FASHION FIX
To make fashion locally sustainable.
Fast Fashion has impended our retail giant stores and has lasting effects on all aspects from extraction of resources, production, supply chain and finally in the e-commerce sector.
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Our group decided to focus on the local environmental perspective of fast fashion in the retail segment due to the staggering statistics about old clothing filling up landfills. Through this we created an upcycled social media platform and pop up marketplace.
MY CONTRIBUTIONS:
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Lead the team into brainstorming to conception of the prototype
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Organized and conducted user interviews
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Helped power the ideation duo strategy of service and digital
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Co-designed the presentation and high fidelity prototype
MY ROLE:
User Experience Designer, Interaction Designer and Researcher
DATE:
January 2020 - April 2020
PROBLEM SPACE
WHAT IS FAST FASHION?
Fast fashion is a phenomenon defined by cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed. - Solene Rauturier
WHY IS FAST FASHION A PROBLEM?
Influencer Marketing
to over buy and waste into landfills
1.2 Billion Tons of CO2
emissions per year
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less than $3 per day
what most garment workers make
User Interviews with three people:
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Design Student in New York, we learn about sustainability fashion production
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Trade Policy Expert for the Africa Trade Policy Centre for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to examine trade policies off raw textiles.
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Junior Technical Officer of an International Care Bangladesh project who travelled in the garment factories city centre to provide micro finance skills.
Quotes:
“Fashion industry second largest polluting industry in the world” - fashion student
"'Artisan made' label can be deceiving because it doesn’t give credit to the people who made it" - fashion student
Each interview opened our eyes to the complexity of the global fashion network. It made us realize how strong community relationships were to a thriving business sector. We created a user persona and customer journey map to better understand the local target users who would be the consumers of clothing purchases.
User Persona & Customer Journey Map :
SYNTHESIS & IDEATION
Stage 2 &3: Data Sorting & Brainstorming:
To sort our data we used different diagrams to help us narrow down where in the challenge to focus on our solution.
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Content map - helped us understand that a social community element was needed for long term success.
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Janus curve - helped to understand the fashion industry and its commitment to sustainability over the years.
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Horizontal map - helped to see successful business concepts and trends that have been working in the space.
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FINAL PROTOTYPE
Digital Application:
Meet FashionFix, a digital solution that helps mitigate the ill impacts of fashion industry and yet evolves with the latest fashion trends. We prototyped the screens on Figma and created the high fidelity frames with a service design blueprint.
The FashionFix app will host the following features:​​​
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Sustainable Fashion Community - A digital platform to connect influencers, consumers, and fashion experts to share knowledge about upcycling, fashion trends, and sustainable fashion practices.
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Upcycling Meetups - Regularly updated information about upcoming FashionFix hosted Upcycling Markets within the city.
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Shared Wardrobe Marketplace - A digital marketplace for users to sell/rent/exchange their upcycled, customized, handmade used apparels and accessories.
The objective through the digital solution is to reduce the fashion consumption by promoting a shared economy model, while using social media influence to battle stigmas attached. This creates a community to educate and promote sustainable fashion practices.
Service Blue Print
We built a service blueprint to better define FashionFix’s Upcycle Pop Up service. Under the FashionFix brand, we want to host an UpCycle Pop Up market that rotates locations around the GTA. Inspired by the Swedish furniture upcycle marketplace, this market features:
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A carefully curated list of vendors, tailors and clothing artisans who specialize in upcycling fashion garments.
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Live workshops, demonstrations and unique one-of-a-kind remade garments for sale.
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With this service, FashionFix wants to help better educate fashion enthusiasts to useful resources, and support local artisans, all while creating a community around fashion sustainability. This Service Blueprint demonstrates the strategy and architecture for FashionFix Upcycle Markets to successfully run.
NEXT STEPS
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FashionFix is a two part solution that includes our Social Media App and our Upcycling Pop Up Market that we curate on a bi-monthly basis. With this platform, Fashion Fixers receive education and resources, inspiration, and a community dedicated to sustainable fashion. - Cofounder Natasha Murji
LOoking BAck
The first hurdle was deciding a common social impact topic to examine. We approached the decision by using “Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats” ( A decision making tool of taking several perspectives on a topic; optimist, pessimist, factual, etc. ) to further seek the deeper meaning of the topics.
The second hurdle was the understanding of the quality of completion. We would delegate segments of work to be completed. By the timeline, most members had submitted their sections but often the quality of writing and consistency of depth were missing. Group members took turns leading in the different phases, and would comb through and edit. If a member really lacked information, they were asked to try the part again with assistance. In this end, this is the way consistency and quality was addressed for the final output.
As a takeaway, we were able to change the narrative on upcycled textiles as a positive factor and not a “hand-me-down”. This perspective made room for conversations around reusing fabrics and appreciating the value of local artisans in the space.
This horizon map showcased how terminology and attitudes for clothing can inspire different business models. We wanted to revamp our stamp of taking out the middleman, and teaching people that they can make one - of a kind pieces. In their own home at a fraction of the cost and be their own responsible textile producers.