(26) Fashion & Research, part 2: Paradigm Shift in Industry

Fashion month on Researchista continues… Our special guest, Hasmik Matevosyan will share with us today her journey to discovering new ways of making fashion and clothing industry work, without harming anyone. Her Research presents…

“From the second year of my fashion education I started researching the fashion chain and the initiatives that aim to improve it, I interviewed several professionals in the fields of sustainability, fashion and innovation and visited conferences abroad. I also looked into industrial design and service design, I did small researches of visual communication, marketing, anthropology, business models, entrepreneurship, clothing psychology, community building and branding.

After putting all the puzzle pieces together I developed a new design system that helps fashion brands to offer clothes that answer the needs and desired of their customers. The design system also helps fashion brands to order not more than what will be required. Next to the design system I also developed a business model that makes it possible to borrow clothes from the shops for a fraction of the price, buy second hand items of a brand with discount and buy new clothes for the normal price. The business model makes high quality clothes affordable to a much bigger group of people while the fashion brands make more profit. A part of the extra profit can then be invested to boost biodiversity and improve living conditions of production workers and another part in providing even better clothes with the upcoming collection.

Testimonials about her Research work, the book “Paradigm in fashion” (based on master thesis): I really enjoyed reading her perspective on how fashion companies can transform their business model by starting at the beginning of the design process – instead of focusing on operations in the supply chain which is more commonly spoken about in sustainable fashion. She advocates more engagement with the brand’s customers and making them part of the design process. With practical tips and a design system on how to go about this, Hasmik provides a refreshing and inspiring approach to changing the fashion industry in her book, and in person when speaking to her about her work and vision.” Mathilde Teuben

In 2014, after 4 years or research, I was invited to give a TEDxTalk about my findings in Maastricht and in the same year, and month, I also published my first book ‘Paradigm Shift in Fashion’. Today I am part of a community of fashion professionals working in the field of sustainability and innovation online through Facebook and LinkedIn groups I have opened and named after my book. I offer consultancy to fashion brand and share findings of my research through webinars online and the video-course ‘Good Fashion Mastery’ that I developed in 2015. It is an on-going research that I am working on and will probably be working on throughout my life”.

There is no doubt in my mind that fashion, designed to meet the needs and desires of the future wearer and which has been intelligently produced for the purpose of easy reuse of materials, meanwhile contributing to the lives of tailors, can in fact be profitable. In her book Hasmik shares with fashion brands and all those involved in fashion today how her vision can be achieved. She offers a design system that helps fashion brands to start a dialogue with their target audience, build a community and design clothes based on the needs and desires of their clients.The design system will help to prevent overproduction and by doing so save financial investments and environmental resources. Not only the consumer benefits from this ‘social fashion’, it would mean major improvements for all the stakeholders involved in the fashion chain. Several case studies in the book offer both practical tips and inspiration to the reader.

Stay fashionable, stay healthy, stay eco-friendly and happy with your choices!

With love for Research,