibilities of production and consumption, based on a system supported by ethics and collaboration.

The integration of more locally based approaches with our current mass-production techniques for the manufacture of economically viable, socially responsible and environmentally sensitive fashionable products can provide a way forward that sustains a vigorous market economy while ensuring development and change towards practices that are both socially and environmentally responsible. (Walker 2006: 76).

There is a new generation of conscious designers and brands interested in creating new work models and new ways to develop their products with ethical engagement to the environment and society. For instance, Kate Fletcher created the Slow Fashion Movement (Fletcher 2007 a) as an alternative to fast fashion and it encourages initiatives against fashion industry's environmental impacts. The movement intends to stimulate the conscious use of natural resources by slowing down the production processes, reducing the number of trends and seasons, and encouraging the return of a greater value to products to remove the image of disposability of fashion. The idea of quality rather than quantity is used to summarize the basic principles of slow fashion by choosing products that last longer and establish deeper connections with the consumers.

The slow movement has a broad interpretation and it can be practiced in different stages within the fashion production chain, however, my intention here is to project this concept onto consumerism, in order to reflect on consumption habits and encourage the idea that sustainability can be compatible with economic growth. I believe it is possible to reduce the impact of fashion consumption without compromising the economy by consuming fashion consciously and with commitment to a lifestyle in which resources are not compulsively wasted; they are rather used creatively and 28

appropriately to meet what is essential and fulfilling.

For the past three or four years, I have been seeing on magazines and newspapers an increasing movement of handwork activities such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery and sewing, being rediscovered by young people worldwide. It shows not only a need for slowing the pace of everyday life, but also the integration of alternative values for the emergence of a new lifestyle in opposition to the prevailing mass-production market and seasonal trends imposed by fashion.

Furthermore, a Brazilian organization dedicated to conscious consumerism has recently developed an extensive research on the assimilation and perspectives of conscious consumerism in Brazil, and the perception of corporate social responsibility

by Brazilian consumers. The information gathered between 2010 and 2012 shows that the importance of corporate social responsibility rose significantly on the agenda of Brazilian consumers. It is also concluded that the growth of Internet access plays an important role in this scenario, allowing more and more citizens to obtain information about how companies are dealing with such issues (Akatu 2013).

PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION Consumption at today’s rate threatens global natural resources and the environment we live and depend on. The sustainable approach to fashion attempts to redirect models of production and consumption, assuming the idea that a product should be understood by the process it is made, through the tracing of its development, from the raw material to the final product. “The pursuit of design is not about the way things appear, but rather about the way things give meaning and relevance to the human experience” (Nelson 2003, cited by Hethorn 2008: 65). It is required to emphasise not only the production stages of a product, but also to exalt the experience of consumption in itself; the final product has to present an awareness of its whole history in order to create a mindful and long-term relationship with the consumer.

The concept of sustainable design, comprehends theories and practices for design that cultivate environmental, economic, cultural and social conditions that will support human well-being indefinitely (Thorpe 2007). Therefore, sustainability can be seen as a form to integrate a wide range of environmental and human needs into a design process that focuses on balancing economic, technical, and social necessities.

The meaningful aspect required for a long-term relationship between products and consumers needs to take into account the non-material nature of human gratification and happiness. It shifts the focus away from designing products for only profitmaking demands to designing for the purpose of optimizing the well being of people and nature. Using minimally and carefully the natural resources with creativity, fashion professionals can shape new manners to connect consumers with products and decrease environmental impacts. Creative minds can combine innovation and sustainability to transform cultural behaviors and move fashion consumption towards a better-quality picture.

Furthermore, we should not underestimate fashion power to communicate and promote new trends, influencing and inspiring consumer’s behavior; but rather it

29

should be taken as a strong device to move contrarily from the dominant system towards more sustainable futures. The barrier to change this paradigm is not lack of information; it is however, the absence of a shared new vision, desirable and yet socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. Delivering these changes and creating new conditions for success is clearly beyond the reach of any brand or business alone, as action requires facing systemic barriers to sustainability. For this reason, a further condition for success is to promote the space and opportunities for more competitive cooperation between businesses. One thing is certain, greater collaboration between suppliers and brands, and wider social support, are the start points to create the shift needed for a sustainable future.

A process for reshaping consumer aspirations is also needed. Therefore, it would be relevant to encourage the idea of access rather than ownership, where experiences are more important than products. This possibility is now slowly, via few brands, being absorbed and transformed into the image of a new lifestyle, a lifestyle that one can feel good about, instead of being restricted by or forced into. Consequently, it promotes consumer demands that every time more will drive businesses and brands to embrace a different future. It will require rethinking all aspects of lifestyles, such as style and culture, well-being and living infrastructure, that could and should be desirable and attainable.

Although still niche, there is a growing movement of consumers trying to reconcile their desire for style with their concerns about the planet, playing the role of both conscious consumers and conscious citizens. These fashion consumers are now, more than ever, questioning the impact of their buying choices on society and environment. As Connie Ulasewicz points out, the eco-savvy consumers demand “more ‘responsible’ clothing manufactured with environmentally sound methods that enable them to tread lightly on the Earth” (Ulasewicz 2008: 30). Such consumers, become active agents of positive change by making more conscious purchases from brands that share the same values, in a way that both, industry and market, can lead fashion to progressive transformation based on the well-being of society and environment.

In addition, a research developed by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility, The Regeneration Consumer Study (BBMG et al 2012), presents an exploration of sustainability market trends, priorities and engagement pathways through a research with over 6,000 consumers across six countries, providing evidences that a new marketplace is growing, and attitudes are changing. Opportunities for collaboration are expanding with a new force of creative brands that are grabbing the moment to innovate with smarter, safer, and greener solutions.

Business follow market demands in order to achieve success; therefore, there is the opportunity to meet the needs of this expanding marketplace for products that offer social or environmental benefits. Exploring and understanding sustainability market trends allows the setting of priorities and values, such as trust, transparency, collaboration, and participation to integrate green practices into business and engage less conscious consumers in new habits in relation to sustainable consumption. The main objective is to bring the consumer voice into the sustainability conversation and help articulate and encourage behavioural changes that can accelerate the growth of a more sustainable economy.

30

CHALLENGES TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION Ironically, fashion industry, which is always anticipated and trendsetter, is relatively delayed when the subject is sustainability. While the industry has changed considerably in the past years, there is still a huge work to be done. The damage that has being done by companies following the usual non-sustainable business model is significant and for this reason, sustainability must become the base for way of doing business, and not the opposite way, which is a big challenge.

Ethical and sustainable fashion can be something still expensive for businesses, and unfortunately, current fashion producers that use sustainable processes are isolated and work to suit a small and particular niche that can pay more for a product that highlights its origin. In addition, consumers seem to be environmentally concerned until they know the final price of the product; sometimes when the price is higher than a ‘common’ product, the consumer usually prefers no to pay for it.

The high cost for implementing clean processes in factories, such as the use of natural fibres managed through sustainable procedures like non-toxic dying methods or even good labour conditions is, indeed, an obstacle to expand the sustainable fashion market. For example, an industrial laundry process that is totally environmentally friend may cost about 5 times more than a polluting one (Rebouças and Salgado 2011 b), which has a huge impact on the final price of a product. However, it is wrong to throw the responsibility only on the individual consumer or fashion business; governments should also provide the appropriate support to new initiatives in order to create a more competitive and environmentally conscious economic model.

The question is: how to make an affordable sustainable fashion?

It gets more difficult if one does it alone and the attempts are likely to fail, as indeed it will be more expensive while others will continue being much cheaper. Thus, it is really important to understand the fact that a sustainable product is not essentially more expensive than a regular one, because externalities are included in its price.

A very cheap product usually does not take into account evidences like pollution or models of labour analogue to slavery; however, the society and the environment have to pay for it on one way or another. Consuming consciously means not only to afford a product, but also to embrace a whole new lifestyle. Consequently, people will realize that in fact all the expenses can surely include several dimensions like better opportunities and conditions for those involved in the production chain, less environmental impacts, improvements in social relationships, and human well-being.

First, to face challenges and get competitive, business models need to internalise current externalities, because obviously, nature’s assets are not free. In order to effectively manage future risks and opportunities, brands should integrate sustainability in the core of their business strategy. Second, we all need social norms to change, for instance happiness needs redefining, so that it is no longer synonymous of acquiring more and more products. Thirdly, governments could help by making more long-term commitments and creating initiatives to make sustainable fashion more competitive, such as a “green” tax reform to incentive entrepreneurs committed to clean production processes; in addition, social wealth could be calculated differently,

31

to include measures that matter more to humanity, such as well being and quality of life.

COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY I believe that if people had to choose, they would probably choose to be environmentally and socially conscious citizens and consumers, embodying aspirations that combine the well-being of the body and the environment, “but the ideal becomes confused in a culture driven by image and a search for the elusive identities sewn into the signification of dress” (Arnold 2001: 30). For this reason, this choice can be difficult, since it is also very complex to identify and frame many levels of sustainable issues.

Thus, being well informed and making conscious purchase decisions can be very challenging, but is extremely necessary to move fashion forward.

According to a research developed in Brazil, consumers are more skeptics in relation to what companies say they do, and thus, they are demanding legal and external regulations to push these companies towards better management in relation to social responsibility. It happens as an unfavorable consequence of excessive and careless usage of sustainable concepts as merely marketing tools, especially for brands that use sustainability and social responsibility only as vague a discourse, with little or none concrete support (Akatu 2013).

Sustainable consumption nowadays, is recognized by leading brands as one of the most significant challenges in the coming decades (Alabaster & Uren 2012); however, it is a fundamental subject they will have to embrace in order to create business value and move to sustainable growth. There should be a collective commitment from leading brands to innovate towards sustainable practices and explore how people’s lives are affected by fashion. In order to determine how the challenge can be properly addressed and achieve greater changes, it is important to actively engage with consumers. Brands need to evolve to integrate sustainable attributes into their long-term strategic vision with authenticity in order to reinforce their propositions and embedded values. Sustainability should be integral to a brand’s philosophy and not be presented as an additional element, so brands can build long-term relationships to consumers who share the same values.

In addition, there is a need to redefine how sustainable fashion is communicated, as currently, there are only few actions attempting to shift mainstream fashion mindset.

I believe that sustainable lifestyles should be more widespread and advertised as something inspiring and appealing, because, there is a lack of consumer’s demands for sustainable products, due to this lack of information and education around the real need for sustainability. Brands should bring sustainability to ‘normality’, rather than stay niche, and make it aspirational in order to influence consumer behaviour, from small and local actions to the mainstream scenario. What I recognise is that brands need a new language to truly shape and sell sustainability, making it look trendy, in order to encourage consumers to pursue more sustainable lifestyles. Empowering and incentivizing consumers to live sustainably, will make they want and use less and more efficiently, because sustainable consumption should be accessible and a conscious choice for everyone.

32

An example of misunderstanding in communicating sustainable fashion started in the late 1990’s, when a genuine desire to seek out more environmentally friendly products was promoted by the New Age environmentalists in order to help save the planet and create a sense of union with a mystical ideal of nature. This vision was also developed by “marketing strategies that played on feelings of guilty and sense of lack in an era of technological advance” (Arnold 2001). This approach brought to fashion a range of natural looking fabrics and materials with soft hues of natural dyes, which, however, clashed against consumers’ aspirations for bright and colorful shades, as marketed by fashion in the summers of 1997 and 1998 (Arnold 2001: 29). I can see that this image of sustainable fashion still remains, and that many people still relate environmentally friendly products to a hippie style, whereas on the contrary, it can be technological, stylish and updated.

Social Marketing, for instance, aims at promoting new behavioural patterns that will benefit society as well as individuals and it can be used as a powerful communication tool; it is applied when a brand has a target audience and a specific behaviour to influence. The main purpose is to understand and orientate the audience to higher value behaviour. It is an audience-centred rather than an organisation-centred strategy, used to enhance awareness and motivate people to take a new desired behaviour. Therefore, social marketing could be a communication means to promote conscious consumption and generate a long-lasting impact.

CASE STUDY

Patagonia Anti-Consumption Campaign In 2012, Patagonia launched a campaign to suggest limits and promote more sustainable practices in consumption.

Patagonia’s transparency in relation to sustainability challenges in its own supply chain helps reinforce the brand’s identity. The message ‘Don’t Buy this Jacket’ also reflects the quality and durability of its products and the efforts on carbon footprint reduction.

Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder and owner argues that what keep him in business “is the opportunity to change the way business can be done, to reduce environmental harm, and inspire other business people to do the same” (Chouinard 2008: x), therefore, Patagonia’s campaign enhances the brand’s image and embodies the values associated with its purpose (Patagonia). figure 7

33

4.

Communication platform

I aim at developing a digital magazine to rethink consumption, redefine values and reimagine more sustainable futures in fashion; because I believe fashion has the power to influence and inspire people in positive ways. The idea is to communicate sustainability in an attractive and aspirational way to drive sustainable behaviours to mainstream, taking sustainability from a niche and making it the new normal.

My objective is to design and address the magazine to young consumers, primarily in Brazil with the purpose of improving their buying choices through more conscious decisions. I wish to stimulate and re-orientate current behavioural trends towards cosustainable futures, providing alternative values and setting new trends with creativity to inspire and engage youth, who is capable to influence and define more sustainable lifestyles in Brazil. In directing this proposal to Box 1824, I see a means to provide knowledge and relevant information to aggregate specialized fashion content and insert sustainability into the agency’s practices; communicating not only to brands, but also to consumers.

The proposal of alternative values and lifestyles, in my opinion, works as a helpful method to manage current issues around fashion consumption and enables the creation of a bridge between present and future in order to build more structured and harmonious relationships between society and the environment. With a focus on consumption culture my work aspires to make sense of the future in fashion by taking a role in framing the scope and depth of upcoming buying decisions.

Unlike most magazines, I don’t intend to focus only on products, but also on new understandings of sustainability. This requires forecast and research skills to present new and stimulating information, as a way to extend the boundaries of current trends. My intention is to provide news for the young generation to discover new pleasures, and new cultural practices, trying to shift current mainstream perceptions of sustainable fashion functionally, aesthetically, and culturally. Somehow it can constitute a form of fashion activism, as the message can be spread in a large scale through the Internet.

WHY DIGITAL? Some authors, like Kate Fletcher defend the idea of diversity in fashion when working in small and flexible production systems to provide personal and specific products so they are more relevant to our needs (Fletcher 2007: 123 b). On the other hand, Jonathan Chapman and Nick Gant argue that the place where sustainable design

34

must be: since sustainable design is essentially about the reduction of impact it can not be a marginal activity, so it has acquired a license to impact upon the mainstream (Chapman & Gant 2007: 11).

In my opinion a paradigm change is needed, hence my idea is to combine both of the perceptions above and propose a small and local project, which at the same time is capable of acting on a mainstream platform to get more effective results. In an extensive space like the Web, a small change can considerably reach a wide-spread outcome. The role of this magazine is to engage young people in new practices in fashion and make a real difference.

This young generation I am targeting on are called Millennials, Generation Y or Net Generation due to the immense affect of Internet on their daily lives. Thus, because these young people grew up with a very close relationship to the Internet and digital technologies, I believe it is a very appropriate vehicle to communicate and get a good exposure within this audience.

Millennials are online collaborators, and they use digital platforms as an open space and a marketplace where they can influence each other, share and discuss brands, products, and services. It is a space where they can organize themselves into new virtual communities and share the same interests with new people and exchange knowledge.

In addition, the Ethical Fashion Forum event, Source Summit 2013, held in London in July, brought numerous information regarding sustainability and ethical practices in fashion, including key trends for fashion on Internet (Ethical Fashion Forum 2013).

The online sales lecture showed growing trends on online shopping and social media such as: 64% of consumers have researched purchases online before buying offline; Facebook drives 26% of referral traffic to business websites; and 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaign. Thus, some of the conclusions that came out from these topics and are relevant for me are: view all channels as virtual shelves; image is everything; content is crucial; social media can make or break sales; and finally, get connected (Ditty 2013).

TOWARDS MORE SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES We all make our choices as consumers, and these choices may originate impacts.

Considering our daily choices from food to cars, or clothes we wear, it is possible to imagine the power we have to change paradigms. Rebecca Luke points out that “if we can make sustainable choices part of routine daily behaviour, these choices could become habitual� (Luke 2008: 85); as consumers, we can choose to pursuit a sustainable lifestyle, and make effective changes in the world by accepting or rejecting products available on the market.

Young people are potentially more willing and active subjects in the creation of their own lifestyles than they may have been in the past, and consumption may well provide a useful resource in this context [‌] consumption emerged as a key component of late twentieth-century lifestyles. (Miles 2000: 28)

In designing a magazine with focus on young people, I wish to engage them into more

35

sustainable lifestyles. I believe I can use fashion as a tool to create an alternative system of meanings and construct an identity supported by sustainable habits that will improve the relationship between people and the environment. The project is a space to rethink young people’s attitudes in relation to social and environmental changes, and to reimagine the role played by consumer lifestyles in constructing a world in rapid transformation.

According to Michele Micheletti “what we buy influences how we construct our everyday lives” (Micheletti 2000, cited by Luke 2008: 93). Moreover, fashion not only creates products, but above all it creates desires, and for this reason, has a strong influence on culture and behaviour, enabling the development of creativity and identity. Fashion promotes social interactions, connecting people to each other, and to a certain time and place.

There are different ways to facilitate the assimilation of sustainability into fashion industry. From small business to mainstream companies, fashion system is been positively changed in different scales and levels; however, in a slow pace compared to the real need. It is important to raise consciousness on the idea of a sustainable lifestyle, finding ways on how fashion can help promoting practices that respect people and the environment, and yet support socio-cultural and economic necessities.

By raising consciousness, I mean to incorporate new values that cam promote more responsible attitudes towards society and the environment. In his book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler states: So long as we operate within the confines of the style we have chosen, our choices are relatively simple.

The guidelines are clear. The subcult to which we belong helps us answer any questions; it keeps the guidelines in place. (Toffler 1970: 279)

Lifestyle is a way of living that allows people expressing themselves, and states where they belong (in a sense of time and place) and what they believe. Once one commits to an alternative lifestyle he or she is able to rule new attitudes and consequently, transform current reality. A new style is, certainly, more than welcome to challenge current trends and to force people to reconsider the way they live now and to progress towards sustainable futures.

Therefore, fashion is being used here to challenge conventions and propose new solutions, to inspire and help redesigning and stimulating better future scenarios.

Lifestyles can effectively be described as the material expression of an individual’s identity (Miles 2000: 28), and for this reason, I believe fashion represents one of the strongest means to construct and reinforce this idea of an individual’s image and identity.

CASE STUDIES As an entire industry, fashion has the timely challenge of making a shift towards more sustainable products and processes to manufacture and deliver them. However, the burden is huge and the shift is not entirely in the hands of business owners but also in the hands of consumers.

36

A good strategy to help the marketplace achieve these new standards is to create spaces to communicate and stimulate these practices. In creating platforms to support and approximate brands and consumers, it will help to engage them into more social and environmental responsive practices.

37

figure 8

Designed Good is a website that connects consumers with

emerging, socially conscious brands by telling the stories about how they are making a difference. The objective is to shift the marketplace towards a more sustainable one by curating products that blend the best in design and social responsibility. Designed Good is interested in products that serve as conversation starters about social change. In order to make this conversation happen the website is very concerned about making choices of which products to feature, as customers have to find the products desirable in the first place (Designed Good).

38

figure 9

Eluxe Magazine is a digital publication based in London and

Paris, dedicated to showcasing luxury brands that demonstrate a strong commitment to environmental sustainability. They define the sustainability of a brand based on several factors including the type of materials used, or tracing the environmental accountability of the product throughout the supply chain. The brands they promote should follow a strict Corporate Sustainability Policy, with transparent annual reports and create products which consumption can greatly reduce the owner’s environmental impact. The magazine also donates 10% of its annual profits to environmental and animal charities (Eluxe Magazine).

39

AUDIENCE: MILLENNIALS

opposite page: figure 10

41

I intend to address the digital magazine to a young audience; and in this chapter I captured some main features about them, who are known as the Generation Y or Millennials, or even the Net Generation due to the significant affect that Internet and digital technologies have on youth (Tapscott 2009). Tapscott points out that this generation corresponds to people who were born between January 1977 and December 1997 (Tapscott 2009: 16). Although, due to its large comprehensiveness, my idea is to target my audience on people between 20 and 30 years old in Brazil.

The aim here is to understand how they are like and how they can help society, changing institutions and mindsets for better futures. I believe that it is possible to engage young people through a sustainable fashion culture, and combine it to their capability of interaction and collaboration in order to create more consciousness around environmental and social sustainability. Their ability of sharing information with one another indicates that are great opportunities to further spread values represented by sustainable fashion brands.

THE CATALYSERS OF BIG CHANGES “These young people are remaking every institution of modern life, from the workplace to the marketplace, from politics to education, and down to the basic structure of the family” (Tapscott 2009: 10).

Many authors have pointed out that young people are a barometer of social change (Miles 2000). Youth see as its responsibility to engage in promoting change, and in effectively making positive difference in society, thus Millennials have an active role in establishing its culture and defining what the world will be like in the future. This generation is developing and spreading its own way of thinking and acting through digital technologies, and it will be very influential in constructing new lifestyles and promoting social transformations. Nowadays, young people represent a growing search for positive change, making an interest over social responsibility and engagement one of its priorities.

This socially responsible attitude is been developed across the world as seen for example in July 2011, when a number of young entrepreneurs and philanthropists gathered in NY for the Nexus Global Youth Summit on Innovative Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship, where one of the common interests was ‘doing right by doing good’, helping peers to connect and discuss social change with non-profits and young philanthropists (Smith 2011).

Young generation wants to connect their work with personal fulfillment, and this powerful combination should be considered a success in life. When work and happiness walk side by side, the new social environment is less focused on the individual, and more on the new collective gathering of the community (O Sonho Brasileiro).

Millennials are also the faces of a new economy supported by open source, crowd funding platforms and independent initiatives with the power of Internet and its immeasurable impact and reach (We All Want to Be Young 2011). Internet allows personal contents to gain gigantic dimensions and because of this digital and collective mindset, the young generation will affect the way people produce and work 42

in the future.

As they represent new languages and behaviours, young people can be directly influential on consumer habits as well. They are aspirational for those who are younger and inspirational for those who are older. Millennials also have “huge buying power when compared to previous generations” (We All Want to Be Young 2011) and they influence each other and other generations in new ways, and traditional media are almost ineffective in reaching them and the way they make their buying choices.

Connected to each other by their gadgets and social networks, young people are, for example, interested in making a difference by creating a new product that thinks about recycling or sustainability; or transforming the environment with new ideas. “As consumers, they want to be ‘prosumers’ – co-innovating products and services with producers. The concept of a brand is in the process of changing forever because of them” (Tapscott 2009: 11), they value different characteristics of products and services, and they want companies to create rich experiences. For this reason, brands also use the Internet as a means to gather information from their target audiences and then improve products or services; consequently, the virtual space works as a free two-way dialogue between brands and consumers.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE COLLECTIVE POWER IN BRAZIL This generation is engaging politically and sees government as a key tool for making changes and improving society, empowered by the gigantic reach of Internet, they are becoming influential social activists. They are the first to grow up with a powerful tool of unprecedented power to inform, engage, and mobilize, their generation (Tapscott 2009: 270). Moreover, within a broader perspective, youth is also trying to achieve social changes by rethinking and remaking family, educational, professional, and economic and institutions.

Emerging countries where social disparities are more evident, such as Brazil, urge the youth to act in a faster pace to transform their concerns into action. Currently, the country is experiencing a widespread social turbulence, where over one million people took the streets in about 70 cities across the country. Mostly young people marched along the cities’ main roads holding up posters with several political and social change demands.

The protests began in June 2013, led by the Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement) against a R$ 0,20 increase in the Sao Paulo bus fare. However, the protests have moved forward and led youth to realize the urgent need to confront the Brazilian government in regards to other important issues such as economic equality, political reforms, and better public healthcare and education systems.

The capture of the streets marks the return of the collective capacity to act and to create new political meanings. The protests, arranged mostly by university students through social media campaigns demonstrated that the youth, organised through Facebook and Twitter, played a fundamental role in shaping public opinion and using the Internet for social engagement. Young Brazilians strengthened their social bonds

43

and created a strong sense of civic engagement and collective empowerment.

Nevertheless, this is not only a Brazilian movement, the young generation across the World - as seen recently in Egypt and Turkey for example - has realised that social media is a powerful means for more participative and collective demands.

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE IN BRAZIL The project O Sonho Brasileiro, which means The Brazilian Dream, points out some statistics concerning young people in Brazil. It shows that people between 18 and 24 years old represent 25 million people and belong to the first globalized generation of Brazilians. In addition it refers to the term “new collective”, which represents a generalized feeling that restructures the way people act in the world, people who believe in small daily changes to impact positively in a local community everyday life.

These young Brazilians, who already work for the collective well being, correspond to 2 million people, and take the role of catalysers of ideas, generating a new kind of influence between people and institutions (O Sonho Brasileiro). This is in fact, a general characteristic of the young generation around the world, which is also pointed out by Tapscott when “they care strongly about justice and the problems faced by their society and are typically engaged in some kind of civic activity at school, at work, or in their communities” (Tapscott 2009: 6).

In 2012, the One Young World commissioned a global research under the theme of behaving in an ethical and responsible way within a broad political and economical landscape. It was developed among young people between 20 and 29 years old in 12 different countries, including Brazil. Some of the findings include that whereas most people in developing countries like China and India agree with the statement ‘environmental problems are a price worth paying for economic prosperity’; most people in Brazil disagree with it. Although Brazil is part of the BRIC developing countries, this contradictory statistics are also shown on the Yale University’s Environmental Sustainability Index, where the country is ranked as the 11th in the world on a series of measures to reduce environmental impacts, whereas India and China are ranked 101st and 133rd (One Young World Countries Research 2012).

A global survey made by the Carbon Trust about young adult’s perceptions of carbon and climate change in April 2012 presents findings such as the top 2 factors influencing attitudes towards carbon footprint in Brazil are companies providing information or advice with 29% and newspapers and magazines with 22%. In relation to the goods they buy every day, most of young people in Brazil is supportive of and seek action from brands regarding their carbon footprint. In addition, 81% of Brazilian respondents think companies should be obliged to provide proof of their policy to reduce carbon footprint; 84% want their favourite brands to help reduce their carbon footprint; and 77% would be more loyal to a brand if they could see it was reducing its carbon footprint (Carbon Trust 2012).

44

DIGITAL FASHION MAGAZINE: COLOUR.ME

colour.me

nยบ 1 the black issue

I created this digital magazine to use fashion as a vehicle to promote conscious consumerism through reimagining consumption and redefining cultural values. The idea is to communicate sustainability in an attractive and aspirational way, supported by creativity and a contemporary aesthetics, to inspire young consumers towards more sustainable lifestyles.

Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource. The ability to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing things is ultimately what raises productivity and thus living standards. (Black 2008: 53)

My objective is to use a fashion platform to embrace different areas related to design in order to inspire and engage the audience in changing small attitudes in their daily lives. Contributors from other areas will help me enhance the discussion and create a better vision of the lifestyle I am proposing; people with different backgrounds can contribute with knowledge, information, thoughts and reflection on several topics under the conscious design and conscious consumerism themes.

I intend to reveal environmentally and socially responsible brands that integrate an accurate sense of aesthetics to their products, with creativity and innovation in their processes. This magazine works as a tool to explore and offer insights into how to better frame the discussion of sustainability and communicate it to a wider audience.

Using the power of fashion in projecting self and identity allows me to frame the concept and promote the creation of an aspirational lifestyle, in which, through clothes that conduct and connect our senses, consumers will be able to embrace a long-term mindset.

Agency of information and change: I believe that information and education about the connections between fashion and sustainability is fundamental to reach necessary changes in consumption. It is important to disseminate knowledge and concepts to fuel interventions, experiences and the collective construction of new ways of living.

I aspire to promote sustainable fashion, not as a niche in the industry, but rather, as an integral part in the whole system, in every process, product, strategy or decision.

Although sustainability in fashion still faces many challenges, it is an area with a lot of potential to produce new technologies and stimulate innovation, turning fashion, consciously and responsibly, into an important agent of change.

To inspire and educate: Here conscious consumerism and fashion come to serve as a base to draw together a greater empathy and a new scenario, where not only fashion consumers can emerge from current practices with stronger and more focused visions, but also where a new sense of values can be integrated into their lifestyles.

The idea is not to achieve sustainability by attempting to wear clothing specifically labeled as eco, or green, or sustainable, but instead by shaping one’s personal style. In choosing to focus on style rather than trends, people can easily reach more sustainable practices and fulfill their desires to be unique in their self-expression.

opposite page: figure 11

47

Conclusion Conclusion

The discussion I presented is definitely part of a much bigger context including economic and political considerations as well, however I understand that if I want to seed change, I need to propose new ideas and scenarios within my realm, because “the ways we imagine the future, understand the past and come to grips with the present are extremely valuable in providing continuity and direction for our lives�

(Aaltonen & Barth 2005: 46). Fashion industry represents a large economic and creative vehicle, and for this reason, it has the power to achieve massive changes if guided under more conscious and sustainable practices. Furthermore, fashion can be a powerful communication tool to influence the market in positive ways, encouraging innovation and systemic transformations that will stimulate and orientate industry and consumers in the same direction towards better futures.

After compiling this research I recognized the important role that consumption plays in our current society in establishing cultural values, connecting people and defining lifestyles, and therefore, the positive and negative impacts it has on people and the environment. Consequently, I could endorse the importance of driving this social and economic force towards sustainability. To reach this goal, however, I also concluded that there are two important issues challenging the sustainable fashion market to grow.

One of them is the lack of communication between sustainable brands and consumers, because very often, responsible products are not properly advertised to a wider audience. Sustainable fashion is still a market niche, it has been communicated to an already environmentally or socially engaged audience and, for this reason, consumers are not usually well informed and educated about responsible products and do not know how and where to find them. In addition, I noticed that the use of the term sustainability in fashion might have a negative sense when misinterpreted as an undesirable restrictive discourse, or with no real contents. To that end, brands should be cautious when using the term sustainable, making sure that their practices are indeed responsible, and thus, focusing on presenting how their products or services can essentially meet consumers’ sustainable aspirations.

The second issue corresponds to the aesthetics embedded in sustainable products, or at least the idea that consumers have of them; frequently, people relate these products to an outdated hippie style (Hethorn and Ulasewicz 2008), whereas fashion consumers want to buy, obviously, what is stylish and updated, be it sustainable or not. I believe this misunderstanding of what environmentally and socially responsible products are, challenges the incorporation of sustainability into the fashion industry, because within a marketplace saturated of products, aesthetics is the firts element

48

to stand out from others. Fashion gives people the power to express meanings and identity, and consumers are aware of the importance of style in their buying choices, since “ the twenty-first century has become the age of aesthetics, and whether we realize it or not, this influence has taken the marketplace” (Postrel 2003, cited by Hethorn 2008: 65).

I understand that consumers want to buy what they find beautiful, what suits their bodies well, and is up-to-date to the their styles, as Rebecca Arnold points out “fashion reflects and indeed takes part in the construction of ideas surrounding the body and its display” (Arnold 2001: xiii). To that end, I believe that sustainability should not be communicated with ‘green wash’ campaigns but, instead, sustainable brands should communicate their products like any other fashion brand does, reinforcing their values through powerful and engaging imagery and concepts. Likewise, environmentally and socially responsible products should not be seen as an extra benefit to a brand but, rather, they should be the normal.

Due to the emergency times we are living now, sustainability should increasingly be inserted in our lifestyles, and it should be a parameter for the actions we take in our daily lives, not only when consuming fashion, but also food, cars or any other product, as well as for how we manage our waste, because “every act of consumption is a vote for the type of world in which you wish to be a part” (Ulasewicz 2008: 50). All these conscious daily actions will certainly improve our relationships with the society and the environment, because we are responsible now for the welfare of the planet we are leaving for future generations.

The proposal of new means dedicated to articulate and communicate the idea of conscious consumerism can therefore, change paradigms, promote more sustainable lifestyles and move fashion forward, because when consumers become aware of their power, it opens up stimulating possibilities. Sustainability, social and environmental responsibility are fundamental supports for this transitory time and these models should be appropriately incorporated to everyday practices, as Toffler argues, “giant historical shifts are sometimes symbolized by minute changes in everyday behaviour” (Toffler 1981: 275).

Fashion enables both designers and consumers to reveal ideas and aspirations as an extension of the time and culture they belong to, people seek to affirm their personal values and desires through clothing. This work is an exercise to explore alternative values in fashion consumption to catalyse change and encourage new lifestyles. I believe that the same fashion that subjects people to a constant cycle of consumption can also stimulate powerful transformations in lifestyles and influence changes in mindsets, because it has the ability to presents the promise of new and better futures.

49

Glossary

Environmentally and socially responsible products: products that are manufactured with low environmental impact materials and processes and under fair work conditions.

Conscious consumerism: the idea of one being aware of such interconnected and immense system (ecological, economic, political and cultural) that, we humans are inserted in, and thus consume consciously in order to help maintaining the world for us and future generations.

Socio-ecological approach: placing the environment and society’s needs at a central role to framework my research.

Sustainable fashion: “Sustainability within fashion means that through the development and use of a thing or a process, there is no harm done to people or the planet, and that thing or process, once put into action, can enhance the well-being of the people who interact with it and the environment it is developed and used within.� (Hethorn and Ulasewicz 2008: xviii)

50

Appendix A - assessment diary

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

Appendix B - interviews 1 Age: 25 Nationality: Brazilian Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1X 2 3 4 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5X 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5X 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs‌) Digital Magazines and blogs are the easiest way to get info about fashion, also the cheapest‌ 4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends‌)? If no, what else would you like to see?

I usually do. Im always trying to complement the information if is not clear, incomplete or if gets my attention and I need more info. Usually the start is the digital version of the magazines, Im now only purchasing special magazines or international editions, the price is almost the same as national magazines. I find, most of the times, the digital version of the magazines incompletes and sometimes only resumes, so if I need to go deeper on the subject I need to start searching on blogs for it. Sometimes the start is a blog, what can make you observe that a person interest of sharing information of something of personal interest can be much more complete than a magazine article.

I would like to see quality and complete information on online mags as I see on free blogs.

61

2 Age: 23 Nationality: Turkish Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

4 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

4 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs…)

Usually printed and digital magazines 4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends…)? If no, what else would you like to see?

Would be great to somehow get a feeling of the materials used and maybe less photoshopped images in order to see the product more realistic.

62

3 Age: 28 
Nationality: Slovenian Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5
 This question is really tricky. I would pay more for a piece that will last longer and be good for my body. I would as well support the local market. But I'm not sure, if I would do it for 'kids in Africa'.

3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs...)

Lately I don't follow fashion anymore, but I like to buy in second hand shops I pass by the way. To be honest I feel over saturated with trends, blogs, magazines and I quit following for that reason. If friends would make something I like, I would prefer buying from them. Street, friends and shops I enter by coincidence would be my source of inspiration.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends...)? If no, what else would you like to see?

I would like to see more tailors making custom based, simple and accessible clothes or remaking second hand clothes. I don't like going to the branded shops so much.

In that case I would like to learn more about the sustainable materials, how to handle them and be advised what is good to wear when as well as what clothes suit my body type.

63

4 Age: 26 Nationality: Brasil Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5x And also a better understanding of what makes the conventional products not environmentally and socially responsible.

These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5x And also the creation of an array of incentives that could stimulate such behavior.

For example - http://lugaresparadisiacos.net/actualidad/el-metro-de-pekin-ofrecepagar-con-botellas-de-plastico/ What could be created for fashion?

2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1x 2 3 4 5 I believe that products with social and environmental benefits aren’t more expensive, they are just signaling us how much it cost to produce respecting time and space. So, is not their price that is too expensive, but other products price that is undervalued, once that they externalize their negative impacts to society. We need to work on a transition that put social and natural capital on the center of the market and the role of Public Policies that subsidize such economy is essential.

3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs…)

Nothing against fashion but we need to have priorities in our Information Diet, so I don’t really follow any media for those matters. I believe that my sources for this subject are friends and personal observation.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends…)? If no, what else would you like to see?

64

5 Age: 27 Nationality: Brazilian Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

4 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

5 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

4 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs‌) Blogs, friends 4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends‌)? If no, what else would you like to see?

Yes, trends And I would like to know why the products environmentally and socially responsible are so ugly.

65

6 Age: 23 Nationality: Russian Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs‌) dazed&confused, i-D mag, http://logo.ec/, facebook public pages, etc.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends‌)? If no, what else would you like to see?

Mostly trends and some pics from the catwalks, I would like to see more information about the process of fashion production.

66

7 Idade: 26 Nacionalidade: Brasileira Por favor considere: 1=discordo muito / 5=concordo muito 1. Você compraria mais produtos de moda que fossem ambientalmente e socialmente responsáveis se...

Você tivesse um conhecimento melhor do que faz os produtos serem ambientalmente e socialmente responsáveis.

1 2 3 4 5 Eles fossem mais fáceis de achar e usar.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Você pagaria mais por produtos com benefícios sociais e/ou ambientais?

1 2 3 4 5 3. Que tipo de meio você geralmente usa para se informar sobre moda? (revistas, revistas online, blogs...)

Blog Online Revistas Instagram 4. Você encontra todo o tipo de informações de que precisa lá? Se sim, quais são? (ex.: produtos, tendências...) Se não, o que mais você gostaria de ver?

Sim. Tendências Cores Estampas

67

8 Age: 27 Nationality: Brazilian Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs‌) Mainly blogs and sometimes digital magazines.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends‌)? If no, what else would you like to see?

It is easy to find a lot about trends and what products to buy but I never read anything about fashion’s impact on the environment as well as socially. I have a minimal, basic understanding of the fashion industry bad social impact (sweat shops, etc.) but not environmentally. I think it is important that fashion magazines address the issue in a fair manner and that this kind of information is more readily available (not only in specific publications about the issue).

68

9 Idade: 18 anos Nacionalidade: Brasileira Por favor considere: 1=discordo muito / 5=concordo muito 1. Você compraria mais produtos de moda que fossem ambientalmente e socialmente responsáveis se...

Você tivesse um conhecimento melhor do que faz os produtos serem ambientalmente e socialmente responsáveis.

1 2 3 4 5 Eles fossem mais fáceis de achar e usar.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Você pagaria mais por produtos com benefícios sociais e/ou ambientais?

1 2 3 4 5 3. Que tipo de meio você geralmente usa para se informar sobre moda? (revistas, revistas online, blogs...)

Internet - revistas online e alguns blogs -, livros, revistas e, obviamente, minhas aulas na faculdade (procuro manter bastante contato com meus professores - pedindo a opinião deles principalmente).

4. Você encontra todo o tipo de informações de que precisa lá? Se sim, quais são? (ex.: produtos, tendências...) Se não, o que mais você gostaria de ver?

Acho que as informações que precisamos para estarmos informados sobre a Moda estão um pouco em cada lugar. Sem dúvidas encontro muita coisa que eu procuro nesses meios, porém creio que onde mais encontro as respostas é observando o comportamento das pessoas nas ruas, shoppings, exposições etc. Acho que é aí que elas são elas mesmas, se vestem como de fato querem e usam o que se identificam, em revistas e blogs, por exemplo, nem sempre a realidade exposta é verídica.

Normalmente costumo me perguntar bastante o motivo de determinado produto ser uma tendência, qual a razão das pessoas gostarem e usarem aquilo - seria porque é simplesmente tendência ou porquê de fato elas se identificam? Gosto muito de ler sobre moda e comportamento e na maioria das vezes costumo achar as respostas que preciso nesses meios, o que sinto falta é de um estímulo ao leitor. Acho que esse "boom" de blogs e revistas virtuais já estão caindo na monotonia e focando muito mais em formar opiniões ("use assim, não faça isso, aquilo é feio, isso é bonito"...) do que levantar questões, fazer as pessoas se questionarem, se interessarem e discorrerem sobre aquele assunto. Muitas vezes me pergunto se a Moda é ainda vista como uma futilidade por conta disso - muitos veículos de comunicação de Moda não fazem mais, ou melhor, não deixam mais o leitor pensar.

69

10 Age: 28 Nationality: Brazil Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs…)

Blogs, brands websites and online shops.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends…)? If no, what else would you like to see?

Not necessarily. For menswear, there isn’t much information around such as inspiration styles, trends and so on. It often lacks product information.

70

11 Age: 24 Nationality: China Please consider: 1=strongly disagree / 5=strongly agree 1. You would purchase more fashion products that are environmentally and socially responsible if...

You had a better understanding of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.

1 2 3 4 5 Answer: 5 These options were easier for you to find and wear.

1 2 3 4 5 Answer: 2 2. Would you pay more for products with social and environmental benefits?

1 2 3 4 5 Answer: 4 3. What kind of media do you usually use to get informed about fashion? (magazines, digital magazines, blogs...)

From website (blogs) and some of my fashion designer friends.

4. Do you find all the information you need there? If yes, what are they (e.g.: products, trends...)? If no, what else would you like to see?

The information I can find online is not enough for me. I always want to find more good designed and good quality products.

71

Bibliography

Arnold, R. (2001) Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the 20th Century.

London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltda.

Augustin, S. & Coleman, C. (2012) The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Baudrillard, J. (1998) The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Black, S. (2008) Eco-chic The Fashion Paradox. London: Black Dog Publishing Limited.

Campbell, C. (2000) The Puzzle of Modern Consumerism. In M. Lee (ed.) The Consumer Society Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Chapman, J. (2005) Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences & Empathy.

London: Earthscan.

Chapman, J. & Gant, N. (2007) Designers, Visionaries + Other Stories: A Collection of Sustainable Design Essays. London: Earthscan.

Chouinard, Y. (2008) Foreword. In J. Hethorn and C. Ulasewicz (eds.) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. Corrigan, P. (1997) The Sociology of Consumption. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Crouch, C. & Pearce, J. (2012) Doing Research in Design. London: Berg.

Ditty, S. ‘Online Sales Master Class’. Source Summit 2013. The Crystal, London, 12 July 2013.

Ethical Fashion Forum. Source Summit 2013. The Crystal, London, 12 July 2013. b) Fletcher, K. (2007) Clothes that Connect. In J. Chapman and N. Gant (eds.)

Designers, Visionaries + Other Stories: A Collection of Sustainable Design Essays.

London: Earthscan. pp. 118-132.

Hethorn, J. (2008) Considerations of Consumer Desire. In J. Hethorn and C. Ulasewicz (eds.) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and

72

possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. Hethorn, J. and Ulasewicz, C. (2008) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. Löfgren, O. (1994) Consuming Interests. In J. Friedman (ed.) Consumption and Identity. London: Harwood Academic Publishers. Pp.47-70.

Luke, R. (2008) Popular Culture, Marketing, and the Ethical Consumer. In J. Hethorn and C. Ulasewicz (eds.) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. Miles, S. (2000) Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Tapscott, D. (2009) Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw Hill.

Thorpe, A. (2007) The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability. Washington: Island Press.

Toffler, A. (1970) Future Shock. London: The Stellar Press Ltda.

Toffler, A. (1981) The Third Wave (2nd Edition). London: Pan Books Ltd. in association with William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. Ulasewicz, C. (2008) Fashion, Social Marketing, and the Eco-Savvy Shopper. In J. Hethorn and C. Ulasewicz (eds.) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. Walker, S. (2006) Sustainable by Design. London: Earthscan.

Welters, L. (2008) The Fashion of Sustainability. In J. Hethorn and C. Ulasewicz (eds.) Sustainable Fashion, Why Now? A Conversation about issues, practices, and possibilities. New York: Fairchild Books, Inc. ELECTRONIC Aaltonen, M. and Barth, T. (2005) How Do We Make Sense of the Future? : An Analysis of Futures Research Methodology V.02 on Journal of Future Studies (May, 2005 9: 4), pp. 45-60, http://www.jfs.tku.edu.tw/9.4.45.pdf [accessed 17/06/2013] Akatu (2013) Pesquisa Akatu 2012: Rumo à Sociedade do Bem-estar on Akatu http:// www.akatu.org.br/pesquisa/2012/PESQUISAAKATU.pdf [accessed 28/08/2013] Alabaster, P. and Uren, S. (2012) Re:Imagining Consumption Forum Stakeholder Synthesis Report on Sustainable Brands http://www.sustainablebrands.com/digital_ learning/white-paper/reimagining-consumption-forum-stakeholder-synthesis-report [accessed 15/08/2013] BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility (2012) Re:thinking Consumption: Consumers 73

and the Future of Sustainability on Sustainable Brands http://www.sustainablebrands. com/digital_learning/white-paper/rethinking-consumption-consumers-and-futuresustainability [accessed 22/07/2013] Carbon Trust (2012) Carbon Trust: A Global Survey of Young Adult’s Perceptions of Carbon and Climate Change on Carbon Trust http://www.carbontrust.com/ media/56157/carbon_trust_survey_young_adults_perceptions_carbon_and_climate_ change.pdf [accessed 24/07/2013] Cardoso, A. (2013) Lynda Grose: ‘Moda Sustentável Não é Moda Hippie’ on Revista Época http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Sociedade/noticia/2013/04/lynda-grosemoda-sustentavel-nao-e-moda-hippie.html [accessed 22/08/2013]

Collaborative Consumption http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com [accessed 02/08/2013]

Desconsumir http://desconsumir.wordpress.com [accessed 22/07/2013] Designed Good http://www.designedgood.com [accessed 02/08/2013] Dressed Up http://www.dressedup.com.au/index.php [accessed 02/08/2013] Eluxe Magazine http://eluxemagazine.com [accessed 02/08/2013] Ethical Fashion Forum (2013) Fashion Detox: Reducing harmful chemicals in supply chains on Source, Ethical Fashion Forum http://source.ethicalfashionforum.com/ article/the-big-fashion-detox-reducing-harmful-chemicals-in-fashion-supply-chains [accessed 28/08/2013)

Fashion Hire http://www.fashionhire.co.uk [accessed 02/08/2013] a) Fletcher, K. (2007) Slow Fashion on The Ecologist http://www.theecologist.org/ green_green_living/clothing/269245/slow_fashion.html [accessed 13/08/2013] Geron, T. (2013) Airbnb And The Unstoppable Rise Of The Share Economy on Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppablerise-of-the-share-economy/ [accessed 12/08/2013] Girl Meets Dress http://www.girlmeetsdress.com [accessed 02/08/2013] Hardaway, F. (2013) The Sharing Economy Comes of Age on Fast Company http:// www.fastcompany.com/3012446/creative-conversations/the-sharing-economycomes-of-age [accessed 12/08/2013] Jong, A. and Mazé, R. (2010) Cultures of Sustainability: ‘Ways of Doing’ Cooking Knowledge Collaboration & Learning for Sustainable Innovation. ERSCP-EMSU conference, Delft, The Netherlands, 25-29 October 2010. Available from http://soda. swedish-ict.se/4038/1/282_DeJong.pdf [accessed 17/06/2013]

74

Lim, S. (2013) Learning How to Share Again on Sustainable Brands http://www. sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/social_enterprise/learning-how-shareagain-video [accessed 12/08/2013]

Matéria Brasil http://materiabrasil.com [accessed 25/06/2013] One Young World Countries Research (2012) on One Young World http://www. oneyoungworld.com/about-us/global-consultation-process [accessed 24/07/2013]

O Sonho Brasileiro http://osonhobrasileiro.com.br [accessed 25/06/2013] a) Rebouças, D. and Salgado, J. (2011) Moda Sustentável, uma Agulha no Palheiro on O Eco http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/24718-mo- da-sustentavel-e-comoagulha-no-palheiro [accessed 28/08/2013] b) Rebouças, D. and Salgado, J. (2011) Moda Feita com Reciclagem on O Eco http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/24862-mo- da-feita-com-reciclagem [accessed 29/10/2012] Smith, E. (2011) The Social Engagement of Young Wealth-Holders and Entrepreneurs on Alliance Magazine http://philanthropynews.alliancemagazine.org/the-socialengagement-of-young-wealth-holders-and-entrepreneurs/ [accessed 30/07/2013] Wood, J. (2002) The tetrahedron can encourage designers to formalize more responsible strategies on Intellect http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/viewArticle,id=6883/ [accessed 19/12/2012] World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Brundtland Report. Our Common Future on UN Documents: Gathering a Body of Global Agreements http:// www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I [accessed 26/08/2013]

FILMOGRAPHY

We All Want to Be Young (2011) Dir. Lena Maciel, Lucas Liedke & Rony Rodrigues.

Available from http://vimeo.com/16641689 [accessed 25/06/2013]

75