Clothing production and consumption have significant negative environmental impacts. This thesis explores whether an interdisciplinary method triangulation that combines studies of material and behavioural aspects of clothing consumption can give a better understanding of consumers’ clothing consumption practices, and further, if this knowledge can be used to make environmental improvements in the clothing value chain.
Material aspects of clothing consumption were researched through laboratory tests on laundering and clothing properties, and through a method combination called wardrobe studies. The wardrobe studies included all clothing that went out of use from 16 households during a six months period, combined with specific information on behaviour related aspects for each individual garment and its history of use. Additional behavioural aspects were studied through in-depth interviews and three consumer surveys. The topics included consumers’ environmental attitudes and habits, and experiences and opinions of different clothing consumption stages.
Consumers can make environmentally preferable choices in all clothing consumption stages including acquisition, use, maintenance, and disposal, and especially through prolonging the clothing lifespans and reducing the volumes in circulation. All of these phases can potentially be influenced by the design of products such as clothing, washing machines, dryers, but also larger systems, infrastructures, policies and services around them. This thesis is based on eleven papers that address these different stages of consumption.
The papers give empirical data on clothing consumption practices and suggest improvements at different levels, and indicate that different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used to decrease the environmental impacts, in addition to other measures. However, future studies should research whether the improvements would change actual consumer behaviour, as well as the magnitude of potential environmental savings.
The clothes that went out of use in the wardrobe study had an average total life of 5.4 years, and had been with the current owner for the past four years. The main reasons for clothing disposal were changes in the garments such as wear and tear and pilling, followed by size and fit issues, taste-related unsuitability, situational reasons such as lack of space, functional shortcomings and fashion or style changes. The importance of the various disposal reasons varied between different consumer groups and therefore selecting design strategies for different user groups could be optimised based on this information, in order to achieve higher environmental advantages.
This study found several benefits of combining various methodological approaches for studying the different aspects of clothing consumption. This was particularly important when studying topics where there are potential differences between what people think, say, and do. This interdisciplinary study contributes within several research fields including clothing, textiles, consumption, environmental and design research. It has given a lot less attention to the role of fashion as driver for clothing consumption than most previous research. Therefore, one contribution to clothing and fashion research is a reminder to take the materiality into account as well as looking into what consumers actually do and whether the concrete clothing items reflect these practices. It also shows how concentrating on the less studied consumption phases can give new information about the other phases.
The combination of various qualitative and quantitative methods proved to be suitable for giving rich data that can be used to drive design research forward. Until now there has been little research on design for sustainable behaviour within clothing design. One of the contributions of this study has therefore been in increasing the knowledge about consumer behaviour and related this to clothing design. Consumer and design research have been rather separated fields despite the fact that both research fields focus on many of the same themes. This study has therefore contributed in adapting a more holistic user-centred design perspective to clothing consumption research.
Even though the focus of this thesis is on the potential that consumers and designers have for reducing environmental impacts, it does not mean that only these two groups should be responsible for implementing such improvements. In the work towards a more sustainable society, authorities and different actors in the value chain also have important roles to play. Implications for various stakeholders are presented, and a special focus should be placed on the role of policy makers. For ensuring a more environmentally sustainable future, additional regulatory instruments and economic incentives should be taken in use and enforced, in addition to voluntary incentives such as information provision, which is discussed here as a change in systems design level. Changes must come in the form of better products and better systems. The thesis points to the importance of changing the focus of clothing design and production from increased sales and volume to aiming at an improved use phase.
Thesis is available at: http://www.sifo.no/files/file79873_laitala_phd_83.pdf