The Future of Responsible Fashion: A Twofold Business-Customer Co-Designed Project

Abstract

The thesis has the objective to propose a feasible resolution for actual fashion industry's unsustainable economic model. The thesis is organised in two main segments: a literature review part and an empirical research session. The literature review provides the overview over the design thinking methodology and related instruments, as it defines the thesis's focal concepts of business centricity theoretically opposed to customer centricity approach. The latter part of empirical research is dedicated to the analysis of actual insights and gaps in users' experiences as in current fashion business ecosystem after the Covid19 case, in the attempt to merge the research results following a co-design led approach, obtaining an opportunity area feasible to both the business as to the users' group. The aim of the research is to overcome the traditional mutual exclusiveness in the adoption of either a business centric focus or a customer centric approach, proposing a revision of the actual fashion business model canvas towards an enhanced industry's responsibility, which is feasible only throughout a process mutual collaborations and joint commitments in between the selected parties. The shift towards a renewed sustainable business direction is organised in accordance to three major pillars of the sustainable development concept: environmental sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability, maintaining a particular attention to the social sustainable dimension, perceived as a critical element after the pandemic outbreak.