Revived: a research on the effect of rebranding in order to extend the lifespan of clothes

ABSTRACT

Due to environmental issues, people should be using most of

the clothes they own, but according to previous research [1],

only 20 percent is used on average. Rebranding is researched

to optimize use of the clothes in people’s wardrobes and

thereby lessen the need for buying new clothes. Within this

research, the target group is women of age 18 to 24. By

asking test subjects for unused clothes, and redesigning and

rebranding these, the researchers looked into the viability of

rebranding for sustainability. The clothes were packaged as

if they were new to see if this affected the perception of them.

As a result of the rebranding, the perception of the clothes

changed from old and boring to new and stylish, and 70% of

the clothing pieces were worn after returning. Readers do

have to keep in mind that the research was done with a

relatively small sample group. Due to the positive outcomes,

however, there is hope for this method to be an improvement

to the fashion industry.

Author Keywords

Wardrobe usage, sustainability, redesign, rebrand, fashion.

INTRODUCTION Currently 68 pounds of clothing is being thrown away per

person per year and many new clothes are being purchased

nonetheless[3]. New clothes are bought very often as

research shows the lifetime of a clothing piece is only 2.2

years[14]. These clothes are very often produced as part of

the Fast Fashion industry, and as Fast Fashion is very

unsustainable, solutions to this problem have to be found

[3][7]. According to Ginny Snook Scott, chief design officer

of California Closets, only 20% of people’s wardrobes is

being worn on a regular basis. The clothes that are not used,

stay in our wardrobes for a variety of reasons [10]. Among

these reasons is the change in how valuable a clothing piece

is to a person, therefore, the research will focus on adding

new value to the clothing. Possible solutions to the waste of

clothes and the pollution originating from it could be changes

in the production process, but also changes in the consuming

mindset and finding new purpose for unused clothes are

possibilities for improving the situation. According to Leslie

L. Davis[4], the branding and physical quality of clothing has

a positive influence of people’s perception on the quality of

clothing. Therefore improving the factors; physical quality

and branding, could stimulate people to buy more second

hand clothing.

By doing research into the effects of rebranding and the

experience of second-hand clothing, ways to motivate

people to use unused clothes, and therefore reduce waste, can

be found. This paper will answer the question: What effect

does rebranding, and altering the experience, of women’s

unused clothes have on the lifespan of these clothes?

MOTIVATION AND RELATED WORK Related work Fast Fashion

The textile and clothing industry is according to a report by

the United Nation Environment Programme[11] the world

second biggest economic sector. The current most generally

used method, which originated in the 90’s, is fast fashion.

In fast fashion the industry attempts to keep up with the

latest trends and therefore has to be highly flexible and have

the ability to produce high quantities in little time.

Furthemore, as emphazised by Gardetti and Torres [5],

abuses of working conditions, violation of human rights by

low wages, and long working hours are typically seen in

industries similar to the fashion industry. Pollution

According to M. Aakko and R. Koskennurmi-Sivonen[1],

the textile and fashion clothing sector is a threat to the

environment and to social welfare owing to problems like

pollution, wastes and human rights issues. The five main

environmental issues that make the textile and clothing

production operations unsustainable are described by

Blackburn[2] as water, chemicals, asset stripping of non-

renewable resources, waste, and transport. Waste

A big problem in the fashion world is the amount of waste

per year. 21 Percent of the annual purchased clothes stay,

unused, in homes and enlarge the ‘national wardrobe’ as

stated by Oakdene Hollins [6]. These clothes will finally

end up in landfills. According to Anne C. Woolrich et al.

[13], only 25% of this waste produced in the fashion

industry is recycled.

Maxime Dassen

Student Industrial Design TU/e

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

m.p.a.dassen@student.tue.nl

Anouk Stijnen

Student Industrial Design TU/e

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

a.a.e.stijnen@student.tue.nl

Using other materials and Production methods Many alternative production methods in the fashion

industry are being explored[8]. None of these alternative

methods have taken a big stand in the current fashion

industry and therefore fast fashion is still a big player.

Furthermore, material changes have been explored, but

their impact on the environment remains little compared to

the large amounts of pollution caused by the rest of the

fashion industry. For example the increase of using organic

cotton. Chemicals and pesticides are largely used in the

traditional ways to grow cotton. Organic cotton is grown

without using pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, which could

reduce the negative impact on the environment[9].

Changing raw materials and production methods is not the

only way to make the fashion industry more sustainable.

Decreasing the amount of clothing that is produced will

also lead to less pollution and waste. Therefore this paper

dives deeper into the new destination for unused clothes. Branding and physical quality

According to Leslie L.Davis [4], the addition of brands and

the physical quality of clothing have a positive influence on

women’s perception of the quality of clothes.

There is no proof yet that improving these factors will also

help to improve the experience of second hand clothing.

Therefore this direction is still unexplored and worth

looking into with this research. The link between clothing

quality and urging people to buy second hand clothing will

be emphasized on in this research.

Research gap and motivation

The related work above shows the big need of a change in

the fashion industry. It also shows the steps that are already

taken, and the influence of branding. The fact that there is

so much waste and pollution but also an opportunity for

change, was the motivation for writing this paper. Also as

there has been done research into branding, but not

specifically on branding in order to reduce waste in the

fashion industry, there is a research gap in which this paper

will fit. Another gap that will this paper will inspire to fill is

the changing experience of second hand clothing to give

unused clothes a longer life span. Last, a strong motivation

is the creation of awareness on the topic of sustainability in

the fashion industry since questionnaires showed the lack

thereof.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research question, as stated in the introduction, is: What

effect does rebranding, and altering the experience of

women’s unused clothes have on the lifespan of these

clothes?

In order to answer the Research question and make this

research fit in the literature gap, the following four sub

questions are stated.

1. Are people aware of the amount of unused clothes

they have?

2. Why is there a high percentage of unused clothes?

3. What is the influence of a brand on the perception

of a clothing piece?

4. Does rebranding increase the viability of second-

hand clothing?

5. Which traits, considering smell, label placement,

logo, redesigning and packaging, are commonly

associated with high end brands?

DESIGN OF PROTOTYPES

To find an answer to the research questions, the research will

be executed by making use of a design. The designing of the

prototypes was the process of changing and rebranding

clothes. Rebranding was a combination of different factors

which are described below.

Changing clothes

The new look for each clothing piece was created by making

use of a moodboard. This moodboard showed ideas on what

small style changes could be done, for example the addition

of lace on the neckline.Other changes were executed by

making use of laser cutting and embroidery. Patterns were

created and added to the moodboards and after the

completing of the moodboard it came to practice. On Figure

1 an example is shown of a clothing piece before and after

the small style change.

Figure 1. On the left a shirt of shown before the style changes,

and on the right the same shirt is shown after style changes.

(Photographer: Maxime Dassen)

Labeling and logo

The addition of labels was part of the rebranding process.

The name and logo were chosen after a user test with a

sample of 20 women age 18 to 24. These women could

choose from a list of names, and when they chose the name

they could choose the logo that suited best. The women were

asked to argue their choices by describing the appearance of

the name and logo. Words as ‘fashionable’, ‘trendy’,

‘modern’, ‘clear’, and ‘catchy’, were triggers for choosing a

specific name and logo since this was the image the brand

should have.. In the end this led to the name ‘Revived’ and

the logo which is shown on Figure 2. With this logo, a label

could be created. For the labels a golden fabric was chosen

to appear as a luxurious label. First trials with laser cutting

the logo in the fabric were done, but the logo was not clear

enough and the goal was to make people read and recognize

the brand at a glance. Therefore the logo was vinyl cutted and

transferred to the fabric with a heat press. This gave a clear

and professional looking label which is shown on Figure 3.

Since branding was very important, placement of the logos

was done strategically. The logo had to be seen, but must not

be the eye catcher. This resulted in a different placement of

the logo on every clothing piece to make it visible and subtle

at the same time.

With the logo also stickers were created. These were used for

the packaging as described below.

Figure 2. The logo of the brand ‘Revived’ is shown.

Figure 3. The ‘Revived’ label is shown on a rebranded jeans.

(Photographer: Maxime Dassen)

Packaging

The packaging had to look luxurious and professional.

Therefore packaging of other brands were analysed and the

recurring things were used in the packaging of the ‘Revived’

clothes. The packaging existed of a cardboard box with the

logo on it, and blotter with stickers on it. The designed

stickers and complete packaging are shown on Figure 4 and

5. Also included in the box was a picture of a model wearing

the clothing pieces. From the questionnaire described in the

‘User Study’’ section, it turned out that this could influence

the perception of the clothing pieces and could therefore be

a trigger for wearing it. Example of such pictures can be seen

on Figure 6. The last thing included in the box was the

addition of a smell. While seemingly a trifling matter, a scent

that is congruent, significant and liked has a large probability

of resulting in positive behavioral outcomes that strengthen

retail brand image[11]. A small trial was therefore conducted

where young female adults had to describe the smell of a

small range of perfumes. Scent that were described with

words like “fresh”, “modern” and “trendy” where taken apart

and their similarities written down. The common traits of

these perfumes were “Fruitiness” and “Lightness”. A

perfume with these traits was therefore sprayed in each box,

with the amount small enough that it would only give a hint

of the smell.

Figure 4. The stickers that were placed on the packaging are

shown.

Figure 5. The box that was used for packing is shown.

(Photographer: Anouk Stijnen)

Figure 6. Two pictures of the photoshoot with a model are

shown. (Photographer: Maxime Dassen

USER STUDY Participants

In this research, five participants take place which are

selected on gender and age. From the population of Dutch

women of age 18 to 24, a random selection led to a sample

of five Students from Eindhoven University of Technology

were excluded however due to their prejudice and experience

concerning research. This is because women buy more

clothing than men, and besides that they tend to regard

clothes as ‘old’ so they leave them unworn in their wardrobe

before throwing them away after a while. Therefore women

end up with seven times as much clothes as men do[3]. Since

women have a big share in the amount of waste and unused

clothes, they are the target group for this research. Besides,

women are more likely to let themselves be influenced by a

brand or the physical quality of clothes[4].

Methodology

Figure 7. The timeline of the user study is shown.

To find an answer to the research question, a mixed research

method was used. As the sample size is relatively small, and

the research is very in depth, the qualitative research method

is more suitable and offers the most reliable results. On the

other hand, the possibility of comparing the pre and post

situation in terms of numbers of worn clothes, there is also a

quantitative method used in this research.

The goal of this research was to answer the Research

Question and sub questions. Therefore the clothes of the

participants were redesigned and rebranded to see if this

would stimulate them to wear these unused clothes again. On

figure 7 a timeline is shown of the complete user study and

the activities that took place.

Questionnaire

The research started off with a questionnaire (appendix 4).

This questionnaire was a preparation for the rest of the

research. Questions on wardrobe usage, branding, second-

hand clothing and sustainability in the fashion industry were

asked. The answers were used for specifying the research

direction and optimizing the research method.

Collecting of the clothes and interview 1

After selection of the participants, as described in the

‘participants’ section, they were interviewed (appendix 1)

and part of their unused clothes collected. In interview 1 the

co-constructing stories technique was applied and the

outcome was used to optimize the process by taking the

habits, desires and needs of the users into account. In the

result section ‘Outcomes of interview 1’ additions to the

process following the results of this interview are explained.

All participants were asked for 3 pieces of clothing they do

not wear, but do fit them and are not damaged. As described

in the ‘outcomes of interview 1’ section, the first interviews

showed that the most important reason for not wearing

specific clothes was not size, style, or color, but the fact that

it was not new anymore, and they lost interest. Therefore this

was the problem the researchers focussed on by making

small changes to the clothes and rebranding them.

Furthermore, seasons were taken into account. Collected

clothes had to be suited for the current season, so they could

immediately be worn after being returned.

The design in this research is the complete change in

experience of participants’ clothes. The most important

alteration is the rebranding of the clothes. The complete

design of the prototype that was used in the methodology is

described in the ‘Design of prototypes’ section.

Interview 1 also showed people’s hesitation towards second

hand clothing originating in the experience of these clothes,

for instance the musty smell which makes the clothes feel

old. Therefore clothes are washed and ironed after restyling

and rebranding to make them look, feel and smell like an

unused piece of cloth. More info on this process of

experience change and rebranding can be found in the

‘Design of prototypes’ section

Returning of the clothes

When returned, they are packed in blotter and a box that are

both labeled with the designed stickers that are shown in

Figure 3. A touch of perfume and fashionable pictures of a

model wearing the clothes are also added to the package, to

complete the experience of receiving a new and branded

piece of clothing. Pictures of the photoshoot can be seen in

Figures 4-6.

The reaction of the participants was filmed as the “Revived”

clothes were returned to them, enabling the researchers to

analyze their reactions afterwards. Analyzing the reaction is

important in order to see if the participants act positively

surprised. First the box was handed over and they were given

the time to unwrap the clothes and look at them and at the

included pictures.

Interview 2

One week after the clothes were returned, interview 2 took

place to see if the clothes were already worn and if the

opinion on them had changed in this week (appendix 2).

Interview 3

A month after returning, interview 3 took place (appendix

3). Waiting a month gives the participants the possibility to

wear the clothes and also shows the possible viability of

rebranding for sustainability for a longer term. This last

interview was also another co-constructing stories technique.

The participants were asked for an evaluation on the

experiment, and options for the future. Furthermore, at this

time a check took place in which the participants were asked

to recall the brands name and draw to logo. As the branding

is very important for this research, so is the impact of this

brand on the participant.

Data analysis

The data from the interviews have been analyzed by starting

off with reading all interview answers again. This was done

through a thematic analysis which started with clustering

topics digitally. Clusters were made by selecting answers

about similar topics. Specific quotes from the interviews

were written down and linked to one another. This gave a

clear view of the problem and the results during the user

study. The same process was also followed with post-it notes

to make it more hands on and spark new insights. The results

and conclusions which resulted from the data analysis are

described in the following chapters.

Quantitative results

Figure 8 gives an overview of the increase in worn clothes.

in the ‘Qualitative Results’ the reasons and further

explanation will be given.

Figure 8. Graph shows the increase in usage of the clothing.

The x-axis shows the timeline, and the y-axis shows the

percentage of worn clothes.

Qualitative results

Questionnaire outcomes

The first insight of the questionnaire was that women wear a

smaller percentage of their wardrobe than they think they do,

which was a very important result since it showed the lack of

awareness and the need for change. The lack of awareness is

shown in the difference in estimated percentages of worn

clothes, in comparison to the percentages that show up when

women start counting the worn clothes.The reason why

women don’t wear specific clothes is often that the clothes

do not feel new anymore because they wore them too many

times and they just lost interest.

Another insight is the fact that the lots of women are willing

to pay more for a branded piece of clothing. Furthermore,

only a very small percentage turned out to buy second hand

clothing. When asking for reasons for not buying second

hand clothes, the association women have with second hand

clothing played a role. They think of them as old, musty and

damaged which is why most of them never, or almost never,

but second hand clothes.

The combination of the problem around awareness of

wardrobe usage, branding, not liking clothes after wearing

them a few times and the bad image of second hand clothing

led to the completing of the research method. It gave a

specification of the topics that needed to be researched or

taken account during the research.

Outcomes of interview 1

When collecting the clothes, a few questions were asked to

the participants to get a better understanding of their habits

and needs. This was also a variety of co-constructing theories

as the answers to the question led to small changes in the

design and the method used during the research.

The participants were being asked whether they ever buy

second-hand clothing and why they do, or do not do this.

Two participants sometimes buy second hand clothing. The

rest of them gave similar answers to the question why they

are not buying second-hand clothing. They state that the

clothes feel old because they smell old. Also they do not

know where the clothes come from, which makes it even less

attractive to buy them. Because there was such a big problem

regarding the experience of these clothes, a lot of emphasis

was on this topic during the redesigning. The results of these

questions were taken into account when continuing the

process, and therefore the clothes were washed and perfumed

before being returned.

Three women indicated that they prefer branded clothing

over non-branded clothing. The others did not have any

preference. On the other hand they all agreed upon the fact

that when clothes are branded, they will naturally be more

expensive, and women are willing to pay extra money for the

addition of a brand. Furthermore, they all agreed that when

clothes are branded, and more expensive, this has to be

reflected in the packaging. They expect more beautiful and

luxurious packaging when the price and quality increases.

When asking the participants whether they ever heard about

Fast Fashion or the amount of pollution caused by the fashion

industry only one said yes. The others did neither know the

term or the effects. They all gave unused clothes to charity

or sold it after keeping it in their wardrobe for a while, but

they did not do this with sustainability in mind. This reflects

the lack of awareness for this topic.

Three women indicated to be easily influenced by seeing

other women wear the same clothes they gave. They are more

likely to wear an unused piece of clothing if someone they

admire does this as well. This created the idea of doing a

photoshoot and include pictures of a model wearing the

rebranded clothes in the packaging of the clothes.

The last insight that came from these interviews was that all

women stated that they are relatively more careful with

expensive (branded) clothes, and they do wear the clothes

more often and for a longer period of time.

Outcomes of observation during returning

When observing the participants during the returning of the

clothes, a few things stood out.

First of all, all participants made a comment about the look,

the smell or both. Their reactions were surprised and they

started looking at the logo at first. After this they opened the

box and unwrapped the packages.

Afterwards they inspected all clothes. They were looking at

the labels and were very careful with the clothes. The way

they opened the box and unwrapped the clothes showed that

they treated them with care and thus as a valuable piece of

cloth. Two participants immediately said that they were

going to wear a specific piece of clothing because they liked

it that much.

Outcomes of interview 2

One week after the returning, interview 2 took place. First of

all the participants were being asked what the first thing was

that came up in their mind when thinking about receiving

their clothes. One woman said the smell, two said the

packaging, and the last two said that they were surprised

because they liked the new piece of clothing more than the

old.

Four pieces were worn already in the first week. These four

were from three different participants. The most named

reason for not wearing the others was that the right

opportunity had not occurred.

When asking about the pictures that were included, three

women indicated to be stimulated by these pictures to wear

the clothes. Two of them actually did, and the third one did

not because her clothes did not fit the occasions occuring that

week.

Outcomes of interview 3

After one month interview 3 took place. This was again an

interview and also a co-constructing session. Not only the

experience and results were discussed, but also changes and

options for the future.

Eleven pieces of clothing were worn after one month. Each

of the participants wore at least one piece of cloth. One

participant indicated that she did not like denim anymore, so

therefore the rebranding did not bring her interest in the the

piece of clothing back. Another stated that one piece of

clothing still felt like the old one, and therefore was not worn.

The other three participants had no specific reason for not

wearing all of their clothes, and expected to be wearing them

in the near future.

When discussing the process and the result with the

participants a few points came up. The first thing was that

one woman was not completely satisfied with the work

quality of one piece of cloth. It could have been done more

professional which would have led to wearing it, but now she

was not going to wear it. This particular piece frayed after

being laser cut. Another woman indicated that it would be a

nice addition to be able to give suggestions to the designer

for the redesigning of the clothes to make sure every woman

likes the result. But on the other hand she stated that for her,

only rebranding would have been enough, and that the

redesigning was not necessary.

The last suggestion from one of the participants was adding

the possibility of trading clothes amongst participants. She

did not like all of her own clothes, but would like to trade

because there might be a rebranded piece of clothing of

someone else she might want to have. When asking her if this

would not lead to making it feel like second hand clothing,

she answered that the experience of the packaging, branding

and smell would not make it feel like a second hand piece of

cloth. At the end of the interview the participants were asked

if they see potential in a concept like this. All five

participants answered yes. They would be willing to pay for

such a service and two of them indicated that this experiment

made them aware of the pollution caused by the fashion

industry, and that they are stimulated to make changes to

their mindset.

When asking the participants whether they could remember

the brand name, all of them could. The results of drawing the

logo are shown in appendix 5.

Most important outcomes

The difference in language usage in pre- and post-

intervention by the participants when they refer to the

clothing pieces might reflect the effect of rebranding most

clearly. Before the intervention they would refer to the

clothes as “dull”, “old”, “rags” or “worthless”. Post-

intervention these same clothes would be mainly referred to

as “classy”, “stylish” and “cool”.

Discussion

The first point of discussion which raised from this research

was the risk for participant to fall back in the same pattern.

Clothes were redesigned because they did not like them

anymore after wearing them too often, so what if they stop

liking the rebranded clothes after wearing them a few times?

Then the clothes would be unused again. However results

from this research indicate this does not have to happen. The

interviews showed that women see branded clothes as more

valuable and state that they wear it for a longer period of

time. This would mean that the rebranded clothes will have

a longer life cycle than they had before. However, if it does

happen anyway and clothes will end up unused again, there

lifetime was already possibly doubled with this method. If

the lifetime of only a small percentage of all unused clothes

in the world would get a doubled, it would already decrease

the impact on the environment which is the aim of this

research.

The second point of discussion is the sample size. Due to the

time intensive work that needs to be done for each

participant, the sample size is quite small. With only five

participants the research may not generalize enough which

makes the results not reliable as they could be with a bigger

sample size of for example 100 participants. Further research

has to be executed on a larger scale to be certain of the

results. However, the results do give hope for them to be

representative.

Another point of discussion is whether the market is big

enough for this idea and what business model could be

created to make this happen. The market for this concept is

indeed a problem nowadays since the interviews showed the

lack of awareness on the topic of sustainability in the fashion

industry. However, when people are aware of the problem,

and are activated to make a change, a big market could arise.

Also considering the results of the last interviews, all women

indicated that they would definitely use a service like this if

it would exist. Not solely for the sustainability but also as a

value in itself.

Last, the lack of anonymity might cause for biased results.

The participants might have acted more positive towards the

clothing as a result of them knowing a positive perception

was the goal of the research or because of their relation to

(one of) the researchers.

CONCLUSION

From the answers to interview 3 it can be concluded that

the bad experience that comes with second-hand clothing

could be solved by rebranding and also the way of

packaging the clothing. Smell, look and addition of fashion

pictures all contribute to the change in experience.

Another conclusion is that what made the participants wear

the clothes again was not only the small style changes, but

also the addition of the brand and special experience of

receiving the clothes in luxurious packaging. According to

the answers of interview 1,2 and 3, this luxurious packaging

can be seen as an increase in value and an extension of the

lifespan.

The first sub question can be answered with the results from

the questionnaire and interview 1. The gap between what

women think they wear, and actually wear is quite large

which shows that they are not aware of their wardrobe

usage nor the amount of unused clothes they have.

The answer to sub question two is also provided by the

questionnaire and interview 1 and 2 that took place before

the intervention. From the questionnaire three main reasons

for not wearing these clothes rose; they felt old and no

longer interesting, they no longer fit or they were a bad buy.

The lack of awareness mentioned before, while not the

cause, plays part in the high percentage of unused clothes as

it causes the clothes to stay in the wardrobes instead of for

instance returning them to the store or donating them to a

second hand store.

The effect of branding can be seen in the results of the

complete user study. In the questionnaire participants state

they would be willing to pay more for clothes that have a

brand over brandless clothes, insinuating the brand adds

value to the clothing. This was confirmed in interview 1, in

which the participants stated to be more careful with brand

clothing as they felt they would lose more if they were

damaged over other clothing pieces. Above all the

difference between the perception of the clothes pre-

intervention and post-intervention shows the effect of a

brand. Where the brandless pre-intervention clothes were

called words in the trend of “bland” the branded post-

intervention clothes were seen as elegant and interesting.

This answers the third subquestion.

While success with changing the perception of clothes by

rebranding suggests it might work on second hand clothing,

this was not tested in this paper. Therefore subquestion four

is not fully answered but might be interesting as future

research.

The answer to the fifth subquestion can be found when

looking at the technical research explained in the section

“Design of prototypes”. Starting with the smell, which had

to be light and fruity to be associated with high end brands.

The logo would have to look both fashionable and clear to

seem high end while the packaging could be more

extravagant. The redesigning would have to be only small

adaptations and most favorably tiny accents on the clothing

and nothing more. Small changes are necessary however as

they give the participants the opportunity to look at the

clothing pieces as if they were different ones than before.

The placement of the labels varies with the clothing pieces,

but always needs to have a balance between presence and

subtlety.

The goal of this paper was to find additional options for

improving the sustainability of the fashion industry by

answering the question: What effect does rebranding, and

altering the experience, of women’s unused clothes have on

the lifespan of these clothes?

From the results of this research can be concluded that

rebranding and altering the experience of unused clothes

has a positive effect on the lifespan of these clothes. They

are worn after rebranding, and even expected to have a

longer lifespan in the future than they had before because of

the addition of the Revived brand. This answers our

research question. As described in the ‘Opportunities for

future research’ section, this research can be used as a

based for further research on larger scale.

Opportunities for future research

The results show promise. Due to the high success rate with

positively changing the perception of the clothes an

argument can be made for the generalisation possibilities of

the sample group, despite its small size. Further research on

a larger scale is highly recommended and could be fruitful

for both lessening and raising awareness of the

unsustainability of the fast fashion industry. Besides scaling

up the research it might also be interesting to look into the

effects of rebranding as done in this paper but then on

second-hand clothing as this could also help making the

fashion industry more sustainable.

value for businesses, designers or researchers

There are varying business models suited for the rebranding

of clothing by Revived. It could be financed through a

collaboration with other fashion brands, where the clothes

all come with a voucher allowing one free rebranding. It

could be a webshop, where a collection and delivery

appoint could be made and paid per piece of clothing or

through a subscription with a monthly fee.

If looked further into the solutions for second hand

clothing, it turns out that a trading system could work as

well. In this situation a Revived clothing piece can be

picked from someone else after turning in unused clothing.

So the difference with the current process would be that

women do not get their own clothing pieces back, but can

choose to trade them for other women’s rebranded clothes.

Research would need to be done into the effectiveness of

each approach, the added value to the environment and their

viability as a business.

For other designers this research can be used as a guideline

on what method could work in order to improve the fashion

industry. Besides that, parts of the results can also be used

to search for other opportunities to improve the current

situation. By using the results from this research as

knowledge on the habits and reactions of women, other

designs could be made to either validate or decline the

working of this method. As mentioned in the discussion,

this research promises a lot, but due to the relative small

sample size, a future step would be to repeat the research

with a bigger sample size.

REFERENCES

1. Maarit Aakko, Ritva Koskennurmi-Sivonen. 2013.

Designing sustainable fashion: Possibilities and

challenges. Research journal of textile and apparel

17,1: 13–22.

2. Richard S. Blackburn, 2009. Sustainable Textiles:

Life Cycle and Environmental Impact. Woodhead

Publishing.

3. Luz Claudio. 2007. Waste Couture: Environmental

Impact of the Clothing Industry. Environ Health

Perspect 115,9: 449–454.

4. Leslie L. Davis. 1985. Effects of Physical Quality

and Brand Labelling on Perception of Clothing

Quality. Sage Journals 61,2: 671-677.

5. Miguel A. Gardetti, Ana L.Torres. 2013.

Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles. Greenleaf

Publishing.

6. Oakdene Hollins Ltd, Salvation Army Trading

Company Ltd. 2006. Recycling of Low Grade

Clothing Waste. Nonwovens Innovation &

Research Institute Ltd. Retrieved June 11, 2018

from: www.inno-therm.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/10/Recycle-Low-Grade-

Clothing.pdf

7. Annamma Joy, John F. Sherry Jr, Alladi

Venkatesh, Jeff Wang and Ricky Chan. 2012. Fast

Fashion, sustainability, and ethical appeal of

Luxury Brands. Fashion Theory 16,3: 273-296.

8. Kirsi Niinimäki, Lotta Hassi. 2011. Emerging

design strategies in sustainable production and

consumption of textiles and clothing. Journal of

cleaner Production 19,16: 1876-1883.

9. Bin Shen. 2014, Sustainable fashion supply chain:

Lessons from H&M, Sustainability 6,9: 6236-

6249.

10. Ray A. smith. 2013. A closet filled with regrets.

The wall Street Journal

11. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

TEXTILES—Fashion that doesn’t cost the Earth.

Retrieved June 11, 2018 from:

http://www.unep.fr/shared/Publications/other/WE

Bx0008xPA/textiles.pdf

12. Philippa Ward, Barry J. Davies and Dion

Kooijman. 2004. Ambient Smell and the Retail

Environment: Relating Olfaction Research to

Consumer Behavior. Journal of Business and

Management 9,3: 289-302.

13. Anne C. Woolridge, Garth D. Ward, Paul S.

Phillips, Michael Collins, Simon Gandy. 2006.

Life cycle assessment for reuse/recycling of

donated waste textiles compared to use of virgin

material: An UK energy saving perspective.

Resources, Conservation and Recycling 46,1: 94-

103.

14. WRAP. 2012. Valuing Our Clothes, the true cost

of UK fashion retail. Retrieved June 11, 2018

from:

http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/valuing-

our-clothes-the-cost-of-uk-fashion_WRAP.pdf

APPENDIX 1.Interview 1 questions

All questions are in Dutch because these are the original

interview questions that were asked to the participants.

1. Hecht jij normaal gesproken veel waarde aan merken?

Vind je het belangrijk dat jouw kledingstukken van een

bepaald merk zijn?

2. Ben jij bereid meer te betalen voor een kledingstuk dat

een bepaald merk draagt?

3. Vind je het belangrijk dat mensen om jou heen het

kledingmerk kennen dat jij draagt, of koop je ook

kleding van onbekende merken?

4. Koop je wel eens tweedehands kleding?

5. Waarom koop je wel/geen tweedehands kleding?

6. Beschrijf in 1 woord wat een tweedehands

kledingwinkel uitstraalt voor jou

7. Vind je de verpakking waarin jij kleren ontvangt

belangrijk? Denk hierbij aan een winkeltas of

bijvoorbeeld een doos waarin kleding van webshops

wordt opgestuurd

8. Vind je dat een bepaalde verpakking iets zegt over de

prijs en kwaliteit van de kleding die in de verpakking

zit?

9. Ben je zuiniger met kleding die duurder of van een

bepaald merk is?

10. Hoe veel procent van jouw kledingkast draag je op

regelmatige basis? (schatting)

11. Beschrijf in 1 woord de belangrijkste reden dat je

sommige kleding nooit draagt

12. Ben je op kleding gebied beïnvloedbaar door modellen

of andere sterren? Dus ben je sneller geneigd een

bepaald kledingstuk te dragen als een bekend persoon

het ook draagt?

13. Merk je dat je merkkleding langer gebruikt dan niet-

merkkleding?

14. Wat doe je met kleding die je niet meer gebruikt?

(verkopen of weggeven bijvoorbeeld)

15. Laat je ongedragen kleding eerst een tijd in de kast

liggen alvorens je het weg doet? (Hoe lang)

16. Heb je al eens gehoord van fast fashion? Wat betekent

het?

17. Ben je op de hoogte van de milieuvervuiling die

veroorzaakt wordt door kledingproductie?

18. Houd je rekening met het milieu door het kiezen voor

duurzame merken of het recyclen van je kleding?

2.Interview 2 questions

All questions are in Dutch because these are the original

interview questions that were asked to the participants.

1. Wat is je opgevallen aan de verpakking waarin je

de kleding terug kreeg?

2. wat is je opgevallen aan de geur van de kleding?

3. Voelde het als een nieuw kledingstuk?

4. Was het zien van een foto waarop iemand anders

je kleding draagt bevorderlijk voor jouw mening

over de kledingstukken?

5. Verwacht je dat je de kledingstukken weer gaat

dragen? Waarom wel/niet?

3.Interview 3 questions and logo drawing results

All questions are in Dutch because these are the original

interview questions that were asked to the participants.

1. Herinner je je de naam? Kun je het logo tekenen?

2. Wat zou aan de ervaring van ophalen,

herontwerpen en teruggeven van de kleding

veranderd moeten worden?

3. Zou je in de toekomst je ongedragen kleding vaker

opsturen om het te laten re-branden?

4. Heb je verder nog opmerkingen of ideeën voor een

eventuele herhaling van dit experiment?

4.Survey questions

1. what percentage of your wardrobe do you think

you use? (clothing not fit for this season left aside)

2. Please check your wardrobe if possible. What

percentage of your wardrobe do you actually use?

3. Describe the most important reason you do not

wear these clothes in one word.

4. Do you think it is important that your clothes are

branded?

5. Are you prepared to pay more for brand clothing

than for clothing without a brand?

6. Do you ever buy second hand clothing?

7. Why?

8. Describe in one word how a second hand clothing

store feels to you

9. Do you pay attention to how the clothes you buy

are packed?

10. Do you think the packaging reflects the quality of

the clothing?

11. Are you more careful with high end and branded

clothes compared to cheap clothes without a

brand?

12. Are you familiar with the term ‘fast fashion’?

13. Do you take the environment into consideration

when deciding which type of clothes to buy?

5.Logo drawing results

6.Contribution

What Anouk Maxime Milan Andrea

Workbook updating A M

Brainstorming and

narrowing down to

wardrobe use

A M M A

Making questionnaire

questions

A M

Research on working of

embroidery machine, laser

cutter and vinyl cutter

A

Poster midterm demo-day A

Making online

questionnaire

A

Making questions for 3

interviews

M

Returning clothes A M

Collecting clothes A M

Doing interviews A M

First logo design A

Design final logo

M

Research/interviews for

logo style

M

Design stickers

M

Reading and selecting

research papers for final

paper

A M

Laser cutter, vinyl cutter

and embroidery files

A M

Development of Research

question

A M

Story board video A M

Shooting and editing demo

day video

M

Shooting and editing final

video

A M

Fotoshoot with model

M

Documenting process with

pictures

A M

Buying materials for

designing/labels

A M

Sewing/embroidering/laser

cutting/vinyl cutting/heat

press

A M

Posters design and editing A

Business cards

M

Writing introduction first

draft paper

A

Writing method, results,

motivation first draft paper

M

Writing second draft paper M

Writing final paper draft

M

Editing final paper draft A

Processing coach

comments in paper after

meeting

A M

Final grammar check

paper

A

Layout final paper M

7.Reflections Reflection Anouk

What I wanted to learn

Before this project I had trouble to make myself be heard

during group meetings. Therefore, at the start of this project

I wanted to focus on getting my point across to the other

team members in a clear way. Teamwork is an important

part of my vision and the communication during group

meetings has been the biggest problem in this so far. I tried

to speak with a more calm voice and show less doubt about

what I said as I believed these were the main points for

people to overlook me. So what did I want to learn? I

wanted to learn how to be more present, but also how

technical devices like the embroidery machine and the laser

cutter work.

What were my responsibilities

In the contribution list most of the tasks I’ve done

throughout the project are described. From the start

Maxime and me have been working together and therefore

almost all of the work was partially done by me. Some of

the tasks I did myself are the making of the posters and

finding out how the laser cutter, heat press, 3D printer and

Embroidery machine work.

What did I learn

In the first week I had a lot of trouble getting my point

across to my teammates again. By staying calm and

confident I only seemed to get through to Maxime. I

appreciated the effort she showed to make things work.

After the first week there were no more group meetings

with all of us do to the full planning of some. Maxime and I

met with the two of us, which made it easier for me to make

myself be heard. Even though it is not as effective as a

whole group, I do believe it helped me communicate better.

There was a moment in the project where we had a heated

argument, and where I normally would have panicked I

stayed calm and we managed to talk it out. This was a huge

learning point for me, as this way of reacting did not only

cost me less stress but also ended up with better results for

the research.

Another though moment was at the demo day, where a

woman stated it would never work on her and kept on being

very negative about our research. I took it personal as I had

really tried to make the results as clear as possible and

thought I must have done something wrong in explaining

the project to her. Looking back on this, I think there may

always be people who disagree with what you say and do

and that this is no reason to write of the research as useless.

As stated in the research it does not have to work on

everyone to be effective, so I should not immediately worry

about the opinion of one person and should instead focus on

why they think negatively and see if I can change that.

I also learned things that I expected to learn, like the

workings of the technical devices in the CEST lab. By

working with the trainees there and by doing research

online I found how to make the digital files for these

machines, how to use them and what materials should be

used for what. This is the progress I made within the

technology and realization expertise area. I learned about

writing papers, what kind of phrasing I should use and the

general lay out when writing about tests. I learned how to

do a somewhat longer term user study, fitting the

competency area of user and society, by getting feedback

from the coaches and experts in the squad. The advice they

gave was very helpful and really helped us develop

throughout the project. Last, I wanted to learn to present

and pitch. While I did not learn this to the full extent of it, I

did pitch and present to non-teaching staff.

What would I do different next time

Next time I will go into the project with more confidence,

knowing I am able to communicate and present. I have built

this confidence throughout the project and would like to

build it further so I will no longer be the silent student

towards the teaching staff.

Furthermore, if there would ever be trouble with group

members not working or showing up for meetings I aim to

react more firmly. When Milan and Andrea stated they

would not come to meetings as they had more important

things to do, I did not know what to say. I had been

carefully asking them if they would please at least attend

meetings where I should have rallied with Maxime and

show them there are consequences to not showing up. Next

time I will focus on the people that do put effort into the

projects sooner, and keep on working independently of

whether the rest of the group joins or not. This said, I do

hope this never happens to this extent again.

Last, I did not learn much concerning the expertise areas of

Business and Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Aesthetics

and Math, Data and Computing. In the future I would like

to learn more about these areas, but mostly the Business

and Entrepreneurship area. This because I am interested in

this area and knowledge thereof could greatly benefit my

future designs.

Reflection Maxime

Before the start of this project I had a clear plan on what

topic I wanted to focus since the squad is very in line with

my vision and identity. We got the chance to make teams

depending on our interests which worked out very well.

Anouk and I agreed upon a lot of things which made the

process very smooth. We started off as a group of four, but

due to the limited time the other two group members had,

we could never meet with the four of us and Anouk and I

ended up meeting with the two of us. Soon the decision for

splitting up was made, and afterwards the other two group

members quitted the project. This situation shows my first

learning point. In previous groups I would not have know

how to handle this situation, but Anouk and I had the clear

goal of completing a good project. Therefore we chose to

not let the process be disturbed by the group issues, but just

go on with the project. I tried to get the other two on track

multiple times by updating them about the status and asking

them to join meetings, but after a while we decided that this

did not work any longer and talked to our coach. We

splitted up and looking back, this does not feel like a

failure. We tried our best to make it work and made the

decision at the right moment. Also we did not stop working

in the weeks we had group issues, so we did not lose any

time which I am very satisfied with. Asking a coach for

help is something I do not regret since we tried to manage

the problem within the team multiple times but it did not

work out. Even though we noticed that there is a big

difference between a group of four and two, I believe we

did a good project which is equal to a four-man project.

Next time I would try to be more strict to team members

that do not show up. At the beginning I did not know how

to handle the situation and kept on giving them updates of

the project, but next time I will give them a clear choice of

contributing or leaving the team as trying too long leads to

frustrations that can negatively influence the project.

This project contributed a lot do the developing of my

designer skills, but also to the development of my vision

and identity. I have already been interested in the

combination of fashion and sustainability, but this project

made me even more passionate about this topic. I now

explored a first option of making the fashion industry and

know there are more options to explore and I look forward

to doing this in the years to come on TU/e but also after my

studies.

The next learning point is how to work with machines such

as the laser cutter, vinyl cutter and embroidery machine.

Experimenting with these machines and choosin different

fabrics for working with this, made me develop within the

competence area of Technology and Realization. In

previous projects I did not make a lot of prototypes, so I am

glad that I was finally able to work in this competence area

now.

Besides this I did a lot of research on rebranding, logo

designing and create a luxurious packaging and wearable. I

combined trends with user test to create the optimal

experience. This made me grow in the competence areas of

User & Society and Creativity & Aesthetics. User &

Society is even more developed because of the focus on

society we had in our projet. Not only the environment was

a central point, but also creating awareness and activate the

society to make the fashion industry more sustainable.

I would have liked to dive deeper into the business model

behind our idea, and entrepreneurial opportunities, but there

was no room for this due to limited time we had and the

different focus we set. We did focus on rebranding and

experience creating, but not on business development. Next

semester I will be doing an Internship in which I will be

focusing on business in combination with sustainability in

fashion.

8.Video

Demo day video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJMsa97Fyo&t=2s

9.Consent forms