TrashFash

Every year, the rise of fast fashions has caused many environmental issues and problems for garment workers. The industry is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions which is already a heavy carbon footprint, but it is to be estimated that it will increase by 50% by 2030. Additionally, for these types of brands to offer cheap clothing to users, they seek countries with the lowest labor standards so that garment workers can be easily exploited, and clothing is often made with synthetic fabric that does not compost and occupies 5% of all landfill space. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, only 15% of textile waste gets recycled, while 85% ends up going to landfills. As Gen Zers, we have become a generation consumed by consumerism, social media, and fast anything. Even in a recent survey, almost 75% of 18-24 years old believe influencers have some sort of accountability for the rise of disposable fashion.
For Empower, we created a platform where designers/artists/students/educators can trade and sell unwanted fabric. In the store, Trash Fash sell fabrics we curated from designers and universities around NY. Customers are able to sell or donate their fabrics for store credit. It will have a volunteer/hire system as well where fashion students can learn more about the textile industries and get first pickings in fabrics. Many challenges we ran into were just the amount of information to condense into a page. We were strict on creating a hierarchy to keep users from getting lost in the information.

Key takeaways:

• Being able to test our concept & design on real users will give us insightful feedback on how to improve our product & design.
• We undertook an ambitious product for a 24-hr designathon - much of the initial research was secondary, so it would be nice to conduct surveys & interviews to more fully develop our persona & address any overlooked or missing pain points or goals.
• We look forward to filling out the prototype with more real content & features, and conducting usability testing to improve the product in the next iteration.

What's next for Trash Fash:

• Determining details/constraints for selling/buying
• Web-responsive app
• Design flows for Seller
• Expand business/services beyond NY to Mid West/West Coast

Built With

• figma