Who uses virtual wardrobes? Investigating the role of consumer traits in the intention to adopt virtual wardrobes

Over-consumption by consumers is a significant challenge to sustainability. Technology, such as that of virtual wardrobes, can suggest options that may reduce excessive consumption. A virtual wardrobe is a service that allows users to create and manage their wardrobes digitally. It also helps users to realize what they have in their wardrobes and can recommend appropriate styles of clothing for the users based on an analysis of the wardrobe. From the perspective of consumer characteristics, this research investigates what motivates consumers to adopt and use virtual wardrobes and proposes marketing strategies for addressing these behaviors. Fishbein’s attitude theory was used as a theoretical framework. By surveying 265 U.S. college students and using structural equation modeling analysis, the study shows that consumers’ socially responsible consumption behavior and personal innovativeness in information technology positively affect their attitude toward virtual wardrobes, which, in turn, increases their intention to use virtual wardrobes. However, their personal shopping value and fashion involvement have no significant impacts on consumers’ attitudes toward virtual wardrobes. The findings indicate that marketers of virtual wardrobes should highlight social responsibility and technological innovation in product and service promotions. By gaining insight into their wardrobes, consumers can be more strategic about clothing consumption, use, and disposal

Creative Collaborative Circular Economics, Exponential System Design for Sustainability in Fashion Design

Associação com Universidade do Minho | Escola de Engenhariaapproaches and contributions from design to sustainability aiming to raise responsiveness and awareness among fashion design students and local communities about the conscious and sustainable production and consumption of fashion product". This thesis fits in the area of design, especially in the applicability of the multidisciplinary way of thinking, creativity, empathy and experimentation that is part of the design thinking methodology with the consumer as the starting point and centre of attention, and its interrelations with social innovation, environmental sustainability, fashion design considering the entire life cycle of products, services and systems. Undergraduate and Master of Fashion Design students at the University of Beira Interior develop collection projects and the (coordinated) clothes are kept in a closed warehouse, only eventually attending some events. Thus, the following opportunities were perceived: (i) Environmental Dimension: Promote a better designation and destination for these clothes; (ii) Collaborative Economy: Reuse through a new P2P business model; (iii) Social innovation: Sensitize and make society aware of new business models, contributing to and increasing the importance of the designer in the way of thinking and seeking creative solutions to social and environmental problems. What could one do with these practically stored clothes without public accessibility? Here are the reasons for a proposal to implement a new business model in Covilhã, Portugal. This thesis proposes the business model “Exponential System Design for Sustainability in Fashion” that can be called Exponential since it is scalable and modular, collaborative and sustainable services in fashion products. It may be replicable in its entirety, or in parts, in other places and contexts, adopting modularity as an adaptive resource. Initially identifies whether the perceived barriers to traditional Portuguese consumer behavior. But, for the new generation is a matter of awareness, as Portugal is also receiving influences from other cultures. Accelerating sustainable development requires a paradigm shift in terms of the production process in order to migrate from a linear to a circular economy. This comprises changing habits, mindsets and methods rooted in society. So far in terms of territorial innovation, there is no knowledge of business models that replace access property with the stated characteristics.objetivo geral da tese consiste em “sistematizar um modelo integrador com abordagens e contribuições do design para a sustentabilidade visando promover a sensibilização e conscientização dos estudantes de design de moda e das comunidades locais, sobre a produção e o consumo consciente e sustentável do produto de moda”. Esta tese insere-se na área do design, especialmente na aplicabilidade do modo de pensar multidisciplinar, criatividade, empatia e experimentação que faz parte da metodologia design thinking tendo o consumidor como ponto de partida e centro de atenção, e nas suas inter-relações com a inovação social, sustentabilidade ambiental, design de moda considerando todo o ciclo de vida de produtos, serviços e sistemas. Os alunos da licenciatura e do mestrado em Design de Moda na Universidade da Beira Interior desenvolvem projetos de coleção e as roupas (coordenados) ficam guardadas num armazém fechado, vindo só eventualmente a participarem em alguns eventos. Assim, percebeu-se as seguintes oportunidades: (i) Dimensão Ambiental: Promover uma melhor designação e destinação para essas roupas; (ii) Economia colaborativa: Reutilização através de novo modelo de negócio P2P; (iii) Inovação social: Sensibilizar e conscientizar a sociedade para novos modelos de negócio vindo a contribuir e ampliar a importância do designer no modo de pensar e de buscar soluções criativa para os problemas socioambiental. O que se poderia fazer com estas roupas praticamente armazenadas sem a apreciação do público? Eis aí as razões para uma proposta de implantação de um novo modelo de negócio em Covilhã, Portugal. Esta tese propõe o modelo de negócio “Design de Sistema Exponencial para a Sustentabilidade na Moda” chamamos de Exponencial por ser escalável e modular, com prestação de serviços eco-eficientes, colaborativos e sustentáveis em produtos de moda. Ele poderá ser replicável na sua totalidade, ou por partes, em outros lugares e contextos, adotando-se, para isso, a modularidade como recurso adaptativo. Inicialmente identifica se as barreiras percebidas ao comportamento do consumidor português tradicional. Porém na nova geração é uma questão de conscientização, Portugal também está a receber influências de outras culturas. Acelerar o desenvolvimento sustentável requer uma mudança do paradigma em termos do processo produtivo, a fim de migrar de uma economia linear para uma economia circular. Trata-se de mudar hábitos, mentalidades e métodos enraizados na sociedade. Até o momento em termos de inovação territorial não há conhecimento de modelos de negócios que substituam a propriedade de acesso com estas características

Design Dynamics. Navigating the new Complex Landscape of Omnichannel Fashion Retail

The fashion industry is entering the dynamic global competitive market, promoting various actions prioritising design, creativity, sustainability, and technological advancement as pivotal factors. At the same time, it is reimagining its business models to adapt to the changing landscape. The rise of pervasive connectivity, intuitive interfaces and innovative interaction channels has triggered a revolution in fashion retail, reshaping customer behaviour and expectations. The traditional retail framework has evolved into a fully interconnected omnichannel system. This transformation is characterised by the proliferation of physical and virtual channels and touch points and by the adoption of a more flexible and integrated approach. In this dynamic context, design plays a central role, possessing the ability to impart meaning to the production and distribution system. Design-led innovation represents an incremental form of innovation that injects a nuanced range of meaning into the marketplace, extending beyond tangible objects, including discourses, expressions, narratives, visual images, symbols, metaphors, and spaces. The book analyses the multifaceted nature of the fashion retail experience through the lens of the design discipline, aiming to contextualise the evolution of retail within increasingly complex processes, networks and interconnections, both theoretically and practically. The focus is on retail design, delving into the new skills required and the valuable tools needed to apply them in inherently multidisciplinary contexts. Ultimately, the aim is to navigate the intricate terrain of retail evolution and shed light on the evolving role of design in this multifaceted sector

A Coat of Many Colors

A Coat of Many Colors investigates Israel’s first seven years as a sovereign state through the unusual prism of dress. Clothes worn by Israelis in the 1950s reflected political ideologies, economic conditions, military priorities, social distinctions, and cultural preferences, and all played a part in consolidating a new national identity. Based on a wide range of textual and visual historical documents, the book covers both what Israelis wore in various circumstances and what they said and wrote about clothing and fashion. Written in a clear and accessible style that will appeal to the general reader as well as to students and scholars, A Coat of Many Colors introduces the reader both to Israel’s history during its formative years and to the rich field of dress culture

Class in seventeenth-century British drama by women

This dissertation argues that seventeenth-century drama by women should be analyzed as a public discursive practice rather than as privatized closet drama. This study focuses on class in order to delineate the texts\u27 participation in public modes of representation and offers post-marxist readings as an alternative to the gynocritical/biographical model that dominates criticism on literature by women of the early modern period. Chapter one of this dissertation problematizes separate spheres ideology, lest texts by women become separated from the economic sites that inform them. I consider the ideological importance of generic conventions, arguing that conventions of tragedy and comedy are often naturalized into signifiers of female characters\u27 resistance to patriarchal socio-economic conscription. I link the ideas of homology and symbolic capital, both of which serve as a means of articulating the function of class in a study of women\u27s texts. Part one of the dissertation, Class Difference, considers two dramatic texts by aristocratic women: Mary Wroth\u27s Loves Victory in chapter two and Margaret Cavendish\u27s The Lady Contemplation in chapter three. Both texts strategically pit against each other two characters at opposite ends of the social spectrum. This mode of creating privilege---excluding a lower-class other---in turn constitutes a classed position for the author-functions of the texts. Part two, Class Consciousness, considers the flip-side. of the notion of difference by focusing on which classed concerns might produce certain representational choices. Chapter four, which treats Elizabeth Cary\u27s Tragedie of Mariam, considers the material bases of the text\u27s ideological investment in its title character\u27s status as symbolic capital by stressing the discursive saliency in the text of the connections among chastity, class, speech, and publicity. Chapter five extends this mode of reading for class by analyzing four restoration comedies---Fances Boothby\u27s Marcelia , and Aphra Behn\u27s The Rover, Parts I and II and The feign\u27d Curtizans,---each of which notes the role of money in determining a gendered class identity. The availability of both women and money reified as the same circulating object guarantees the (inferior) economic place of the woman within a male economy

Mundane Fashion: Women, Clothes and Emotional Durability

This research investigates emotional durability of clothing through the lens of a designer-maker practice. The current discourse on fashion futures urgently recognizes that a deeper understanding of the behavioural drivers behind long-term use of clothing is critical in order to move beyond symptom-based solutions to fashion and sustainability such as closed loop recycling and technological innovation. A considerable body of work exists on design strategies for emotional durability. However, empirical evidence that examines their relationship to users’ everyday experiences with clothing is missing. I set to remedy this gap through my own designer-maker practice that investigated women’s routine relationships with the clothes in their wardrobes. Focusing specifically on what matters in everyday use, I examine the possible applications of emotionally durable design in fashion design and making. This approach challenges the imperative of disposability in fashion and foregrounds instead a long-term value-creation enabled through the continuous use of familiar clothes. The thesis structure has three interrelated elements that outline the linear narrative of the research as well as the conceptual and methodological developments. The first part of the thesis outlines the global challenges in fashion production and consumption. The second part introduces and applies ethnographic methods to understanding the sensory wardrobe, and the third concluding stage includes the findings and practical application in the One Thing Collection. Conceptually, the thesis moves from comprehending the macro towards a practical application in the micro. The methodology employs a combination of practical explorations through designer-maker practice with in-depth wardrobe conversations. Adopting methods from narrative enquiry and sensory ethnography, ten women aged between 29-69 were interviewed in their homes. Rich imagery of clothes in use and extended excerpts of wardrobe conversations are essential components of the thesis ethos, these became framed as individual portraits of each of the women. It is stressed that these portraits are significant to the research findings presented in the thesis; the portraits are presented in the Appendices as the nature of sensory ethnography results in details of visual and textual data beyond the confines of the thesis. The findings show that designable characteristics of garments such as shape, style, fit, colour, material, details, or easy care are all significant in contributing to a garment’s emotional durability. However, a truly long-lasting relationship with a piece of clothing results from a complex dynamic between its design, the mode of its acquisition, expectations, fluctuation of personal circumstances, and each woman’s perspective on the relationship between continuity and change. The key insights are articulated through the four themes identified in thematic cross-case analysis of the wardrobe conversations: (1) Enablers, (2) Sensory experiences, (3) Longing and Belonging, and lastly (4) Layering. Each theme is also interpreted through the process of making a corresponding everyday garment that captures the essence of the women’s narratives. This research contributes to the current discourse on emotional durability in fashion design and making and provides new contextual data on user experience of clothing; [See Chapter 7.3 Contribution to knowledge summarized, p. 300]. The research demonstrates that fashion design for emotional durability requires an empathic approach that readily embraces the complexity of everyday life as an opportunity, rather than a hindrance to creative expression. These conclusions are also now embodied in my studio practice with future development of the One Thing Collection that resulted from this thesis

Fantasy Crime: The Role of Criminal Law in Virtual Worlds

This Article analyzes activity in virtual worlds that would constitute crime if they were committed in the real world. It reviews the evolution of virtual worlds like Second Life and notes research which indicates that more and more of our lives will move into this realm. The Article then analyzes the criminalization of virtual conduct that inflicts harm in the real world and virtual conduct that only inflicts harm in the virtual world. It explains that the first category qualifies as cybercrime and can be prosecuted under existing law. Finally, it analyzes the necessity and propriety of criminalizing the second category of conduct, both now and in the future