THE FASHION LIBRARY
Extending the life cycle of fast fashion clothing
In the fall semester of 2023, I was enrolled in The Art of Making: An Introduction to Hands-On: An Introduction to Hands-On Sytems Design and Engineering. Six weeks into the semester, students were given the opportunity to voluntarily pitch a seed idea to the class. The ideas would become the topics for our Capstone Design projects, a 9-week intensive deep dive into human-centered design.
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 Britney Spears costume, so I stuffed it under the bed and forgot about 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 for the coming weekend festivities. 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…
What is Fast Fashion?
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 is 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
In preparing for the pitch, some of the statistics found were staggering:
92 million tons of textiles waste is produced every year
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%
“How Might We…?” Statement
How might we find a way to prevent consumers of fast fashion from throwing away or donating their unwanted items?
Following the pitch, teams were assembled. The team of consisted of five multidisciplinary engineers:
Caeden Wargo
Mechanical Engineering
46%
Problem Discovery
Outreach
We began to research the problem by conducting interviews and sending surveys to Pitt students. We asked about:
purchasing habits
motivation behind purchasing fast fashion
pros and cons of fast fashion items
the effects of textile waste education
attempts to recycle or reuse items
Lauren Gilfillan
Computer Engineering
50
survey responses
We also talked to 4 experts in fashion and sustainability
Results
Quantitative
Professor Guiseppina Mecchia, University of Pittsburgh
Euro Chic: The Invention of Fashion
Owner of What’s Good
Consignment clothing shop in Pittsburgh, PA
Current Solutions
Recycling and Reuse Programs
David Zhang
Electrical Engineering
Lucas Connell
Vintage online reseller
Amanda Lee
Student Office of Sustainability, University of Pittsburgh
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.
Upcycling Inspiration Platforms
14
in-person interviews
Jason Worrell
Mechanical Engineering
Lauren Harrington
Mechanical Engineering
72%
50%
Reselling Platforms & Donation Centers
of people surveyed have bought fast fashion before.
have bought fast fashion in the last 6 months.
care about the effects of fast fashion.
Initial “How Might We…?” Statement
How might we find a way to prevent consumers of fast fashion from throwing away or donating their unwanted items?
Revised “How Might We…?” Statement
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 and Pretotyping
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:
Upcycling 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.
Generating Quantity of Ideas
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
Key Takeaways
The tutorial was not engaging.
The tutorial was too much work for an ill-constructed coin purse.
Users generally agreed they wouldn’t use it.
We decided NOT to move forward with this pretotype.
Thrift Vending Machine
Key Takeaways
Even though people said they
wanted an option to try-on the
items, no one was willing to
use our changing tent.
Users wanted a larger selection of items.
Our PowerPoint user interface was too confusing and the images were not clear enough.
Passersby did not want to interact with us, even thought they were intrigued by the idea and were excited to try it once we started up conversation.
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 final video demonstrates a use case, the problem, how to use the machine, and a brief overview of how it works:
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:
Design Goals
Low Cost
Easy to Use
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.
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.
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
Incentivized Returns
