Fabrication Sustainability Ethnographic Research User Testing Prototyping
The Fashion Library
The Art of Making: Hands on Systems Design and Engineering
Fall 2023
Extending the life cycle of fast fashion clothing
Six weeks into the semester, students could voluntarily pitch a seed idea for potential selection in a 9-week human-centered design project. My pitch on textile waste catalyzed by the fast-fashion industry was among the top voted by the class.
A team of five multidisciplinary engineers were assembled to tackle this problem. Through problem discovery, user research, brainstorming, prototyping, and fabrication, we created a clothing vending machine and community closet that would extend the life-cycle of fast fashion clothing. As a result, we presented our prototype at the Engineering Design Expo and ranked 2nd in our category.
PITCHING THE PROBLEM
A year prior, I had bought an item on Shein.com for $5 to be worn for only a single day of my life- Halloween. I had no use for it after assembling my costume, so I stuffed it under the bed and forgot it.
This behavior had been occurring for years. My first year of college, ten of the girls on my dorm floor would participate in monthly group Shein orders to split the shipping costs. We’d scrounge up twenty bucks or so to buy a handful of new tops. We were enticed by the novelty of a trendy item only to wear it once, realize it was way cuter online, and eventually commit the same mistake again. As the cost (and the quality) of our clothing decreased, my friends and I began to see these items as convenient single-use, disposable items.
At the intersection of my passion for fashion and commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle, sprinkled with personal experience, the Capstone seed idea was born. We need another stage in the life cycle for these items - one that doesn’t end at the landfill. Let’s dig into this…
WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR?
People who love fashion and shopping, but can’t afford expensive, high-end garments. In other words, consumers of fast fashion brands.
The term Fast Fashion denotes a large sector of the fashion industry the relies on the speedy production of low-quality clothing to meet the latest and newest trends. (earth.org)
textile waste in a landfill in Hong Kong
INITIAL PROBLEM STATEMENT
The Fast Fashion industry has exponentially increased the amount of clothing and textile waste generated worldwide.
THE STATS
The fashion industry is responsible for nearly 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of global wastewater.
Since 2000, the number of times an item is worn has decreased by 36%
92 million tons of textiles waste is produced every year
HOW MIGHT WE…?
How might we find a way to prevent consumers of fast fashion from throwing away or donating their unwanted items?
46%
OUTREACH
Motivations for purchasing fast fashion items
Purchasing habits
Textile waste education
Attempts to reuse or recycle
Pros and cons of fast fashion items
Shop Owner
What’s Good, consignment shop
We began researching with:
survey responses
We also talked to 4 experts in fashion and sustainability
RESULTS
Quantitative
Prof. Guiseppina Mecchia
Euro Chic: The Invention of Fashion
Lucas Connell
Vintage online reseller
We asked about:
Amanda Lee
Student Office of Sustainability
Qualitative
People buy from fast fashion because it is cheap, fast, and there’s a huge selection of items
“I can always find what I’m looking for on these sites”
Fast fashion items hardly sell on resale websites or in thrift shops because they often cost just as much as buying the item new.
Most people don’t try to upcycle their fast fashion items because they don’t know how to sew, and the items are hard to work.
in-person interviews
72%
50%
of people surveyed have bought fast fashion before.
have bought fast fashion in the last 6 months.
care about the effects of fast fashion.
How might we find a way to prevent consumers of fast fashion from throwing away or donating their unwanted items?
How might we find a way to multiply the number of times a fast fashion clothing item is used before it reaches the landfill?
IDEATION
DEVELOPING THE PRETOTYPES
After brainstorming, we moved on to making our pretotypes. A pretotype is a “pre-prototype” that simulates the functionality of an idea without investing too much time and money. This ensures that we are building the right “it” before we build “it” right.
Pretotype A:
UPCYCLE APP
This app would provide step-by-step tutorials to show people how to transform their unwanted, outdated fast fashion items into something snazzier. For a low-resolution pretotype, we made a PowerPoint with embedded buttons displaying several upcycling tutorials we found online.
Pretotype B:
THRIFT VENDING MACHINE
This idea is similar to a vending machine, but for clothes. Users can donate their items in the bin and swipe through available items that were previously donated on a touchscreen interface. We constructed it out of PVC pipes, foamcore, donated clothes, and a pulley.
Brainstorming
Clustering
Selection and Feature Specification
USER TESTING
We then tested both of our pretotypes with a total of 15 users. Some were friends we recruited, and others were passersby in one of the dorms on a Friday night.
Upcycling App
INSIGHTS
Vending Machine
INSIGHTS
We decided not to move forward with this prototype
BUILDING THE PROTOTYPE
Now, we were ready to move from pretotype to prototype. We drew out some plans to guide our fabrication process…
System sketch, front and sideview
We simultaneously began working on the mechatronics elements: the touchscreen interface and the RFID card scanner to unlock the retrieval door.
Rough sketch of the rotational system for the clothing rack, including a shaft and two industrial lazy Susans (with force estimations)
Diagrams of the rotational system showing the power transmission from the motor
front and top view
Then, we proceeded with mechanical fabrication using laser cut plywood and 2 x 4s…
The stepper motor connected to laser-cut acrylic gears
The key card unlocks the retrieval door via an RFID scanner. This simulates a “token” being used to purchase a single item. Users can collect tokens each time they donate an item to the machine, so the process is a one-to-one trade.
The monitor programmed as the touchscreen interface.
THE FINAL DESIGN:
THE FASHION LIBRARY
On December 7, 2023, we presented our final prototype at the Swanson School of Engineering Design Expo and won 2nd place for our Art of Making Class.
We continued our user testing and outreach leading up to the Expo to accommodate some final touches: instructions on the front of the machine, moving the door from the side to the front, and adding educational graphics about textile waste on the sides.
The user selects an item from the touchscreen graphical user interface (GUI)
Once the selected item is brought to the front of the machine, the user presents their Pitt Panther Card as a form of payment
HOW IT WORKS
The input is processed by a Raspberry Pi Microcontroller, which is programmed with the location of each item on the rack
The RFID reader scans the Pitt ID by bringing it close to the reader. When the Pitt ID makes contact with the reader, it will send a signal to the magnetic lock.
See it in action:
The stepper motor turns a certain number of steps according to the gear ratio and the angular location of the selected item
The magnetic lock will unlock, the door will open, and the user can then take their item off the hanger. Note that the token system is simulated. The reader does not detect tokens on an account. It only detects the presence of the ID.
Design Goals
Low Cost
Easy to Use
Although we integrated the magnetic lock, the security of the Fashion Library is not fully robust. A user could take more items than the one they selected or make an unfair trade. For example, they could donate a sock and retrieve a dress. We took our inspiration from the Free Little Libraries in neighborhoods, which operates on a one-for-one trade policy. We adopted a Good Faith Policy, meaning that we believe users will interact with the machine out of good intent for the environment and the community.
Anti-theft System
Fully Autonomous
We currently don’t have evidence that returning or donating an item is enough incentive for people to use the machine. We would need to conduct further user testing with a fully functioning token system.
Incentivized Returns