Open Access Journals at Aalborg University
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Will it Make it to the Rack? An Investigation of Perceived Retail Value in Second-hand Clothing
Get PDFTransformative and community-based participation in collaborative business model experimentation for urban upcycling
Get PDFAcross cities and urban regions in The Netherlands unusual collaborations emerge which aim to develop new circular business models that facilitate product and resource longevity through various upcycling strategies, such as reuse, repair, refurbish, repurpose and/or remanufacture. Municipalities, social entrepreneurs as well as multinational enterprises use various experimentation methods to initiate, test or improve new collaborations in urban upcycling. However, little is known about the role of transformative stakeholder participation in these experiments and how they affect business models for upcycling. Therefore, this study investigates how initiators in urban upcycling use transformative and community-based participatory experimentation to develop collaborative circular business models that facilitate upcycling in a city context. Through a multiple case study approach, this research contributes to literature on circular business model innovation by investigating how practitioners in urban upcycling collaboratively develop, test, implement and scale business models for product and resource longevity in a city context
Re-Imagining Garment Cutting Waste: Fashion Hacking, Zero-Waste, and the Power of Negative Spaces
Get PDFCircularity Indicators for Packaging: A Literature Review and System-Based Classification
Get PDFThe transition to a Circular Economy (CE) in the packaging industry is vital to address growing environmental problems. Circularity indicators play a critical role in evaluating progress and guiding decision-making. However, existing indicators lack suitability for packaging and do not factor in the systemic considerations required for successful transition to CE. This study identified 21 circularity indicators relevant to packaging, critically assessing their: suitability for the packaging industry; and inclusion of systemic considerations across lifecycle stages such as sourcing, design and production, distribution, use, and end-of-life. Using a three-point scale (extensive inclusion, partial inclusion and none), the indicators are classified to establish the extent to which they consider systems, such as Packaging Characteristic, Infrastructure, Value and Regulation. The analysis highlights several gaps, including overemphasis on end-of-life systems, limited consideration of value for stakeholders, insufficient alignment with upstream systems, and inadequate consideration of regional infrastructure and regulation. The findings underline the need for future indicators to adopt a holistic approach, integrating diverse systems to enable effective CE strategy implementation. By highlighting these gaps, this research lays the groundwork for developing robust indicators that not only assess circularity but also guide the packaging industry toward a realistic implementation of CE strategies
Utilising Digital Technology for Garment Longevity
Get PDFThis research explores methods for repurposing both physical resources and contextual specialist knowledge, offering insights that can inspire and enhance future fashion design and re-manufacturing and archival practices within the industry. It questions whether digital fashion design tools, such as CLO3D can expand from facilitating faster production and consumption to enhancing the use and potential longevity of garments. The study employs an ethnographic approach to practice-based research, where the authors focus on the interaction between the physical and digital worlds, to understand the wider application of CLO3D that promotes the value and lifespan of a garment. Two case studies were investigated to explore the impact of CLO3D on longevity: a historical garment archive that examined historic pattern cutting approaches; a contemporary collection of 30 deadstock sportswear garments. This research aims to enhance the designers understanding and accessibility of archival an
Repair as a driver of community-led behavioural change
Get PDFRepair has been at the epicentre of place-based approaches led by communities/commons in order to sustain resources and address socio-environmental challenges. This paper presents the initiative Creative Industries, Social Enterprise, Repair and Restoration (CISERR) situated in regional Queensland, which is providing practical and social skilling to at-risk young men by employing creative repair practices. CISERR adopts repair as a wholistic approach targeting not only material restoration but also self and community renewal. To capture its social impact, all phases of the initiative were evaluated through an evolving Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework. The paper focuses on the third round of CISERR for which, the methodological approach and findings were divided in two parts. The participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) methodology was used for the first part while the Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) method and a facilitators’ workshop were employed for the second part. Interviews and visual data collection were conducted for both parts. The findings combined demonstrated how CISERR facilitated the development of adaptation skills related to possibilities of employment by exposing at-risk young men to creatively repairing and reusing local resources. They additionally made evident how CISERR’s wholistic repair approach created the circumstances for a community to use its lived experience and place-based resources to support at-risk youth. The paper concludes with CISERR as an example of repair driving community-led behavioural change; the latter being a response to the growing need for social resilience and an antidote to the failed efforts by governments to activate individual behavioural change. 
Idle and Active Dresses: Design Briefings from the Wardrobe
Get PDFThis paper explores how a wardrobe study, the dress audit, was combined with literature on the dress archetype to create a brief for fashion design practice that aims to increase the active wearing of dresses. Overall, clothing utilisation has declined by over a third in the last 15 years, with dresses being the least worn of any significant item. Unworn dresses amount to hidden wardrobe waste, and increasing their utilisation could reduce fashion overconsumption.
A cultural examination of the dress through a lens of sustainability reveals an archetype of the Western fashion system, tied to production and consumption discourses with complex socio-political dimensions. In contrast, the wardrobe study provided vital insights into dress-wearing experiences.
Most dresses are now mass-produced, creating a disconnect between designers and wearers, and this paper highlights some of the implications of this divide. The wardrobe study identified three leading factors that impact wearing: fit, occasion, and style. If designers address these three factors alone, it could mitigate up to 80% of low usage issues. These findings helped develop five baseline parameters and create a new brief for fashion design practice that prioritises greater garment utilisation by incorporating the lived experience of wearing within the design process. 
