Wanted: digital-community-builder
other creators also welcome
Let's build a community on an open source fashion brand!
Digital infrastructure is vital to connect consumers, makers, designers, facilitators... of wonderfashion* and to keep them engaged with each other and the brand. Wonderfashion is an open source fashion brand that aims to outmarket fast fashion by being about as fast and cheap but much more fun, oh and ecofriendly, of course.
Surely, all sorts of technologies like RSS and bridges between platforms can help to grow and strengthen engagement. The question is how those technologies are best combined to let a wonderfashion community thrive. Keeping the effort it takes members to stay up-to-date about and participate in all wonderfashion communication as minimal as possible is of course essential.
Are you someone who knows the answer to the question, then please share it with me. If you can also list all the costs that come with building this platform, we can try to get you a job paid for by some fund.
(Sharing=caring)
*
We can stop producing textiles from scratch and stay dressed for generations to come with the textiles we have. Even clothes with irreversible holes or stains can have value in parts. Wearing clothes made out of parts of used pieces is showing support for a movement aiming to make fast fashion obsolete. The uniqueness of each piece makes that fashion statement extra fun.
The movement can start with a few easy-to-recognise methods of giving new life to textiles:
- Wonderpatches are perfect to sew over spots that have worn thin. Because they are layered, the tear of the wear makes them fun; only once you’ve worn your restored piece long enough will you find out which patterns were waiting to be seen. The patches can be made of a variety of leftovers, by everyone with basically functioning hands 😊
- Combinations of big chunks like sleeves, collars, halves, with other big chunks like other halves, pants, bodies…
- A skirt-for-life starts with a pair of trousers, most likely men’s jeans or workwear. Skirts-for-life truly are wonderskirts. They can start in different lengths and change length over time. They are kept in a shape well enough to do what they are supposed to do by adding thread and fabric at hand, where and when necessary, allowing them to grow old with their owners. Also, they go well with just about all tops and shoes.
Places where people can bring out-of-use clothes for others to find are already plentiful, just in my hometown to begin with. They are mostly run by passionate volunteers who are happy to help a good cause. Some of them already have workshops on reusing out-of-use textiles. All of them becoming one big movement will have a synergetic effect on their influence. All that takes is some clear communication. Luckily, fashion is a worldwide language 😉
An important part of being as eco-friendly as possible is keeping the supply chain as local as possible. The (global) community aims to provide a spot within walking distance for everyone to partake in its activities, be it by donating clothes, transforming the harvest, or wearing the results.
Lovers of eco-friendly and social fashion can create numerous ways to engage with each other and people who are yet to be seduced into the world of wonderfashion. A fashion show with a silent auction interlaced with a lecture about current types of slavery in the fashion industry and stories about favourite pieces of wonderfashion is one of the endless possibilities.
We would be amiss if workshops in which methods as previously mentioned did not occur within our community 😉
Events can be big or small. A quarterly moment for sewing wonderpatches over worn-out spots of favourite outfits of customers while they socialise counts as an event 😊
Wonderfashion is a set of socially responsible ideas to put into practice. Therefore, it can be adopted by all sorts of institutes and used for all sorts of goals in the realms of education, work, or fun, to name but a few. Different talents and skills are needed to collect textiles, create items, design features, organise events, and all other activities in support of wonderfashion or its community, and are welcomed on every level. The community encourages cooperation between all practitioners of the wonderfashion ideology.
Previously mentioned methods are explained in detail, and their results are shown with lots of pictures, making clear which features constitute the wonderfashion brand. That brand doesn’t use things like labels. Everyone is free to create the features by which the brand can be recognised. That’s the magic of wonderfashion 😉
Wonderfashion is about reusing textiles as locally as possible. At the heart of its community are the places where discarded textiles are collected. A basic website that shows hardly more than an address and opening hours for donating and finding items is enough for a link on the community’s website. Of course, a wide variety of activities is encouraged.
Everyone with a sewing machine who’s willing to create wonderfashion on assignment and other facilitators of wonderfashion should also be on the website’s map. This application allows wonderfashion to be fast and cheap, making it easy to find the nearest wonderfashion commodities, designers, and sewists.
Though items of wonderfashion should be sold locally as much as possible, a broader audience can help find owners for all the unique pieces. Shipment of items is discouraged but sometimes necessary. Then, the customer pays an extra fee to offset environmental damage.
Proceeds of the sales are invested in the community, the upkeep of the website first.
Each listed website can contain its own webshop.
A growing number of people get by on a combination of a growing number of jobs. This global trend is likely to continue or accelerate as a result of technological developments. Wonderfashion can partially meet the need for easily available freelance jobs. Anybody can offer sewists’ services at any time. Because most people live within walking distance of someone with a sewing machine, wonderfashion can be at least as fast as fast fashion. Because pieces of wonderfashion are unique, machines can’t learn to make them. Therefore, wonderfashion is a sustainable choice for anyone who wants to support the local economy.
The more wonderfashion grows, the more employment it provides. Especially places with a reliable supply of discarded clothes can run reliable employment schemes when wonderfashion is the norm. The range of jobs can vary from the easy type that helps people with disabilities in the job market to the highly skilled type found in a designer’s studio.
Eventually, local wonderfashion industries should stay as big as the local demand for fashion.
Wearing wonderfashion is a statement. It is a way of saying ‘I want to contribute to more partnership in our society and prevent harm to our environment.’ Let this statement be the opening to teach each other how to do that.
Wonderfashion offers opportunities to connect with people at every step along its production line. The more people combine their discarded clothes, the more fun wonderfashion can be. Also, knowing who made a piece adds value to it.
