Micro Unit Part Two
Brief: Design a way for textile waste to reveal its hidden value.
Team Members: Luis Winkelbrandt, Nicole Shu, Molly Wensley, Amen Maheen, Vanashree Chowdhury, Niki Marathia, Jaime Santos Guerrero, and Lynn Zhong
In-depth Personal Textile Analysis
We initially started this analysis by taking a photo of each of our group members' outfits. The goal of this was to get a better understanding of where our own personal textiles came from.
My personal textile origins. While working on this, we started to understand that simply naming where things came from and how long we have owned them did not give us insight to move forward. We then explain our textiles, did they had any significant meaning, memories, or stories. While some did, there was no insight past “people have emotional connections to their fashion textiles” (Wensley 2026).
We then moved on to conduct a more thorough artifact analysis of one team member's outfit.
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Reflection of Activity
This activity did help us start asking questions and become curious about what textiles can mean to people. Still, overall, this activity did not help us find any hidden value in our clothing. Although this activity did not define the hidden value, it helped move us towards the next research activity.
Clothing Swap
The Clothing swap was an activity that came from the idea that textiles can create an identity. We chose a name at random to determin who clothing we would wear. I chose Molly when I saw her name on the paper. I was excited. Molly and I have very different styles, so I figured this is an opportunity for me to see how clothing really shapes identity.
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We also ventured to see whether our other course members noticed. We did not tell them that we swapped clothing, but they immediately noticed that we did not fully look like ourselves. When I walked in, Vibooti (a course member) said, “You look like AI.”
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Reflection of Activity
We had gained a few insights from this activity that relate to identity. I found myself starting to walk differently, and others said they felt like they had to act a certain way to conform to their outward appearance. While this activity pushed us to do something unconfrotasble. AS we are leaning towards fashion, we realized that we were really only thinking about the post-production value, when in reality, 80% of the environmental impacts of a textile can be estimated at the design stage (Gozene, 2024). Should we be searching for the hidden value in pre-production?
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Hidden Value Definition
Defining hidden value is an important aspect of moving forward. While it's still a working definition, we have defined Hidden Value as ‘A concealed quality that when revealed increases an object's worth.’ While creating this definition, we looked at the words separately and then placed the qualities of those definitions into our final definition.
Fibre Labs Tour
*main photo introducing
machines
pillow and what is filled with
Papertex and the white cotton
Outsourcing
Sling tags
Work with an artist
Our lose system of their process
Sister company
Final image of us there - wrapping up thoughts - changing to hospitality as that seems to be where the most hidden value lies
Reflection of Tour
This tour was eye-opening for us. We were going in thinking only about fashion, and came out with a decision to pursue hospitality. Kae spoke to us about the difficulties with her hospitality clients. Unlike fashion clients, the hospitality industry has a hard time seeing what they can do with the fibers. We also think there is something so intimate about the hospitality industry, as many people will use the same sheets and towels on repeat (after washing). There is a deeper hidden value that we want to uncover.
Potential Next Steps
We are planning to do a continuation of our clothing swap. We want to go past boundaries and see what a potential towel swap might feel like, depending on comfort level, but if people don't feel comfortable, explore why. Also explore the idea of Modesty, protection, covering, and cleanliness.
References
Gozene, Y. and Metlioglu, H. (2024) Zero waste approach in sustainable fashion design: Designer perspective for pre-consumer waste management
Bennett, J. (2010) Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC:Duke University Press.
