Post 1

Psychology of the Pink Elephant Monster

         The other day I was rummaging through the pantry at home andI noticed an old bottle of wine. I knew I wouldn’t ever drink it and threw itaway. My mother saw me do this and gave me the whole speech about how I wastethings that are still good. Ignoring her speech, because I heard it before, alight bulb had lit in my head. The situation reminded me of how I had interpreted the two articles we had to read this week.
         First, I realized I was becoming the pink elephant in the wine industry as most people are in the fashion industry. I consume with the “denial of limits” to how it is affecting the world as well as fueling an industry. (Armstrong & LeHew, 2012). This denial came solely on the thought that this item I had purchased was meant for one purpose and one purpose only. I had bought the bottle of wine a few years ago for thanksgiving. After thanksgiving it had lost its special meaning and sat in the back of the pantry for over two years as just another bottle ofwine.

         This can be a good metaphor for the fashion industry. We buy things for specific reasons; such as going to a wedding, thinking that even afterthe wedding we will surely wear them again. So after the wedding we put the item away and never use it again. 

          In my opinion this is mainly due to the turnaround of the fashion industry. We don’t wear things because they aren’t in “style” thisweek. This problem seems more prominent with women than men. I know a handful of women who buy things, wear them once, and then never wear them again. For example, one blonde that will stay nameless, said that one of the reasons she buys clothing and only wears them once is because “it’s not in style anymore.”

          This turnaround was talked about in the article “FashioningSustainability” as one of the reasons why the clothing industry is considered unsustainable. They stated that “the fast fashion turnaround means that clothing has become more disposable.” I believe this is another reason we use clothing items once. We think that because something new has come out we should just forget about what we bought last week and purchase the new thing.

          A possible remedy of this fashion turnaround was mentionedin the article written by Armstrong and LeHew. This concept is called slowdesign. 

“Slow design implies that the design is no longer controlledby time, which eliminates the need for constant updates and production to compete in the marketplace.”

          Slowing down the rate that clothing is presented to the public may reduce the amount people purchase. It may also force people to wear items of clothing more thanonce due to a limited amount of alternatives.
          Another possible remedy would be to follow the ideas of modernists. When they designed products they used the principle, "form follows function." (Thorpe, 2007) They felt that the function is more important than the aesthetics of the products. This could also help slow down the turnaround if the purpose of clothing was more than one dimensional. If that outfit you bought for the wedding was appropriate for other events or even every day use. 

         These may be a temporary answers to making the  fashion industry sustainable but I don’t see them as being long-term solutions. On the poster I had posted on my blog last week, it said some of the factors that Industrial Designers take into account when designing completely sustainable products. As we all know the fashion industry has done great strides in increasing the technology used to create its items. This in turn saves time and energy. But what the fashion industry has not done is improve the user habits. It has instead created pink elephant monsters out of its clients. It has imprinted the importance of buying new things on our mind, and until we get over this disposable world mindset I don’t see the fashion industry ever beingable to be completely sustainable.

Questions

Does the sentimental gain of buying clothing outweigh thewaste your producing?

Is fashion “communism” a good solution for the industry?

Further Reading

          After further research into this subject I found an article explaining a reason why women buy clothes, wear them only once, if at all, but don't throw them out. That reason was because they feel guilty of wasting money. According to the article, "British women waste £1.6 billion on clothes they never wear". (Poulter, 2011) This is just another example of the mindset of people as consumers. I would think that this guilty conscious would make them wear those clothes, but if they also had the mindset of the clothing not being in style, then that may override the guilty conscious.