Sustainable practices and transformable fashion design – Chinese professional and consumer perspectives

Many consumers are contented with the fast fashion styles, abundant choices, and affordable price. However, other consumers and environmental advocates began to question about this fast fashion system, including the problems of overconsumption and disposable clothing. As a result, many fashion practitioners and scholars have been developing different strategies and methods to minimise the fabric waste, and prolong the product lifespan through innovative design. The objectives of this study are twofold: (1) to explore various techniques for creating transformable clothing and (2) to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals (entrepreneurs, designers, professors, and consumers) respond to their perceptions of transformable clothing, and issues of sustainability in China. This study consists of three stages – design experiments, in-depth interviews, and online surveys. In stage one, various design prototypes were developed, with one of them being selected as the visual stimuli for stages two and three. According to our results, many informants and online participants supported the concept of sustainable fashion as well as the idea of transformable garments. However, many professionals had numerous concerns regarding the production cost, practicality, adaptability, and saleability.