Fashion for Future Campaign
By: Ivan Andonov
Tags: Slow Fashion, Awareness Campaigns, Workshop, Fashion Revolution, Ethical Wardrobe

I want to bring to your attention my campaign called “Fashion for Future”

I have designed this campaign to reduce the harmful outcomes of the fast fashion industry.

The slogan of my campaign is - Be unique, chose the alternative, save the planet

What is Fast Fashion?

Fast fashion brands use fast production and low-quality materials. The production has moved to countries where there are a lot of labourers, but they are low-paid. Child labour is also exploited. Unfortunately, the results of this trend also lead to harmful effects on the environment. Because fast fashion clothes come at low-price, consumers usually throw them away after they don’t need them anymore. The huge amounts of discarded clothing, filled with lead, pesticides and countless other chemicals, do not decompose and release these toxic chemicals into the air, the soil and the rivers. Along with the effects that fast fashion has on our earth, harmful processes affect the people who wear them and the people who make them.

Aim of the campaign

My campaign aims to bring awareness to the issues caused by fast fashion. The main goal of “Fashion for Future” is to reduce the waste coming from fast fashion brands which in fact are in the top 5 polluters of Earth. We want to stop the overflow of making new clothes because there are enough already made. They can be reused or recycled, according to their condition, or adjusted in the way the customer wants them. We want to stop the cheap child labour from sweatshops. People can choose to shop from local or independent designers which use quality and harmless materials and create their ethical closet. Last but not least, we want to help the people in need who cannot afford new clothes.

Strategy

For my campaign, I want to host a workshop which will be called Fashion for Future. That way I will offer an interesting and different alternative for collecting old, new or torn clothes, shoes, and other textiles, which people don’t need, so I can show that we can bring new life into this garment. My idea is to make people think about what and where they buy. I want to encourage them to look in their wardrobes or cabinets for clothes which they don’t wear. They can either donate their old clothes, shoes, bags or other textiles to the collection bin or give them for adjustment or repair. I want people to be able to engage with my workshop and be part of the process of upcycling. That way they can choose to add their own and unique style to the clothing. The point of this would be to show them that they can upcycle even at home. One part of the donated clothes will be given to people who can’t afford to buy new clothes.

The Collaboration

Used clothes and other textiles are a valuable material that should not end up in the landfill. To achieve the campaign's goal and its success and effectiveness, I want to collaborate with TexCycle. My offer is to host their collection bins in our workshop. Together, we can develop the project for gathering old clothes, preventing tons of clothing from ending in landfills. This way, we will suggest to people an easy, safe and convenient way to dispose of used clothes.

The aim of the collaboration would be to join forces and gather even more clothes to rework, fix or recycle, which potentially should decrease landfill and pollution if the campaign is successful. One part of the collected clothes which can’t be reused will be recycled for textile. Ultimately, through this collaboration, we will both help us and TexCycle reach a wider audience and more people will be drawn to our campaign.

Benefits of the collaboration and the campaign

In a successful collaboration with TexCycle, large quantities of unnecessary textiles will be collected and recycled instead of going to landfills. With this, we will contribute to:

- Decreasing the amounts of garments ending in landfills. Synthetic fibers practically do not decompose and the decay of the natural ones takes a long time and is associated with the release of harmful gases.

- Reduction of harmful effects on the environment in the process of production of new textile.

- Decreasing the use of energy, water and primary raw materials to produce new clothes.

- Less wastewater will be generated

- Reduce the use of dyes and chemicals in the fast fashion industry.

With the help of the collaboration with TexCycle, the collected clothes will be used as an alternative fuel in the production. After appropriate treatment, recycled clothing can be reused as cleaning rags, fibers, insulation materials, car seat fillings, upholstery materials, sound and heat insulation materials and many more.

Target Audience

In the campaign, I will try to attract people from different target groups. There are potential users in each age group who will support the idea and aim of the campaign according to different criteria. Therefore, I will use different communication channels for the different groups to get as close as possible to each of them.

Through my Facebook page and posts, I will target a more mature audience aged between 25 and 45.

For younger people, aged between 18 and 25, the campaign will be introduced through Instagram.

I chose these 2 platforms because my research showed that older people are more active on Facebook and, accordingly, younger people are more active on Instagram.

Key messages

The key messages to people and suggestions of the campaign are:

Think before you buy. - Stop being a slave of fast fashion, to run from a shop to shop, following the advice of bloggers, magazines and online media to be “on the cutting edge of fashion”. We offer meaningful and intelligent shopping, without the influence of trends and advertisements of the big brands, which brings more satisfaction.

Create your own ethical wardrobe - There is something deeply ethical about reusing discarded clothes, extending their lives and keeping them out of the landfill. The process towards ethical fashion is gradual. Sometimes it seems impossible to create a fully ethical wardrobe, but we will help you start with small changes in this direction.

Be unique - With the help of the campaign and the workshop “Fashion for Future”, we can transform old favorite clothes into new ones. They will be different with interesting design ideas. There are some real treasures in your wardrobe.

Donate, recycle or upcycle clothes - This message of the campaign calls for compassion towards the people in need, more humanism, for a more responsible attitude towards our planet, with a view to the future of humanity.

Campaign promotion

Visual and interactive communication with consumers will help with the recognizability of the brand. I use different communication channels, in order to convey the message clearly and understandably enough and especially for it to reach our message and our vision to the people, I use various communication channels. I will communicate with consumers alongside several online channels. The main condition is to respect the identity of the messages, to be inherited in all forms of communication. I will introduce people to the harms and consequences of fast fashion. I will do that through social media and presentations held in the workshop. I will use:

1. Facebook

2. Instagram

3. Influencer - I will invite Tia Stankova to join the campaign. She is a Bulgarian and international styling and shopping consultant, influencer and host of the largest styling events in Bulgaria. She is also a frequent TV guest on the topics of fashion, styling and tips. On her Instagram, she also promotes ethical and sustainable fashion. With the help of her presentations and advice during the workshop, the campaign will be more attractive, useful and will reach even more people.

https://www.instagram.com/dressedbytia/

4. HASHTAG - #FashionForFuture #fff #SlowFashion #EthicalWardrobe #FashionRevolution

5. Google ads - Promote what Fashion for Future and TexCycle offers.

6. Brand Identity - With the logo, I can achieve fast and memorable recognition.

7. The slogan of the campaign - Be unique, chose the alternative, save the planet.

In addition, to increase the reach of my campaign I will ask people to take a lovely picture of themselves wearing their adjusted clothes. After that, I will have a series of posts with their pictures on our social media. This user-generated content will potentially draw more people to my workshop and campaign.

Facebook posts

I have created a mockup of 4 Facebook posts which are all targeted to the audience of Fashion for Future. They are informational and engaging at the same time. With the first one, I am announcing the opening of the workshop. The second one is a call-to-action post. I am giving the workshop as an alternative to the fast fashion trend and I want to stimulate people to come to it. In the third post, I announce that Tia Stankova will be the special guest at the workshop with which I expect more people from her fans to be drawn to the workshop. And the fourth post is a call-to-action again. That is the most important and noble post because I want people to spread the word that we are giving away clothes to people in need. I believe that with these posts I will attract more attention and potential visitors to the workshop.