Activity
:
Project Brief
A Garment’s Life Cycle: Impact of a garment along its life cycle
Created by
Edward
,
2025
Objective
To understand what it means to close the loop and divert waste from landfill
A note to educators
You can choose any projects to help ensure a deeper understanding of the A Garment’s Life Cycle topic with students. We are thrilled to include a project contributed by Dr. Alice Payne and Ms. Lauren Solomon, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, who is part of our global network of educators and experts championing the move towards sustainable fashion. The inclusion of their important work further supports our learning platform and encourages the sharing of best practices across the world. We hope you will draw inspiration from their contribution to your teaching! For each project brief, you are provided with guidelines which include the brief itself, the goal of the project and the deliverables. The layout of the brief is in a ready-to-print format, which you may choose to print directly and share with your students. Or, you may prefer to adapt the content – changing the length and adjusting the deliverables of the project to fit into your own syllabus. You can also add assessment criteria depending on your course requirements.
We advise that you ask students to do a presentation at the end of the project to allow them to reflect and review on their learnings and share with one another.
Discipline
All fashion related courses
What to prepare
Time
2-3 weeks
Tools
- A4 printout of the life cycle image (see Exercise Sheet #T1LC-09)
- Pens
- Paper
Activity brief
Part 1
- Working in groups of three, analyse the pair of jeans (see slideshow #T1LC-11). Discuss how you would extend the life of a discarded pair of jeans, thereby closing the loop. What are the steps necessary to enable a garment to be recycled? How might you be able to prevent it from ending up in a landfill?
- Questions to ask yourselves:
- How could these jeans be disassembled?
- How could the denim be reused?
- What are the options for reusing all the trims?
- What needs to be considered at the design stage to enable a closed loop?
Part 2
- Choose a jeans company of your choice and research their products, customers, brand concept etc.
- No matter which brand you have chosen, imagine that the company has an in-store garment-collecting scheme. Develop a closed loop system for the brand using the jeans collected though this scheme. You can either create a collection for the brand, or propose a business plan.
Image credit: Redress
Outcome
Part 1
A short essay answering the questions on the previous page
Part 2
Develop either:
a. A design project
- A sketchbook should include:
- Your research on the brand’s textile waste
- Development of your own modern design including concept development, your illustration and production drawing
- A mood board of your design concept
- A board with the line-up of your design
- A sketchbook should include:
OR
b. A business plan of 1,500 words
Outcome
Part 1
A short essay answering the questions on the previous page
Part 2
Develop either:
a. A design project
- A sketchbook should include:
- Your research on the brand’s textile waste
- Development of your own modern design including concept development, your illustration and production drawing
- A mood board of your design concept
- A board with the line-up of your design
- A sketchbook should include:
OR
b. A business plan of 1,500 words