Sustainable Consumption: Exploration Of Intentions In Response To Emerging Digital Apparel Technologies

Abstract

Humanity's ecological impact to the ecosystem is enormous. For the apparel industry, the shift from four or five season-based fashion cycles to continuously changing styles has amplified its impact on economies, societies and the environment over the last two decades. Consumers individually contribute to ecological damage by purchasing a lot of garments and disposing of them frequently. The energy embodied in garments during manufacture, transportation, and usage often ends up in landfills in wasteful, unsustainable consumption cycles. Technological advancements in virtual imaging, apparel try-on technologies, and online interaction offer some potential for contributions toward development of a more sustainable consumption model for apparel. Technology can have an effect on consumer involvement with their garments through digital design and communication tools and accurate product information. This dissertation explores how the technology can change familiar apparel consumption patterns. The research is conducted in three steps: First, utilizing a broadly accepted social psychological theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and expanding it within the context of sustainability. Second, investigating if there is a way to avoid possible unsustainable consumption effects of these technologies by providing the consumers of these technologies with new understanding of the problems and processes of apparel production and consumption. Third, testing how users would approach such technologies and investigating attitudes toward their actual customized designs. This dissertation demonstrated that these new technologies could be used as a design tool for consumers to create and preview personalized clothing if optimized into a working system. The positive interactions between the users and the technology suggested that garments designed using these methods could be better cared for, used for a longer time, and worn with pride- thus, disposing them less frequently and consuming these products more sustainably.