Wearing The Change, Sustainable Style For The Future

Emma Wallington

My group consists of two majors that are completely different from the other.  Our project idea has evolved through much reflection and teamwork. I’ll admit, In the start, we were lost, we were struggling to find project ideas that would incorporate all our majors, those being psychology and marketing. We came up with several ideas, ranging from a clothing drive, to donating to an organization supporting struggling women, to hosting a fun activity where people dressed up in trendy clothes and took pictures of their outfits; we had so many different ideas that were unique to each other and we spent a lot of time trying to tie all of our good ideas together into one that would make sense. From the beginning we wanted our project to reflect the importance of sustainability and avoiding fast fashion and overconsumption.  After a lot of thought and reflection, we decided to team up with the local thrift store, Ladders, to create a moodboard. 

After considering our options, we settled on the  idea of creating posters and flyers and hanging them up around Ladders and campus. The strategy is for people to scan the QR code on the flyers  and submit pictures of their thrifted clothes and explain how the outfit makes them feel. We will then take these photos and descriptions to create a mood board so we have a visual representation of how being sustainable, environmentally friendly, and making the effort of supporting a small business makes them feel. We hope to influence people to be more cautious of the clothes they are buying, where they are from, and what the impact is on the environment.  

Each group member brings unique skills to this project, our marketing major has experience with promotion, visual marketing, and has much insight on the importance of the struggles of maintaining a business. The psychology majors have a background in understanding a person’s motivations (perhaps why they would want to buy a certain article of clothing), consumer behavior, and community engagement.  We find that our project will perfectly tie all these skills we have together into a very fun and interesting project.

Although we have these abilities, we anticipate there will be some gaps in our knowledge and developing this project. Although our marketing major has experience in digital design, creating both aesthetic and engaging flyers may be difficult because she has never made designs for a project such as this one. Alongside that, managing online submissions in an organizational matter may also be a struggle we will face together. This project pushes us outside our comfort zone by blending creative design with behavioral insight, public engagement, and sustainability messaging; challenging us to merge different disciplines into an efficient, impactful design. 

Our project incorporates all of the habits of mind, those being  purposeful communication, problem solving, integrated perspectives, and self-regulated learning. 

Our project demonstrates purposeful communication because we will exhibit knowledge of text by portraying our message of customer awareness and sustainability within our flyers and our moodboard. We will show comprehension of our statement on our moodboard and while we present our results to others. We will use research and facts on our final product to show our understanding of purposeful expression, and while we present we will continue to be mindful of others’ opinions and insight  they share with us displaying our understanding of effective application of strategies for communication. We will apply the habit of problem solving in our project by thoroughly explaining how big of an issue overconsumption is within society and we will give scenarios of how we can solve these issues one step at a time. We will identify these issues by acknowledging this is a wicked problem all around the world and it would take people worldwide to work together to solve this issue. We will develop multiple plans to solve these issues, offering multiple possible solutions on where to begin working on such a big problem.  We understand that this subject will take a lot of time to resolve, maybe not even in my lifetime. So any change, even if it is a baby steps towards success will be evaluated and celebrated regardless of the final goal. We will represent integrated perspectives by showing understanding of each individual’s circumstances and upbringing. Personally, I grew up quite spoiled, my mother loved buying new clothes for me because it made the both of us happy, but as I grew older I recognized a problem that had to be solved: overconsumption. Now, almost all of my clothes are bought from thrift stores or small businesses; and I feel very happy with my decisions the last couple of years to be much more aware of this. With this being said, I will use my experiences  to show compassion to those who have different opinions or why they may think it is a non-issue. We will use our own opinions and ideas to collaborate with others who might have a different perspective to help one another in our goal to help society. Each group member will demonstrate awareness of self regulated learning on our own accords. Personally, I hope to learn more about the severity and different perspectives on how overconsumption hurts the world globally and I hope to learn more about what I can do to stop it. I am very committed to not just this one project, but the goal that seems almost impossible to resolve, that is taking over the fashion industry.  Recognizing my strengths and weaknesses through the process of performing this project will be very important for success because I am determined to share awareness on this dilemma while recognizing the mistakes I’ve made myself, whether in the past or the present. Breaking down the habits of mind and using that knowledge to incorporate it into this project is very exciting and important for the success of this campaign.

Having touched multiple times on how overconsumption impacts individuals all around the world, I wanted to share a short video that shares how a very big fast-fashion incorporation, Shein, affects the people who live in China. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMxWnJcuvx8

Sources Cited:

EireenZ. “Vector Illustration of Slow Fashion Concept with Earth Planet Globe, Clothes Hanger and Reuse, Reduce, Recycle Symbol Stock Illustration,” Istockphoto.com, 3 Apr. 2021, www.istockphoto.com/vector/vector-illustration-of-slow-fashion-concept-with-earth-planet-globe-clothes-hanger-gm1321460317-407680539. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.

Sabelskaya. “Women Trying on Vintage Clothes from Second Hand Shop, Flat Vector Illustration Isolated on White Background. Cardboard Box with Old Clothes. Concepts of Charity and Donation.,” Shutter Shock.com, 6 Nov. 2022, www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/women-trying-on-vintage-clothes-second-2223215653. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.

loseyourself. “A Cartoon Showing a Group of Coworkers Gossiping about a Struggling Colleague Unaware of Their,” Freepik.com, www.freepik.com/premium-vector/cartoon-showing-group-coworkers-gossiping-about-struggling-colleague-unaware-their_173364673.htm. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.

Kononok, Vladimir. “Symbol of Teamwork, Cooperation, Partnership. Stock Illustration,” Istockphoto.com, 30 Apr. 2020, www.istockphoto.com/vector/symbol-of-teamwork-cooperation-partnership-gm1262600344-369443563?searchscope=image%2Cfilm. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.