By Natalia Yáñez Guzmán , Director of Fashion Design and Management at UDD.
Industrial Designer. Master's degree in Marketing Management and Strategic Planning.
Specialist in “Fashion Textiles Design” and “Interactive teaching for deep learning”.
At 35, I remember what my mother told me in the early 2000s after I proudly and delightedly showed her my first pair of Melissa shoes: "How can you spend so much money on plastic shoes instead of choosing leather shoes for the same price?" This comment has become so deeply ingrained in my memory that, ever since, every time I begin a purchasing process, I ask myself, "Why do I prefer this product over that one?" The answer is always complex, depending on several variables. However, I absolutely believe that materiality plays a fundamental role in them.
In the mid-20th century, consumer purchasing decisions were driven by easily imitable attributes (the capacity of a washing machine, the quality of a jacket's leather, the spin speed, etc.). A clear example of this is the rise of industrial espionage, aimed at replicating technological advances developed by competitors in one's own factories, as quickly and cheaply as possible.
With the passage of time and changes in sociocultural paradigms, such as the emergence of stricter labor regulations and the socialization of the environmental implications generated by climate change and human action, there was also a shift in the purchasing motivations of a new consumer profile, one that is more critical and reflective regarding what they buy, its origin, what it is made of, how it is produced, and who manufactures it. Based on these new market demands, the industry had to adapt quickly in order to satisfy its target audience with complexly imitable attributes, "emotional attributes," and thus establish a permanent connection.
I use the concept of "emotional attributes" because they constitute the fundamental reasons that urge consumers to prefer one brand or product over any other, thus establishing truly competitive advantages that are sustainable over time and building loyalty in a very different way than they had before with their customers, such as, for example, the way my mother could have maintained with any brand of footwear, just because it was made of leather.
The emotional attributes that motivated the purchase of my first Melissa were driven by the thoughtful production process, the materials used, and, finally, its environmental friendliness. They considered mass production made of injected plastic in a single piece. Manufacturing that until then was an innovation, since the "Chinese plastic shoe" was perceived as a very poor quality product and worthy of a terrible reputation. Even though it was made of the same material, it was assembled using the traditional footwear process, making it practically disposable. It also maintained its conventional morphology and design, which caused ventilation problems and resulted in physical discomfort. Its shape was highly attractive and only possible thanks to its manufacturing process. They had a distinctive raspberry scent, which still emanates from my closet after more than 15 years of use (a much longer lifespan than any other type of footwear from the past), an attribute that is only due to their materiality, a polymer that does not lose its shine over time, nor its mechanical efficiency, in addition to being able to be recycled, since it is made of 100% monomaterial.
I draw on this personal anecdote simply to highlight the importance of questioning and reflecting on our purchasing decisions. This is intended to give an opportunity to new initiatives and material innovations that contemporary industry offers us today. There are a variety of sustainable materials and manufacturing processes that are worthy of analysis and use.
An example is Blood bio leather , a bio-leather made entirely from slaughterhouse waste and low-value by-products that maintains the same characteristics and technical specifications as animal leather, but takes advantage of the entire value chain. Another sustainable leather substitute is Orange fiber , biotextile made from citrus juice byproducts. The technological innovation behind its process has been patented since 2014 and is present in the world's leading citrus juice producers.
A sustainable product process that puts an end to the devastating traditional leather tanning process, which leads to the loss of more than 400 billion liters of water per year, is what Ecco Leather offers, who built patented tanning agents that are capable of preserving the natural collagens of the leather, without the use of the usual volume of water, achieving an efficiency of 20 liters of water per hide, equivalent to 25 million liters saved per year, in addition to avoiding the generation of 600 tons of sludge with heavy metals that go to the landfill, contaminating the underground waters or directly to the ocean.
There are also sustainable technological advances in inputs and supplies for the fashion industry. To name just one, the London-based agency Future Fibers ' innovative case is that they created a pigment extract from bacteria, which became the first DNA-tagged specimen in the pigment collection at the Harvard Art Museum's Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies in the United States.
These are just a few of the many examples we can find in today's fashion industry. I invite you to discover them!
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The project questions our relationship with nature. It is made only from biodegradable materials and has been subjected to a light cycle that causes it to constantly change. Nothing is what it seems, nothing is permanent, starting with us humans.
Work team: Liliana Ojeda, Clarisa Menteguiaga, Paulina Villalobos.