Koh Min, Li Jiaxin, Stephanie Toh Kay Wai, Sukrit Jaiswal, Wilkin Giam Jing Han
Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari
The textile industry is one of the top three contributors to carbon emissions in the world, with Fast Fashion being one of the major factors. The trend for sustainable fashion solutions such as rental fashion has slowly been on the rise (Hooker, 2018). However, a previous GEQ project identified that the root cause for the failure of such sharing models was ‘the disparity between awareness and actions’ attributed to a lack of financial incentive (GEQ G11, 2016). Our project aims to measure the level of awareness among university students about the impact of fast fashion and investigate their receptivity towards rental fashion as a potential solution, when coupled with an inbuilt financial incentive.
We conducted a survey among NUS students (excluding RVRC), to assess their awareness of the environmental impact of fashion, and found that most respondants significantly underestimate the environmental impacts of fast fashion. We then volunteered at the EcoBank Bazaar national event to conduct a focus group analysis and identified key factors that impact receptivity towards sustainable fashion solutions such as clothes swapping and rental. Lastly, we interviewed leading sustainable fashion companies in Singapore such as The Fashion Pulpit and ClosetShare, who shared insights on the business challenges in the nascent rental fashion industry. Using the key indicators of our research, we piloted a formal clothes rental solution at RVRC. Our pilot test findings are concurrent with our research – that in addition to sustainability awareness, financial incentive is a key determinant of success for such fashion solutions.
Keywords: Responsible Consumption, Waste, Fashion