What is it that i'm looking at?

After doing quite a bit of reading i'm ready to write a little post on what it is that i'm looking at exactly.

I started off with ethical and sustainable design, with no real ideas as such.
I've been interested in this field of design for the longest time and i feel very strongly about it. After looking at various options of green design and recycling, i've realise that my real interest lies in shifting peoples behaviours and perceptions towards fashion.

Our consumption patterns are not sustainable. We meet our desire for pleasure, new experiences, status and identity through buying goods - many of them clothes.We shop for clothes addictively with the thought that the garments or products we acquire is going to make a difference in our lives. When we realise that everything is still the same and that we are still unfulfilled we hit the shops once more and the cycle begins again.

When i look at the people around me I see a lot of them have a tendency to purchase large amounts of extremely cheap clothing that they can wear only a few times before they tear. After that they get rid of the clothing and head back to the cotton expos to renew their wardrobe. None of them seem to think about what happens with the waste or where the product came from in the first place.They are all students on a relatively small budget, they like to have variety in their wardrobes, this way their wardrobe is ever changing. The rest doesn't really seem to matter.

While mass production and cheap high street stores have provided us with more products to choose from, these choices are actually more restricted. Fashion nowadays is standardised, most of the high street fashion looks similar.Similar things, colours and designs are sold everywhere. Even though the trends change every season we are still pushed into a certain look. We have become very passive towards fashion, and follow trends prescribed by the industry without really putting a second thought into it. The system and the clothes that represent it, appears to undermine our self esteem and yet we lack the knowledge make, adapt and personalize fashion pieces ourselves. From this position of passivity the only choice available to us seems to be to consume.

Debord (1967) describes this cycle more eloquently:

“The image of blissful social unification through consumption merely postpones the consumer’s awareness of the actual divisions until his next disillusionment with some particular commodity…. But the object that was prestigious in the spectacle becomes mundane as soon as it is taken home by its consumer… Meanwhile, some other object is already replacing it as representative of the system and demanding its own moment of acclaim”

I'm nowhere close to finding the solution or even reasons as to why we have become like this. But I'm looking into the throwaway culture and how people value their clothing. According to me people don't really value their belongings anymore and I'm trying to understand why. It's easy to jump to the step of recycling our fabric waste but wouldn't it be better to reduce our consumption in the first place? I think understanding the consumer and what makes them value their clothing more (or less) would be a step towards finding a way to make a change.

I think its about time that we as consumers take a step towards making a change, we cant push everything towards the manufacturers/designers anymore. We play a crucial role in forming the fashion industry and unless we are willing to make a change responsible products will fail.

“The customer is King. The customer is the one who sets the rules. The customer is the one who can have an impact on any company.” (Designer Peter Ingwersen, Noir)

To do this the consumer needs to be better informed and educated but how do we do this in such a way that it becomes a part of life, unconscious behaviour? because how much do we actually think before buying that one dress? We can go on and on telling people whats wrong and whats right, and how they need to change their consumption patterns etc but I feel that change needs to come from the heart of the individual, what is important for them? What is going to make their life more meaningful and more enriched? Rather than, what am I told is important to me? What new product must I buy to make my life better?