hannah phang

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What is the issue you will be focusing on and why is it a good topic for thesis? (500-750 characters)

Our thesis will focus on communication about sustainable apparel production in the fashion industry. Everyone wears apparel yet most people are unaware of the impact of their clothing. The fashion industry relies on widespread communication, such as bloggers, to set trends and drive demand. We want to guide bloggers in talking about the impacts of this demand.

The fashion industry is incredibly destructive and harmful to people and the environment. Fashion is the third most polluting industry in the world and the second largest consumer and polluter of water. Yet these issues are not at the forefront of conversations about building a sustainable future. Our thesis aims enlighten the public on these issues and spark more demand for sustainable fashion.

What communities will you be looking to engage? (250-500 characters)

We are looking to engage bloggers, fashion industry experts, and consumers, both average and environmentally aware. We will focus our work on the blogger community because they are the key communicators that are able to spread information widely. We will also engage industry experts and consumers to fully understand the landscape of the industry and learn the best balance of information about sustainability that will be impactful without being threatening.

What are some approaches or forms you are interested in experimenting with during the thesis process? (250-500 characters)

We are interested in exploring both physical and digital forms of an intervention. The industry is known to have meetups and events so we could create a workshop or event for bloggers to learn and gather together. We would also be interested in creating a digital resource that bloggers could continually reference and use as a tool to stay up to date with information about sustainability in fashion.

List 4 research activities you did this semester and what key insights you learned from them.

We conducted multiple interviews with bloggers this semester, both male and female, with a range of influence. One of the key insights from these interviews is that bloggers desire to communicate about social good through partnering with brands who have a social mission but have not yet worked with environmentally conscious brands because they do not understand neither the fashion industry nor their role in the industry as being environmentally conscious.

We completed online research about organizations and alliances who are working to improve the sustainability of the fashion industry. We found that all of these organizations are directing their communication and efforts towards brands and suppliers but not towards communicators like magazines and bloggers.

We did concept mapping of a sustainability archetype in order to decipher the fundamental solutions, upstream problems, and the benefits of applying a fundamental solution in building a sustainable future. This helped us to confirm our direction of focusing on bringing sustainable content to mainstream bloggers in order to truly spark a flood of demand.

We attended a trend forecasting presentation from one of the most influential trend forecasters that was focused on how the industry is shifting towards sustainable production. We learned that the influencers of brands are pushing for sustainable production and are very openly communicating about it to brands and brands are listening and taking action.

List 4 research activities you will be engaging in over the summer. What questions will you be looking to answer or get more information on?

We hope to continue interviewing bloggers to understand their strategies and what communication is currently most successful for them. If we can identify what works for them currently, we could transfer that framework to content about sustainability.

We would love to shadow bloggers for a day to truly understand what their experience is, who they interact with, and what information they receive. It would be ideal to do this for both mainstream bloggers and eco bloggers so we could better understand what the key differences are and identify points of overlap.

We also plan to create a survey/questionnaire for consumers to complete so we can learn what information about sustainable production is most compelling to them. If we can have data on what consumers will respond to, we may be able to further focus on the information that will be most compelling for bloggers to share.

We also wish to continue our research through interviews with fashion industry experts and online research so that we are fully aware of what is currently being done in apparel production to be more sustainable to become experts on the subject ourselves.

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Thesis Video v1

Here is the first version of our video:

At this point there was still some feedback we needed to add such as making the last paragraph more about our research and sounds less like a solution. We receive the same feedback today and we also got some feedback to add back in a couple points that we had in previous storyboards but hadn’t incorporated here.

Some feedback that I think will be really helpful for us is to be more clear about sustainability and unsustainability. Another point that we will work on is really framing what we will do as a social good. I think we really do need to make that clear because I feel like a lot of people do not understand how much of an issue the fashion industry is so if we can work so that is very clear and apparent, that will be very beneficial. 

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Thesis Video Script v1

The fashion industry is the third most polluting industry in the world, only after oil and agriculture. For example, the Chinese textile industry, alone creates about 3 billion tons of soot each year and many rivers run with the colors of the season as the untreated toxic dyes wash off from mills.

If it is such a destructive industry, why isn’t more being done to make sustainable production the standard? Why aren’t we demanding change? Currently what is being demanded in the fashion industry are trends and aesthetic and the status that those bring. This demand is fueled by communication from influencers. In recent years, the key influencers of the industry are bloggers. For example, the blog The Blonde Salad has 3.5 million followers on instagram and Vogue, the iconic fashion magazine, has 3.8 million followers. Bloggers could be the missing link in building demand for sustainably produced clothing.

Brands like Eileen Fisher, Reformation, and Stella McCartney are making huge strides to produce clothing sustainably so that their customers can shop without the guilt. Many other companies (nike, H&M, Walmart, Levi’s, Adidas, Burberry) have also started to take proactive measures and have carried out inquiries and pushed suppliers to take corrective actions to their environmental violations.

Bloggers have yet to pick up on this shift in the industry and are therefore stifling this demand. In addition, the fashion industry is designed to make you feel “out of trend” every week which leads bloggers to create more and more content which in turn promotes consumption and through our research we learned that this has caused bloggers to view themselves and the industry as inherently unsustainable.

We hope to change that. If we want to inspire consumers to create a demand for sustainably produced apparel, we first have to inspire the influencers. Over the next year we will develop an intervention that reframes “sustainability” in fashion for bloggers so they understand it as “better,” not “less.” We will help them to understand the problem and give them tools that show them how theyare part of the solution in moving towards a more sustainable industry.

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Thesis Nuggets v2

1

Identify a possible topic/nugget.Create an intervention that challenges US based fashion influencers/bloggers to promote ethically and sustainably produced. 

Briefly describe the article or observation it came from.This topic came from multiple sources and people that I’ve spoken with but this web series called Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion is a key example. It brings three Norwegian fashion bloggers to live and work in a factory in Cambodia. http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/serier-og-programmer/sweatshopenglish/ Answer these questions in 1-2 sentences. Is the community accessible? Yes, there are many fashion bloggers in NYC            Is there research to be done? Yes, I need to research how it would be beneficial to bloggers to promote these kinds of posts.            Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes. I could see a challenge that bloggers spread in the community to make outfits/looks using only ethically and sustainably produced clothing. I could see a workshop/event set up for influencers to attend to learn the importance of supporting companies with a conscious supply chain. 

2

Identify a possible topic/nugget. Create an intervention that brings similar people from opposite sides of the world together to better understand the impact that the western consumer culture has on other countries. Briefly describe the article or observation it came from. "As we enjoyed and admired the Nova Scotia skies together, Qing noted, "There are never blue skies in most of China." I demurred, "Never?" She said, "Well, perhaps one or two days a year, but basically, the sky is never blue where I grew up."" "The natural next step in my mind was to recognise that it is the production of our cheap goods that is the largest cause of this horrifying condition. We must urgently reconsider the true costs of our everyday behaviour."http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/throwaway-culture-destroying-freedoms-china Answer these questions in 1-2 sentences. Is the community accessible? Yes, well partially. The western community is definitely accessible. I do have contacts in Asia however I would not be able to access them in person. Is there research to be done? Yes, what is the best way to facilitate communication between groups. Research to be done about the consumer culture on both sides and get facts about how consumption influences lifestyle and environment. Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes. I can imagine setting up a program that would bring an American consumer, maybe a high school girl, with a Chinese consumer of the same age and lifestyle to compare environments and consumer cultures. 3

Identify a possible topic/nugget. Create an intervention that brings the experience of apparel manufacturing to college age females Briefly describe the article or observation it came from. "But worst of all is the symbolism of it all," Edelkoort continues. "Prices profess that these clothes are to be thrown away, discarded as a condom and forgotten before being loved and savoured, teaching young consumers that fashion has no value. The culture of fashion is thus destroyed." http://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/02/li-edelkoort-manifesto-anti-fashion-obsolete/ Answer these questions in 1-2 sentences.

Is the community accessible? Yes. There are many college students in NYC. I also did my undergrad in NYC so I could try to reach out to my past professors.           Is there research to be done? Yes. I would like to do research on the consumption habits of the target group, their key influencers, what information or experience would change behavior      Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes.

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Possible Thesis Topics

Topic 1 Create an intervention that brings the experience of being an apparel manufacturing worker to consumers of fast fashion.

Article/Observation This topic came from multiple sources and people that I've spoken with but this web series called Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion is a key example. It brings three Norwegian fashion bloggers to live and work in a factory in Cambodia.  http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/serier-og-programmer/sweatshopenglish/

Is the community accessible? The community of those who shop at fast fashion retailers such as Forever 21 and Zara are plentiful in New York.

Is there research to be done? Yes. Consumers to talk to. Marketing research on influencers of purchasing decisions. Research on current communication strategies on the issue. Research on the environmental impact of fast fashion. What bits of information presented in what way will make the strongest and long lasting impact on consumers. 

Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes. 

Topic 2 Create an intervention that makes sustainable, ethic fashion a status symbol and something that they brag about.

Article/Observation "Contributors highlighted a "disconnect" between shoppers and the origins of the clothes they buy. One participant pointed to an "intention-behaviour gap" – a consumer's intent to do the right thing is forgotten when they go into a shop: "All the fashion industry does is fulfil people's desires. We can try to appeal to people's better nature, but fundamentally we are status-driven; we use fashion to show we are on top of the pile. So we need a different status symbol. Fashion brands are going to make change desirable – they just need to get smarter at persuading people to use other ways of showing their status than conspicuous consumption."" http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-model-for-fashion

Is the community accessible? Yes, status seeking consumers flock to NYC

Is there research to be done? Yes. I would need to better understand "status" and find insights about how it is created.

Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes.

Topic 3 Create an intervention that brings similar people from opposite sides of the world together to better understand the impact that the western consumer culture has on other countries.

Article/Observation "As we enjoyed and admired the Nova Scotia skies together, Qing noted, "There are never blue skies in most of China." I demurred, "Never?" She said, "Well, perhaps one or two days a year, but basically, the sky is never blue where I grew up."" "The natural next step in my mind was to recognise that it is the production of our cheap goods that is the largest cause of this horrifying condition. We must urgently reconsider the true costs of our everyday behaviour." http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/throwaway-culture-destroying-freedoms-china

Is the community accessible? Yes, well partially. The western community is definitely accessible. I do have contacts in Asia however I would not be able to access them in person.

Is there research to be done? Yes, what is the best way to facilitate communication between groups. Research to be done about the consumer culture on both sides and get facts about how consumption influences lifestyle and environment.

Can you imagine possible intervention? Yes.

Topic 4 Create an intervention that allows fast fashion consumers to understand the consequences of their purchasing decisions. It should help these consumers to be more thoughtful in their choices.

Article/Obervation "We don’t intend that the pursuit of our happiness should lead to the extinction of animals, desertification, drought, famine, mass human migration, violent storms, but all that is presently “swimming upwards” regardless of what we intend." https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-barbaric-heart/

Is the community accessible? Yes, there are plenty of fast fashion consumers in NYC

Is there research to be done? Yes. I would research how this group makes purchasing decisions and what/who are their key influencers.

Can you imagine possible interventions? Yes.

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What I Have Been Reading

For the past three weeks, I've been tracking the articles I've been reading. After taking some time to reflect back on these articles, I was able to notice some commonalities and themes. I found that I could group the articles into eight themes as shown above. I then realized that these could be further categorized into inspirations/solutions and problems. The inspiration/solution group I found was where I went to learn how to be a better social innovator and person. The problem group was where I went to better understand the current situation I want to innovate for.

[ohproserpine-deactivated2015053]

I pay the penalty of the educated, emancipated woman: I am critical, peculiar, aristocratic in tastes.

Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of— (via klytemnestre)

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The Book & Movie I Would Take to the Moon

I first read Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart during my undergraduate degree. It was mandatory in my first course about sustainability. At the time I didn’t realize the impact it would have on me and the path I wanted my life to take. It was the first time that I became aware that a product’s lifecycle stretches far before and far beyond my experience with it. I had always been relatively environmentally conscious, or so I thought, before then so it really sparked my interested to start diving further into sustainability. The book’s introduction uses somewhat of a scare tactic by explaining the way that every product you own is bad for you or the environment or someone else, probably the people who made it. Although that strategy does not work on everyone, it sucked me right in and I am a full fledge cradle to cradle believer.

This book includes history, design, sustainability, and practice, among other things, but I felt that it gave a clear story and explanation. Their argument not only helped me to understand the importance of a product’s lifecycle but also the role that design or strategic and systemic thinking plays in it. This relates directly to my interests because I believe supply chain transparency to be integral in reducing the adverse environmental and social consequences of globalized production. They were able to show how a lot of times business and the environment appear or are believed to be at ends with each other, that we are not able to have both. But in Cradle to Cradle, they show how production really just has a design problem. Business and environmentalism can be synonymous. Proving this further is what I want to be a part of. Currently, evidence from early adopter businesses says this is true so why don’t we see it everywhere? Why isn’t it the standard? The cultural norms and the beliefs of the majority still need to be shifted and brought to this understanding. I’m interested in helping to show that it is beneficial for all stakeholders when businesses are environmentally and socially conscious.

Not only does the content of this book hold a lot of value and meaning for me, but also the physical book itself. The book is not made from traditional paper that is made from wood pulp or cotton fiber. It is crafted from plastic resins and inorganic fillers which can be recycled indefinitely to form other books and other products. Although I am definitely not a fan of plastic, since it is usually used for products that are thrown away almost immediately even though it is built to last forever, when it’s properties that allow it to last forever are used consciously with the intent to last forever, then I’m a supporter. This way of explaining the concept and content of the book by example is innovative and meaningful. I admire the depth that the authors went to not only tell the story but also lead by example, to walk the walk and talk the talk. I value this greatly and try to exist in the same way. I can’t just preach my beliefs but not hold myself up to that standard.

The film I would take to the moon is Blue is the Warmest Color, written, produced, and directed by  Abdellatif Kechiche. It is a french film about coming of age and sexual identity. It is one of the most honest and truthful films I have ever seen. You know how in a lot of films, the content and acting is relatable to real life, but you still know it’s a movie? Everyone is extremely good looking, or super funny, and all have flawless skin, and they say the right things at the right time. This film felt non-fiction like in how real every emotion was portrayed. There were ups and downs in the emotions we all experience daily. There were tears that streamed down faces and runny noses that were left dripping. There was laughter and awkward moments and all consuming love. It had sex scenes that lasted as long as sex actually takes, passion and awkwardness included. It was the raw emotions that we have all experienced but rarely see acted so genuinely. I don’t think the story could have been understood or experienced as well as it did if it had been told through any other medium.

Not only were the characters portrayed so true to life but the plot as well. It contains the scariness of self discovery, of having to be honest with yourself about who you are and realizing that not everyone will be accepting of it. It shows the evolution of relationships, with nerves, falling in love, sex, trust and lack there of, growing apart, the deep sadness once it is all over, and the imbalance of feelings towards one another as time passes. It shows how people grow, the choices they make in their careers and relationships, how they choose to see certain things and how they treat others.

I would take this film to the moon because of it’s deeply honest portrayal of life on earth. Not only would it’s three hour running time be advantageous to a life of solitude on an uninhabited planet, but it would remind me of the beautiful and heart wrenching experience of being a human among humans, from the trivial things we do to the life changing experiences we have. Because the film struck me the way it did, I realize the importance and value I hold for honest and truthful storytelling and the courage that it takes to do so. It is scary to be so real with yourself, others, and an audience and I admire the fearlessness that the actors and director took. When thinking about my interests, I hold businesses up to the same standard of honesty. I appreciate when companies are transparent about their production, their values and vision, and their mistakes.

Although Cradle to Cradle and Blue is the Warmest Color are incredibly different works, I think they complement each other. The film shows the complexity of people and relationships. The rational and irrational things we do. If I were to take this to the moon it would serve as a tribute to life on earth, the beauty of raw human emotion, and the importance of honesty and storytelling. Cradle to Cradle on the other hand would be a guide book on how to start a sustainable industrial revolution when I start a new colony and can start from scratch. It could help to bring consciousness and systemic thinking to the way businesses and production is done. When looking at the commonalities, openness and accountability appear to be mutual themes between the works. They show that honesty, naturally, and consciously are beautiful ways to exist.

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I don’t like to think of myself as a businessman. I’ve made no secret that I hold a fairly skeptical view of the business world. That said, Patagonia, the company my wife and I founded four decades ago, has grown up to — by global standards — a medium-size business. And that bestows on our family a serious responsibility. The last line of Patagonia’s mission statement is “…use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” We’ve always taken that seriously.

Yvon Chouinard on Patagonia

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Timeline of Patagonia Footprint Chronicles

[williamchapmanwritings]

“The only person I ever want to be better than; is the person I was yesterday.”

William Chapman (via macadameia)

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10 Things I Wish I Made

Wear No Evil is a book that acts as a self help book for your closet. It is broke into three main parts: why you need to pay attention to the horrible things that are happening in the fashion industry, different factors you should consider when buying clothes and how to find out this information about your clothes, and a style guide for every occasion. I think that it's something that everyone who wears clothes should read. It provides a convincing argument of why you should care and then how to actually do it.

This magazine provides beautiful photography, visuals, and stories. Their tag line is "the art of being a woman" and provides a place for women to be celebrated while also discussing tougher issues that women face, both in a honest and beautiful way. Everything is so well written that you can tell it's written by people who were born to write. Something else I love about this magazine is that they do not photoshop the women they photograph. Now, I'm sure they touch up blemishes, etc but there's no body reshaping. Not only as a woman, but as someone who has worked in the fashion industry, I completely understand that pressure that this industry has on us to look a certain way so I find it really meaningful for a magazine to come out and say no we're not playing your game. 

I'm obsessed with Patagonia in general and everything they do but I thought I should get a bit more specific than just saying I wish I had made Patagonia. Something that I believe wholeheartedly in is transparency in supply chain for apparel companies. Through the Footprint Chronicles section of the Patagonia website you can find all their textiles, factories, and farms that the company uses. They then go a dip deeper in their supply chain transparency. For example, they have a traceable down program where you can trace the down feathers in their jackets back to the birds who provided the feathers. Their goal for these chronicles is to use transparency to reduce the adverse effects social and environmental impacts of their products. I believe this should be the goal of every company. Transparency creates accountability and responsibility which I believe companies really need to start doing a lot more often. 

Modavanti is an online retailer that sells clothings, accessories, beauty products, and home goods that are from ethical and sustainable brands. They believe that what we wear and surround ourselves with not only impacts ourselves but also others and that we should be able to be proud of these items, how they're made, and who made them. I really love this company because they show that it isn't hard to live and consume consciously. It is a much more beautiful way to live than just paying attention to aesthetics alone. 

Maiyet is a luxury fashion brand that partners with artisans globally to create unique pieces made with ancient techniques. They work with a nonprofit organization who specializes in working with artisan businesses to ensure and promote the well being and prosperity of the communities they work with. I think it is really smart to capitalize on the financial opportunities that the luxury market provides to share the amazing work that is created around the world and ensuring that the artisans in developing countries are being recognized, rewarded and celebrated. All too often workers in developing countries are taken advantage of so I think this company is doing a really beautiful thing by recognizing the craft and traditional of these countries. 

Tesla Motors is an electric car company. They have successfully created electric powered cars that are highly desirable. I currently believe that we cannot change our behaviors over night so we must find sustainable alternatives to the way we consume, and Tesla has shown that we can continue to live in a vehicle centered country but do so in a less harmful way, especially if the electricity is sourced from renewable energy. 

For one, I just love chocolate. In addition to that I think that this is a great company because of the purity and simplicity of their products, the clean design of their packaging, the fact that it's made locally and you can tour their factory in Brooklyn, and that they noticed and started early when artisanal foods were just becoming a thing. They believe that you should understand and connect with ingredients, know how it is made and who is making it. 

I think far too often, old things are torn down to make way for the new, when what's already existing is still good and has a history and a story to tell. In addition to keeping something that helped to build New York City and making it a public space for everyone to enjoy and connect, it saves us from throwing away materials and using energy to make new ones. 

Fashion Revolution is a movement aiming to get people to ask the question "who made my clothes?" It is an event that happens annually where people taken part are asked to wear their clothes inside out, revealing the clothing labels. People can tweet, instagram, facebook, and send images of themselves wearing their clothes and send it to whatever brand they are wearing asking them directly who really made this? This annual event will happen every April 24 in light of the Rana Plaza Factory collapse in Bangladesh where over one thousand people died and over two thousand were injured in 2013. I think this question of where our clothes come from is incredibly important and I love that more and more people are starting to ask it. 

This cleaning product company was created to reduce the amount of plastic wasted for products that we use and then toss fairly frequently. Common Good encourages their customers to keep their containers and just refill them at their refilling stations located in stores all over the city. The cleaning products themselves are very effective but also green, an added level of amazing for people and the environment. 

[abundance-mine]

You are personally responsible for becoming more ethical than the society you grew up in.

Eliezer Yudkowsky (via girlmoss)