(1) Introduction

Over the past few decades there has been a rise in global economics and, it can be stated that in many parts of the world globalisation has worked to raise the socio economic status of millions of people, and met new needs. But at the end of the day, unfettered globalisation has resulted in a global kleptocracy where in some situations the world is being exploited and taken advantage of with too many people still without their basic human needs being met and the upward mobility of many more hampered by the structural inequities of the system. Fashion is affected by this ever-changing world, thriving on change, but one thing that has not changed is its inequitable and damaging methods as well as its reliance on the global economy to perpetuate the methodologies that continue to harm groups as well as the environment. The ability to connect in this world has become increasingly more accessible, providing an opportunity to create value within the fashion system—the value in recognizing and caring for one another—an alternative to the capitalist economy model driven by the self interest to accumulate as much capital as possible. In this paper I will argue how in transforming a self-centred, capitalist mindset, society can create authentic collaboration in the landscape of design to build connectivity through a sharing and caring model within the fashion industry. Throughout the entire cycle from designer to weaver to wearer, authentic collaboration is how collectively, we can cause a global system to change for the better.

(2) Rethinking Our Globalized world: Appreciating Global into Local

Co-design and participatory design processes have the power to promote relational, social, political, and ethical values shared on a globalist platform, preventing the exploitation of people, societies, communities, and resources. The fashion industry has the potential of authentic collaborations and connective values to reassert the centrality of shared values and capacities, rather than just meeting individual needs or addressing problems solely out of self interest. Co-design can encourage collective co-operations by adopting digital connectivity and creating alternatives to the capitalist model. This includes relooking at global economic systems in order to foster growth, connectivity, selflessness, and authenticity. The disconnect of the industry to its buyers, sellers, and producers is evident in the exploitation of resources, the lack of welfare towards the people involved, and the unnecessary practices of an abundance of meaningless products. The lack of value within the industry is due to the lack of authenticity in how the buyer values their item, proven in the unawareness of the process, time, and the humans who produce it. All connective ties to clothing is lost when the buyer does not value the people making it. Furthermore, one must explore how the fashion industry can minimize its exploitative nature and create more interactions within communities that are affected by the repercussions of the industry. Through common work, design with social cooperation, participatory design, and relational consumption, the fashion industry has the potential to create value beyond economic gain.

(3) Methodology

Social cooperation and connective thinking is important to recognize in order to foster interaction and exchange among individuals and communities. This connection is imperative to have within the industry and it is necessary to sustain interaction both in the research and design practices of every industry. For example, using tools and techniques for participatory design opens participants to one another.  In these times, the networking tools we have available to us in order to sustain interaction among individuals and communities is mainly through digital platforms. All interviews for this paper were conducted online, opening conversations of where participants see connectivity in fashion and of how authentic collaboration is necessary. This is an ongoing research project that will continue into activities like furthering conversations, workshops and focus groups, and participatory design sessions to understand how codesign and education of the involvement of people can take a global effect. Participants will engage indirectly with qualitative materials and design artifacts. In this paper the data describes the results of an analysis based on the importance of connective values. Through this collaborative research, many different perspectives and cultures will be coming together.  Seven interviews were conducted with multiple age groups, genders, as well as international and local participants. The conversations were conducted individually for twenty minutes, over virtual platforms. Also, a survey was conducted with 30 participants where questions were asked that compelled participants to think about their personal wardrobes and habits, specifically having them reflect on what it means to them to have a one of a kind garment. (see figure one for a portion of the responses) These questions alluded to how we can create codesign within this system, and through the responses I gained insights of how through our global society we can create programs of connectivity to transform and create authentic collaborations between the designer and the consumer, the citizens and the supply chain. The following are samples of some of the responses regarding a unique garment that the survey participants owned.

Figure 1. Survey Question: Have you ever bought a one of a kind piece? If yes what emotions do you get from it? If you don't have one how would you feel to have a piece made just for you?

(4) User as Co-Designer

Design with social cooperation involves indirect engagement  with global citizens In the design phase.  By combining conceptual, empirical and technical processes one can incorporate human value within the design process. Participatory design is the process which can connect people directly to the design process giving them the opportunity to assist in the process (Robertson and Simonsen 2013). Direct involvement allows the roles of  designers and consumers to interchange. Consumers become participants or co-designers. When providing them with a deeper involvement than the normal consumer it gives them the ability to “embrace fashion as a mode of human togetherness” (Gatzen,2020,pg.1), to rethink their social responsibility and give them a voice through fashion. It facilitates a connection with their designs and collaborative projects that uses clothing as their medium. Also, this opens others to respect and become aware of other situations that involve design. This design process involves alternatives to rethink why fashion is the way it is and drives one to rethink the social responsibility and increases the potential of authentic connectivity can have within the industry.  This approach gives democratic perspectives to global citizens, which wouldn't have an opportunity to do so and allows them to have a say on what they will wear or use. In so doing, they will have a personal emotion connection with purchasing the garment and change the perspectives they have on clothes. When looking at the data collected from the surveys conducted it is evident that when collective ‘identity value’ (Marchetti 2020) is a part of the design process the people become more attached and have a deeper tie to that garment.

(4.1) Participatory and Value Sensitive Design as Advocates

Introducing value sensitive design will help decrease the amount of garments being consumed as well as becoming a process to work within our communities, industrial players and public-sector institutions. Participatory design advocates for communities and the future of creating. Helsinki Library Services were committed to having participatory planning as part of their new community project that needed trend and solution information (Hyysalo, S et al, 2014). They had lead user workshops and “Participatory design projects suggest that an evolving real-life prototype and ongoing interactions between designers and users are particularly beneficial arrangements” (Hyysalo, S et al, 2014, p.210) they created a hands-on approach to continue the engagement and connections between the maker participants and the library planners (Hyysalo, S et al, 2014). This project and the data collected from participatory planning examines how activities conducted in their own communities and spaces create opportunities of varying degrees and decision making power given to citizens.(Hyysalo, S et al, 2014). Their participatory design workshop which “facilitated for families, spaces for Multicultural exchange and makerspaces” (Hyysalo, S et al, 2014, pg213) Participatory design proves how this form of making is influential when international networks come together, find value in their skills and are given the opportunity to share their perspectives and furthermore empower one another.

(4.2) Participatory Design as the New Future

Participatory design has the ability “ to arrest the escalating problems of the man-made world” (Cross,1972,p.11) As the design process becomes a collaboration that is thoughtful and promotes value-sensitive design approaches as it explores the ways in which “both science and spirituality reconfigure our most basic way of understanding of human consciousness and how to live harmoniously in a healthy and sustainable ecosphere”(Sanders and Stappers, 2008, p.9). This harmony espouses the belief of everyone as creatives and the expert mindset, that is apparent in today’s fashion industry is relegated to a lesser role. The existing power structures built on hierarchy and control within the fashion industry are no longer existent with co-designing because the design opportunity is given to citizens. This process will take time to develop within this society but it can be introduced as a consumerist and creative balance. Only recently, with the increase in a sustainable mindset and a technology-driven world, we have seen the investments other retailers and brands have put into co-creation. Through co-design and participatory design there is promise to build future sustainable experiences within communities and people.

(5) Systemic Change by Reinventing Relational Values

It is forgotten that humans' hands are the ones who create our clothes. The production of garments is often a process of the garment cycle that is most forgotten about, as the many exploitive issues in fashion, get pushed under the rug. Digital media has emphasized the secrets of the industry and creates a space where one can demand for authenticity. It transforms the dirty production practices into equitable and responsible practices. Social media platforms have helped in this fight for climate change and a number of other forms of activism and a new form of social interaction. These digital platforms created an opportunity to expose the range of social and environmental topics such as animal welfare, biodiversity, chemicals, climate change, forced labour, freedom of association, gender equality, living wage purchasing practices, and more. The Fashion Transparency Index of 2020 has expressed how each year brands are making progress on transparency, but as stated “the majority of brands and retailers lack transparency on social and environmental issues.” (transparency index, 2020,p.5) The different media platforms has enabled anyone to have constructive conversations with some of the world's largest brands and hear the voices of the people who are making our clothes, see figure 2 for case studies. It is so vital that all brands and retailers are held accountable about the human rights and environmental impacts of their business practice, so as global citizens we can be critical and challenge the system that is in place.

Figure 2. Case studies found in the Fashion Revolution Transparency Index 2020

(5.1) Reconnecting the Broken Link

The system now is a disjointed link of suppliers that hold “the hidden and forgotten dwell in the shadow of our clothes” (Fashion Revolution, 2020,p.6). When interviewing and surveying participants, the conclusion was people expect full transparency throughout the entire value chain and at the very least, know who and where their clothes were made. By reconnecting this broken link and communicating with all the different suppliers and factories, we are changing the cycle and system of clothing production. In most cases the factories and suppliers are not owned by brands or retailers which makes it challenging to control and monitor the working and environmental conditions over a vast and fragmented global supply chain. There are so many components to garment construction, sometimes brands and retailers work with hundreds of suppliers and factories at once. It is this chain where authentic collaboration will take its first crucial step (Fashion revolution, 2020) Without the collaboration with suppliers and brands there is no systemic change, and transparency will drive this connectivity because as customers, consumers, wearers, and citizens, it is our role to demand for a structural change within this global industry for better quality in clothing, people to be valued for their skills and hard work. By reconnecting to the supply chains we are engaging with factories and suppliers to communicate the expectation of having value for their employees, rather than their economic value. Some call it a new mode of production called the common (Bassetti et al, 2019) Furthermore, each link within the chain has a stake but is not indecent to capital accumulation. Each one is compensated that is reflective with their cost of living and at the same time they need to have a minimum standard working conditions involving health, safety, well being, vacation time, and maximum hours per week. Through this we are bringing back a new value into the supply chain. Everyone who is a part of the process is as valuable as the other stakeholder.

Figure 3.Patches made for a Fashion Revolution Event that promotes these conversation.

(6) Where New Realms of Relational Consumption Can Evolve into Creative Communities

We consume at an alarming rate and have created platforms at which one can operate them at ease to extract wealth and commodify the common good. The ways in which we consume place human capabilities and activities into commodities. Thus, the hyper globalized technologies become crucial in turning lives and relations into something to be bought and sold. This same tool can change the way we buy and consume, it can become a source of education, and opportunity to connect and incorporate community into a brand. Collaborative consumption is challenging the way we consume today and see the number of “international organizations that have been growing because of the need to take advantage of shared resources or because of the expansion of some new technologies.” (Montoya, 2004) When collaboration and relations come into consumption, it is more than the relationship created with the brand or sales associate for economic gain. It is beyond the need to sell, it is about creating a connection where education, authenticity and humanity develop from your clothing and ultimately strengthen the respect for the garment and brand therefore creating significance through community.

(6.1) How Spaces Promote Value

Due to restrictions of interactions, there was work to be had with user participants in physical spaces, though the digital platforms offered the ability to uncover the important aspects of how individuals consume and what values they consider when they buy their clothes. The social values I collected from my interviews were welfare of people, environmental toll of garment waste, and the effects poverty has on others. These values can be addressed through relational consumption as it forces one to connect with the clothing on a deeper level through event based communication and a circular economy model. For example, relational consumption has the ability to become a cycle of empowerment and continued collaboration, beyond production by providing tools and spaces for users to use to prevent garments from becoming waste. Relational consumption is based on education and a creation of values that connects one to the process and development of critical thinking. Collaborative consumption allows the space, whether online or a physical space, to develop a relation to the stories we tell through our clothes. It is these spaces where the physical connection of wearers, designers, and makers come together with a strong development that allows perspectives, stories, solidarity, recognition of people's self worth, and changes the mindset of me to a mindset of collective values and rethinking of the social responsibility that we have for one another.

(7) Conclusion

Through this paper, the practices of engagement and connectivity show how design with social cooperation, authentic human work, and relational consumption are mechanisms for mutual solidarity. There must be a shift in how we design into human centered, participatory designers, and collectiveness will create dignity of individuals and strengthen communities’ wellbeing and self determination. Authentic communication work is a restructuring of the supply chain to connect with one another for mutual recognition among the entire supply chain. Lastly, relational consumption reflects the desire for people to connect and empower one another in order to nurture their communities and create a connection beyond what is being sold. In adopting this approach we can create a platform of authenticity which embodies values that transform into a global system of sharing and caring.