fashionABLE
Fashion is a fuzzy word. It encompasses a vast repertoire of things both tangible and intangible. Although the first thing that comes to our minds is clothes and accessories, fashion shares a deep-rooted relation to culture. Therefore, when we came up with this idea to work on a project that let us explore and understand fashion and try to look for exciting interventions, we seemed to be swimming in a vast sea of unknowns and uncertainty. We discovered that there were pre-existing laws which related fashion as a function of social status and also maps the degrees of fashion to time. For example, a dress worn 20 years before its time is deemed as indecent, while a dress worn say 40 years after its inception is called elegant. So on and so forth.
We also embarked on a more direct study and observation taking into account individuals (mostly our peers at college) and fashion outlets (Pantaloons and Westside) to gain valuable insights on nomenclature,trends, aspirations and the factors which influence fashion decisions in people. We studied wardrobes to see how people manage their clothes and how they go about the whole process of dressing up for particular occasions. We conducted interviews to find out what people aspired for in terms of dressing and how they balanced comfort and style. Most of our study yielded subjective data.
On a more conceptual ground, we came to the conclusion that a lot of times, the monotony that sets into one’s fashion is caused by the lack of opportunities to explore and experiment with combinations of different clothing items. There is some kind of hesitation in actually wearing a certain pair of clothes which are bold or uncommon. So we decided to work on “how to let people get fashion inspirations, to talk and share fashion, and also to explore and experiment with the fashion items”. we built concepts around these tenets. Some of them were mobile applications or social network games/apps which helped people compare their sense-of-fashion with one another and also get wiser from people having a better sense. It also proposed the creation of fashion avatars that would reflect in real time the apparel worn by an user and help him see what his friends in geographically distant locations were wearing for certain occasions and eventually get inspiration for newer and fresher looks.
We also worked on a concept keeping in mind fashion retail- this being the purchase point for clothes also offerred good potential for people to explore and experiment with several looks ranging from standard to wacky. The idea was to keep the intervention simple and unobtrusive and also trigger the curiosity of the buyer. To further refine and validate this idea, we conducted a participatory design activity with a number of male and female users. We gave them several cut-outs of clothing items and told them to dress up for certain occasions like ” going on a date” or “going for a picnic” etc.. This made us appreciate the fact that fashion tastes though very generic and associative at times also have subtle personal touches. This gives us our individuality and probably helps us in our quest to “stand out”.
The standard looks that emerged from this activity and also from our observation of the world around- the campus and the streets can be divided into three simple parts- the hairdo, the upper body clothing(shirts, tees, jackets etc) and the lower body clothing(trousers, jeans etc + shoes). And finally the object that we designed was a tangible five sided prism divided into three parts which rotate freely about a central axis and help us in visualizing all the 5x5x5=125 looks. As an extension, we implemented the same idea on three concentric circles made of card paper with the figures printed radially.This was a more portable version that could be used as take-aways in shops and be easily customized and reprinted every season.
It would be great to place these artifacts in the retail environment and see whether they actually influence buying decisions. If not that, then certainly it would be worthwhile watching people interact with these devices and noting the behavioral traits that come across. Also this could be a tool to collect a great deal of quantitative experimental data for sales & marketing related research or trend analysis where people do not actually have to buy clothes to participate. And yes, this would definitely form a good pastime for bored husbands or sons when their wives or moms are busy in the ladies section. Cheers 
P.S : This project was done in conjunction with Aditya Bandi and Harshal Verma
