The life of a research assistant (part three)

Wow, time really flies! I had almost forgotten about writing my final post with everything going on in these past few months. I hope you've all managed to dodge the Corona-bullet and are happy and healthy going in to this new semester. For me, the work at Handelslabbet has continued across the summer and renovations are nearing its end, which is super exciting! 

I’ve been a bit reluctant to inviting you all to the relaunch, as the date has been moved up som many times due to various reasons. But finally, I can officially invite you all to visit the lab, either at the relaunch this Saturday (see deets in Swedish below) or on Wednesdays between 14:00-16:00. Experience VR, learn about AI within fashion or perhaps try eye-tracking. 

I hope to see you all there!
Malin 

Sustainable Women Fashion 3/3

Hello Everyone!

I hope all of you have enjoyed your internships. This is my final blog post for the field study. During my last working weeks of internship I was very busy and had more responsibilities. So, I was doing multitasking, creating tech packs for new lines, dealing with production for our upcoming collection and working on quality assurance for new lines. Now it was summertime and we had to launch our new collection for summer, so I was working on arrangement of store for the display of new volume. I was trying to complete all the work on time. These were very busy days but full of energy and amazing experiences.

This internship was so much fun, and I gained an understanding about how the small companies run their businesses and how they launch their collections. I also learned about designing digital marketing strategy, sourcing new sustainable materials, exploring new circular ways for future, and redesigning the textile waste into garments and accessories etc. So, I have learnt a lot about different working ways of the company.

It was wonderful learning opportunity for me where I gathered new knowledge and had wonderful experiences. I hope this experience would be contributing to my future career as well.

Thanks,

Nadia.

 

Sustainable Women Fashion 2/3

Earlier I told you that I was working with sustainable women fashion brand. I have been working on multiple tasks during my intership.so, during fourth week of my internship I was working on digital marketing.

My focus during this period was to work with web shop, Facebook, and Instagram.  I worked with online selling of apparel products, and we pondered on different ways to increase online sales. I along with the team, explored new ideas for better marketing of the brand. We looked how the company’s digital marketing processes work and how can these processes be improved. It is very important for a fashion brand to keep the customer engaged through social media, being effective and comprehensible is a key here for fashion brands. It’s very valuable to publish pictures of the products. After posting picture regularly, some interesting things happened on Facebook and Instagram. Sometime immediately people gave response to the posts. In this way people get to know about upcoming volume of clothes and it was interesting to know about their opinions about the style etc. of these clothes beforehand. It is an amazing experience working with digital marketing for a fashion brand and it was a good experience to learn about e-commerce.

 I have enjoyed my time during my internship and learnt so many things about web shop and social media and I experienced the direct contact with customers. I have learnt how can company improve in these areas.

Thanks,

Nadia.

.

  

At the Handelslabbet

The renovation at the Handelslabbet is almost complete. Opening exhibition for the Retail lab has moved a bit further until October and hopefully things will settle down until then as more people would get vaccinated. There are many interesting things going on at the Handelslabbet. Technologies such as Virtual Reality devices etc. will be accessible for the people who will come to visit Handelslabbet. The posters I was working on, will soon be ready for the display at the Lab. We are looking forward to a very interesting window display for the lab, as well.

While working on my field study report, I was trying to link AI with circular economy within clothing and fashion industry and it gave me very limited number of articles. Among those, most were not even relevant. When I broadened my topic, then I was getting thousands of articles. That's when I realized how tricky systematic literature review could be.

During this whole internship period, I learned a lot. I read about and met many researchers who are working at very interesting disciplines such as applications of AI and VR in Textiles and Fashion industry.

I hope this Retail Lab will inspire students and companies to be involved in groundbreaking research areas. Hope to see most of you at the Re-opening exhibition in October.

Good luck for the new semester 😊

The Final Countdown (3/3)

Hope everyone has had amazing summer so far!  

With the last leg complete nearly complete, I'm surprised how much I've discovered about discourse analysis. It was not an easy ride but an adventurous one. Through the literature concerning the use of activist discourse, the topic that can be explored further in many ways. It has been a journey delving into discourse theory thinkers such as Foucault and Butler and being fascinated by the way they define discourse and the subject (self). So far I have gathered new skills through the coding software NVivo, which helped to organise the data and aid in my analysis. I look forward to the next stage of the course and opportunity to put what I learnt over the internships into practice. 

/N

Final Digital Marketing Update

 Hi all,

Here I am, finally writing my final blog post for the field study. My last week's in my internship have been proving very busy as I take on more responsibilities, even at the end! Though my field study project is on content marketing my role expanded beyond this so content marketing became only a small part of what I was doing. Instead, I was focusing on content marketing management, strategy, email marketing, Google ads and even some merchandising management, a real mixed bag!

I decided, in the end, to do a content analysis to determine how well the company's content fit into a content marketing framework; I began with De Plessis' 2015 content marketing framework as a basis for the coding schematic as well as my literature review on the use of core values to inform marketing strategy and used Ho et al. (2015) strategic content marketing framework to analyse the company's strategic content marketing process. In doing so I was attempting to explore how the company uses content marketing strategy to inform their content marketing creation and output and how do the core values of the brand inform the content marketing strategy. 

Many academics have outlined the need for consistent, quality content that aligns with the brand values, so while this case study did not set out to develop a new theory it did provide a rich and deep insight into how content marketing strategy works in the context of a fashion-tech start-up in its infancy.

I have enjoyed my time with this company and though I sometimes felt the breadth of work I took on was not totally relevant to my project, I did learn a lot that I believe will be useful in the next year of this master's and in my career.

Well done everyone on their field study, looking forward to the new semester already.

Slán go bhaile, Fiona Byrne

Final internship update (post 3/3)

Hi! I Hope you all have an amazing summer holiday!

This is the third and last blog post of my internship in Georgia. I probably should have written this post a long time ago but for some reason I was procrastinating :) My last weeks of the internship weren't really busy. I still was producing content, however beside that, I was spending a lot of time analyzing what worked and what didn't work and discussed with the owner of the brand the future moves and strategies that would increase sales. 

We’ve come to the conclusion that production of consistent content is a must for the brand in order to keep the customer engaged as well as to attract new customers. This applies especially when it comes to social media, where many other brands try their best to get and maintain customers' attention. Being active and consistent is a key here, brands just have to create a relevant content and publish pictures of their products! By posting regularly, some interesting things happened right before the end of my internship. Other handbag and leather-focused Instagram accounts started to share our pictures of our products which was very nice. Also, Houpaci had another collaboration with another brand who would borrow Houpaci’s bags for the photoshoot. They would later share the pictures on their social media accounts and tag Houpaci, which of course is a positive and exciting thing, since this would increase brand awareness and potentially boost sales. There was so many other things that happened but I will keep it for my report:) Overall, I’ve had two amazing productive months and I can’t wait to see all the great things that will surely happen to the brand in the future!  

/Natela

Time to say thanks! (3/3)

Last Friday I finished my internship at the slow fashion brand I have been working at for the last 8 weeks. It has been a journey with great insights into the field of sustainable fashion on the small brand scale.

The last two of weeks of my internship showed quite acutely how even small hick-ups in the supply chain may affect so many aspects and create a real domino effect. A parcel with marketing samples from the supplier was lost by a big transportation company. The parcel was shipped to be delivered to Gothenburg on a morning express delivery to be photographed together with some other last samples of the SS22 collection on the same day. However, the parcel wasn’t delivered on the correct date, and the next day we received a parcel with cables belonging to a robotics’ company.  The same samples were also supposed to be sent to Japan the next week, but eventually the Japan parcel was sent without them as the big delivery company couldn’t locate our parcel. It is quite eye-opening how one parcel being mislabelled at the logistics’ centre can cause such losses for small companies, as the brand might now need to re-book the photographer and send the samples to Japan separately.

Also, one of the side effects was that it stole some of the time I had planned to work with the customer project. However, I gladly had a couple of days to dig into the world of Google Analytics as well as Instagram and Facebook statistics and I could start to build up a picture of how customers of the brand in different age groups behave on the web shop, where they live and what are their interests. Unfortunately, I could not quite finish my project, though I have 2 more weeks to work for the field study in the format of the research paper and I am planning to finish my slides for the company together with the paper.

However, before that I am going to enjoy some time off and the summer while it still lasts. The paper awaits to be written, but for this blog this is my last post. So, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of the summer!

Best,
Liisi

It's almost the end of the internship whilst just the start of the project (2/3)

It is my second last week at my internship at a small, local, slow fashion brand – the time has been flying! Since the last post, my tasks have shifted a bit as the actual staff members of the company have been on holidays on a circulating basis. Whereas earlier I had only been working under the creative director and designer, for the last couple of weeks I have also been taking care of some of the tasks of the sales and marketing coordinator in forms customer communication and web shop orders that are sent from the stock of the studio store, while she has been on holidays.

As the days have been filled with primary projects and tasks of the brand, my customer segmentation project has been postponed and shrunk a bit. However, the project is under planning and will be my main task for the last week of my internship, once my tasks with SS22 collection are done.

The core of the project has shifted more from segmentation to updating the brand’s buyer persona profile, which was originally created several years ago. Since then, the company has grown its sales especially on its own web shop, whereas earlier the sales have almost solely happened through stockist retailers. 

Having straight contact with the customers through the web shop as well as social media, creates a great source of non-biased information for persona formation in forms of Google analytics as well as Instagram and Facebook statistics. These stats will be my main sources of data for the project. I have been given rather free hands with the project and I’m interested to see what I can find and see through the data, and how the processed data can help the company to improve and in which areas.

My next post should come out after a week or so, and hopefully then I’ll be able to share some insights of my buyer persona project.

// Liisi

Digital Marketing Internship

I am now many months into my internship and I am working on a wide range of projects for the second-hand apparel company. In the beginning, I was only working on graphic design and social media marketing, however now I have been allowed to take more ownership over my work. My primary work is concerned with email marketing and Google Ads along with all other aspects of digital marketing at the company. The company operates with a flat hierarchy so employees are encouraged to suggest and pursue projects they feel will benefit the company. 

My project is primarily focused on the use of social marketing as a strategy in social enterprises. That is to say, I am researching how social enterprise companies market their social values to create shared value for stakeholders with the goal of affecting positive changes in behavior on a wide scale.

The lifting of pandemic restrictions has led to a significant lull in e-commerce and online shopping so it is very interesting for my project to see how companies respond to these challenges whilst trying to remain true to their business mission and stated values. 

I hope that everyone is having a lovely Summer!

Fiona

21st Century Tailoring (3/3)

 Happy Monday!

My last week at Blugiallo is over and summer vacation is finally here. It's been quite hectic last few weeks filled with presentations of the results from the survey. I've presented the material to everyone at the company and their partners, ranging from web developers to social media strategists and PR agencies. I'm super thankful that I got the opportunity to "meet" all these interesting, skilled individuals and to get a chance to present my work to them as well. From the feedback I got, it seems like the survey and the analyzed results will be useful in the future development of the company and that it will be used as a foundation when for example enhancing the UX on the website and in social media strategies. This spring has been challenging in many ways, but when getting this type of feedback it's a recipe that hard work pays off. 

Now I'm moving into my summer house on the west coast for a month, then it's time to get ready for new adventures in Stockholm! 

Wishing you all a fantastic summer<3 

Three weeks working with collection launch (1/3)

Hi all!

My name is Liisi. I study at the programme of Textile Value Chain Management, and I have previously completed a BA in Fashion Design.

Three weeks ago, I started my internship at a small, Gothenburg-based, women’s slow fashion brand that focuses on knitwear and high-quality natural materials. As the launch of SS22 collection is close by, my tasks thus far have focused on the sales material of the new collection, such as creating a sales catalogue and material book for the upcoming collection. Besides that, I have been working with the brand’s online showroom and an earlier collection’s sales catalogue. Earlier this week we also had a studio day photo shooting the entire new collection on a model. It was interesting to see how it all came together having had the opportunity to observe the planning of the shooting day, choosing a model and logistics.

Besides my hands-on tasks I have had the opportunity to observe the company and have conversations regarding the brand’s sales base and how they communicate with their customers. This has given me some base information and factors to consider regarding my upcoming customer survey/segmentation project that I will do for the company. The same project also acts up as the base for my field study paper where I will write about the process of small business ’customer segmentation.

Hope you all will have a lovely mid-summer!

Inherently flame retardant regenerated cellulose fibres - 3rd update

Hi guys,

It is time to share my last post of Research Assistant Internship with you all regarding inherently flame-retardant regenerated cellulose fibers.
Regenerated cellulose fibers represent the most important derivatives of biomass comparatively cotton & synthetic fibers due to negative impact on environment & finally human health. In another way, application of nanotechnology in the textile industry has grown rapidly due to their unique, distinctive properties and allowing textiles to become multifunctional without affecting the inherent properties. Silica nanoparticles incorporated viscose has become one of the great examples beyond the endow ordinary products with their significant qualities. Although SNPs have the potential to benefit society, their interaction with biological systems and potential toxic effects must be carefully considered since they have totally different characteristics compared to the bulk form.
I did a literature search of ecotoxicity aspects of silica-rich viscose & its process chemicals as my 1^st research question and then observed the usage of toxic, explosive, and flammable Carbon disulfide (CS2). This leads to exhaust air, wastewater, and the degradation of the cellulose backbone concurrent in the viscose process. Other than that, NaOH and H2SO4/Sulfuric acid are adding during the regenerated cellulose manufacturing process. Secondly, conducted the laboratory test to check silica leachability from invented viscose fiber. Received an unexpected result with the Si content and evidenced that it also has a health risk when exposing to manufactures as well as consumers, while creating a lot of direction for further investigation. 
It was a great experience for me to work with the RISE team & able to gather new knowledge interestingly. And hope you also had a good time during your internship & let’s celebrate our summer vacation after ppt and the report submission.

Hope to see you all soon.

Thanks,
Dula

Internship at Neritude 3/3

 Hey everyone!

I hope you´re enjoying summer and the warm days. May there be more of this in the upcoming months!

I do agree with so many others here that the time has flown so fast and I can´t believe that my internship is already over. I previously told that I was working with the launch of a finnish plus-size online store and how ambitious their schedule for launching was. We couldn´t make it by the end of may but luckily the launch got postponed only by two weeks. I think that´s still good when considering that the day I started, the company was set up too. 

Last weeks I´ve been working with the website and how to present the garments verbally. Also, I wrote a small material care guide that will be available for the customers. Unfortunately, I didn´t have the time to write much about the sustainability of the business but I might be helping or consulting with that once the company gets started. I´ve learned so much and I´m grateful for this opportunity that I had to work from distance and being able to help in different areas of the business.

As the company, Neritude, is owned and established by my close friend, I will be following closely their journey. It´s been so rewarding to see how this business has been built from nothing and I´m sure that it will be a success!

This is all from me. Thank you and have a great summer!

- Irina

Blog 3/3 "Size and Fit" Research Assistant Internship

 

Hej everyone, 

I hope you all are fine and enjoying the summer days!

Really time flies! I am writing the last blog of my Research Assistant Internship. I am happy that I learned a lot during this time period. I have finalized my report and good to present my work. As I mentioned in my previous two blogs that I conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on size and fit. My topic of research is “ A Review on Customer Size and Fit Dilemma in Virtual Technology: A Study with Respect to Body Size and Body Shape ”. My research work also discusses available technologies from within the manufacturer and consumer's perspective.

I will explain to you a little bit more, Garment fit issues still exist in fashion apparel industries such as “body size and body shape”. I read many articles and most of the articles broadly discussed these “size and fit” issues that cause the return rate. It has been found that virtual technology can be used to solve this problem such as 3D body scanning, virtual fitting rooms (VFR), and 3D mannequins. These technologies are time-efficient, also satisfy the customers, improve the fitting adjustments and reduce the return rates.

So far, I have found this topic very interesting. I have realized that companies need to adopt these technologies it will be beneficial for both manufacturers and customers. It is been a good experience for me to, read articles on different methodologies, and analyze them.

Stay safe, and  Have a great summer to all!

Regards

Aiman Khan

Internship at [a]industri, post 3/3

Hey everyone, 

This is my last post here on the blog and the last weeks has passed really fast. My last day at my internship at [a]industri was two weeks ago and since then I have focused on the final report and final presentation, which I had today. 

The focus in my report is digital 3D design and how this can contribute to a more sustainable product development process. I conducted the study as a case study at [a]industri, which uses digital 3D design in the design of the garments they produce for their different clients. Digital 3D design can be described as digital software programs that allow virtual prototypes to be created and visualisations of garments to be seen digital in 3D. Different simulation techniques can then be used in the program to see and adjust colours, fit, patterns, fabrics, design etc. in 3D. 

Some of the findings presented in the report are that fewer physical samples need to be produced and shipped when using digital 3D design, resulting in a consumption of textile materials and fewer emissions from shipments. Further benefits are that the fabric waste in the final cutting can be estimated from pattern pieces through all design adjustments and that creative experiments can occur without using any physical materials. 

Some identified challenges with working with digital 3D design are however that digital skills are necessary, physical hand feel and examination are lost as well as to trust that the digital program creates as realistic garment visualizations as possible. These challenges therefore need to be taken into consideration when engaging in digital 3D design.

To end this post, I wish you the best of luck with your reports and upcoming presentations. As I had my presentation today, the summer break has just started and I will enjoy it to the fullest and hope that you will to. 

                                                    Here is a photo of a digital 3D garment, 
                                                    cool how real it looks right?

// Anna Jonsson

Research Assistant Intern: Size and fit Project 3/3

 Hello guys

Hope you are doing well and the finalization phase of the field study is great, it has being a great experience for me and hope you as well, doing a methodological review of literature of size and fit in relation to online purchase, it broaden my knowledge  to knowing and understanding methodologies applied so far in this areas of research. it was a struggle classifying each article according to research design,techniques of data collection and the data analysis used as well but i will say the struggle was worth it.

Just a summary of what are found out,  the issues of size and fit is not a new area just few articles are of exploratory research and the majority of the articles are of descriptive research. Also many articles follow a non-experimental design with survey being a majority and little to no articles used case study, action research or ethnography. many articles used more than one technique of data collection but the most used was questionnaire and interview both structure and semi structure interview.  for data analysis, mixed techniques were used per article and the most used were descriptive analysis, ANOVA, SEM and MANOVA because most of the data collected were quantitative data but then there was a present of content analysis which was highly used for the few articles that gathered qualitative data.

Participating in this project I would say was good and my focus area which were on methods was more like doing a revision of the methodology course we did in the first semesters but it also broaden my understanding in the areas of size and fit. 

So at this point I wish everyone best of Luck as you round up with this course, also wish you a happy time during summer. We meet again hopefully on campus in Autumn.

Best regards

The next chapter (2/3)

 Hey all, 

Last week marked the end of my internship at the Swedish underwear brand. I was surprised that what I thought about marketing really changed in a good way. Many of the experiences really brought new skills and levels of adaptability also. It was a packed internship which brought insight into the way small start ups may function, and an understanding of building organisational cultures. Now I'm focusing on the field study report which will be handed later, but I'm excited to dive into understanding the way brands use feminist discourse in their communication. 

To the next adventure...research! 

N. 

Buying and "Sustainability" internship at a Denim Brand Part 3

 Hej everyone, 

 

it is nearly the end of my internship, and this will be my last post. In general, I must say I learned a lot throughout the internship, especially about the challenges small companies in the dynamic fashion sector are facing. This insight resulted in me wondering, how is it even possible for startup firms in the fashion industry to render a sustainable competitive advantage in this dynamic, global and highly competitive environment? I became so preoccupied with this question that I decided to change my topic for the report and dedicate it to this question instead. Within the internship I observed and was involved in several collaborations between the brand and other companies. These companies were not just other brands but included firms from various sectors. One of them was for example with a local Stockholm based burger restaurant, another one with a data analytics firm. I started to think, that maybe these collaborations with partners who are experts in their field might enable the firm to tackle the challenges in the industry, such as sustainability and digitization. Talking to the founder of the brand he confirmed my supposition. He described his network as jar full of expertise, and whenever they needed a certain know-how or capability he would go back to the jar and pick out the right fit. According to him this would even be the future of the industry. Companies would focus more on their expertise, perfect these and share them with others if they require them and vice versa. Thereby companies would not have to spend resources in building every competence themselves but would rather work together, share knowledge and thereby be able to increase the overall productivity of the sector. So based on this very interesting conversation and insight I decided to write about alliance management capability as key dynamic capability for startup firms in the fashion industry. 

 

Even though I enjoyed research in this topic and my work with the various partners of the firm, I kind of missed the focus on sustainability. However, if following the above described approach, it would probably make more sense to cooperate with a sustainability expert anyhow ;p

 

 So, within the last two months I moved from sustainability to daily buying business to strategic alliances. All in all a very interesting and steep learning curve with the special lesson that in research and in business rarely anything goes according to plan. Staying flexible, sensing new opportunities and seizing them is key in research and in business. 

 

I hope you all had a great internship! Enjoy you summer break and hopefully see you all soon. 

 

All the best, J.W.

Circular Development Blogpost 3/3

 

Hello,

Hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend in the sun!

I have now finished my internship at Boob Design and finished writing the report that will be presented on Monday. It has been very instructive to have the opportunity to gain insight into a company's work to move towards a circular business model. I have realized that it is not always as easy as you think and that there are problems at many levels that cause obstacles to your ideas. Although it has been a challenge, I am happy with my internship and have learned a lot. The end result of the proposal that I developed with the help of continuous meetings with my mentor and other employees at the company resulted in a small-scale project that would primarily offer second-hand sales to Stockholm-based customers. Boob Design's office is very centrally located so the range would be displayed on the website, but the garments would be handed in and picked up at the office. This was considered to be able to work because the company could then control the amount of garments that are up for sale and could thus control the flow. During the final phase of the project, it turned out that there were final constraints which meant that the project would not be feasible but would be investigated further internally for possible development and implementation in the future. I look forward to following Boob Design's sustainability work in the future towards a circular business model 😊

 Wish you luck with your final presentations and hope you’ll have a wonderful summer!

Design and production internship at Dedicated 3/3

 Hello guys,

this is my third and last post of my internship. I have learned so much and enjoyed my time at the company a little too much. I have really loved going to an office almost everyday where I have gotten to do so many things. We have had several fittings, sent sale samples to our agents, had meetings with these agents, we have redecorated the entire office, had a barbecue day at the office, etc etc. The list goes on and on haha.

A sadder side of this is that India is suffering form the pandemic really badly right now so the part where many of our suppliers are located are in lockdown at the moment. This means that our factories are closed so we cannot proceed with our work as usual, which is bad for the company but all our hopes and prayers go out to the people living in India who are suffering from this tragic pandemic... Hopefully they stay as safe and healthy as they can!

I still have two weeks left of my internship at the office but I have gotten a part time job at Dedicated as a sales assistant in their Stockholm stores, which is super nice!! I am happy I get to stay in the company after my internship. 

Take care everyone and I hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather we have now. Stay safe :)

 - Linda 

Inherently flame retardant regenerated cellulose fibres -2nd update

Hi all,

Hope you all are enjoying the warm weather with finalizing reports  & PPT.

Herewith I am sharing my 2nd update of, inherently flame-retardant regenerated cellulose fibers project. As informed, my study is consisting of 2 major parts as; an In-depth literature search of (eco) toxicity aspects of flame retardant & silica nanoparticles and test leachability of silica nanoparticles from invented viscose fiber.

Silica nanoparticles (SNPs) have received wide attention in several industries due to their significant properties. The use of nanotechnology allows textiles to become multifunctional and produce fabrics with special functions which cannot be achieved so far. On the same, it will add value without compromising the textile's inherent properties. However, there are gaps in understanding about the human and environmental risk from nanoparticles. Few data are present in the literature therefore, health and environmental impacts should be analyzed. I was able to do the leachability test with the support of RISE, Boras team & interestingly, got unexpected results while creating a source for further investigation. So currently I am surfing further literature and wrap up points to build my report/article.

See you in my last post, Have a nice day!
Dula

(3/3)

Hello!

 

I am now on my last week at the internship, and it feels so crazy how fast these two months have passed by, but it is also so fun to see how much I have learned and experienced through this! My internship has given me the opportunity to do many different tasks such as measuring prototypes, handling different excel files and participate in meetings both with factories and producers as well as between different departments, among others. I really feel that I have gotten a realistic feeling of how it can be to work at a clothing company, and that I have gotten a better understanding of how the industry works.

 

As I am still doing my internship, I have gotten time to write the report during days with home office, which have worked good for me. As mentioned in my last blog I decided to dive a bit deeper into one of the projects I’ve looked into for my report: types of packaging in Nordic clothing companies. However, the more I have looked into it, the more confused I have become. It feels like there are so many aspects that need to be considered when choosing a type of packaging, which can make one alternative sustainable for one company, but not for another. And furthermore, one sustainable solution may cause damage or disadvantages in other areas. This is why it is hard to choose one solution and type of packaging that every company should follow. What is important to accomplish a sustainable choice is to look at how different alternatives will affect your company, and not be afraid to make changes.

 

I hope all of you are happy with your field study as well, and that you have learned something new! I wish you all an amazing summer (in a short while) and thank you for a different, but educational year!

 

Take care!

//Amanda R

Internship at the Retail Lab - 02

Hi once again!

Most students would be packing their bags for the summer vacations now.. Our meetings at the Handelslabbet also have officially come to an end. But we decided to keep in touch and complete our assigned tasks (which in my case includes ‘Poster designing’) before the vacations. The retail lab is a great platform where we can exhibit how the University is driving innovation in the textile and fashion industry. It has been quite exciting to be a part of an enthusiastic team here. It has connected me to the University quite much. 

When it comes to the research regarding AI in the fashion and textile industry, I have found that incorporating technologies like AI in the supply chains is becoming a compulsion for companies. AI is not only revolutionizing the industry but also it has great significance when it comes to the aspects of sustainability. Brands and companies are struggling to reduce their production wastes. Using AI technologies for demand prediction, trend forecasting and manufacturing the right products at the production end and also improving customer satisfaction at the retail end, reduces over production and product returns and thus helps the companies to achieve their sustainability goals. 

The research is going on and it is demanding a bit more attention and concentration. The weather is so nice and is almost always intriguing for a nice walk.

Hopefully, I will share some information about Handelslabbet’s reopening in the next post.

Have a nice weekend! Take Care :)

/Fatima

Ethical fashion, third post

Hi everyone!

Wow, time flies. This is my last and final blog post and I am happy to say that I'm basically finished with my field study report and are now working on my presentation. 

I'm so happy that I made the decision to conduct an individual field study. I've gained so much knowledge and actually it have made my future career ambitions even clearer. Social sustainability, female rights, ethics and moral are subjects that are close to my heart and this report have given me a deeper insight into these subjects. My report concluded into four identified challenges for the future of ethical standards within the fashion industry. So, my conclusion is that those four challenges are needed to be dealed with in order for the textile industry to be sustainable from a social perspective. 

Now, I can't wait for summer that rumor says are coming this weekend...

Take care!

Johanna

Company internship - A Norwegian fashion rental company

  Blog entry 3/3

Hi everyone, I hope you all are good and having a nice time at your internships still.

For me this has been an incredible journey, where as i have gotten to learn so much about the textile industry in relation to fashion rental...

- Did you know that it takes 2700 liters of water to produce one cotton t-shirt, and that approx. 150 million tons of textiles  are produced every year while 143 million tons ends up on landfills? 

The rental fashion industry provides an alternative solution to the use-and-throw society we live in and we can utilise the garments more, longer and even better if doing so. The fashion rental industry is at its beginning for everyday wear, more so there is an increased interest from consumer to rent or lend fashion items, which I predict will be the future of fashion. I believe that retailers and brands need to understand the benefits and opportunities there are with fashion rentals or even to invest in such circular business models to be able to survive the coming post pandemic world. 

"For example, if the number of times a garment is worn were doubled on average, GHG emissions would be 44% lower." - Ellen Macarthur Foundation (Check on the link at the end of the paper for reference, pp.73)

I have been focusing on observing how the rental company choose to work with suppliers, in this case suppliers are brands and retailers. There is a research phase, a selection phase and communication tooIs are the main observations my report will be about. Since I have been involved in the three mentioned gives me (the researcher) an opportunity to really provide insightful data to this industry, which I will analyse in the report. It is interesting to be a part of that and from my perspective, there is always room for potential for improvements. The norwegian rental business are only interested in unique brands that are small and stand out from the crowd and in some ways work with sustainability. The interesting aspect here is that retailers and brands who is interested in sustainability or to become more sustainable, are more likely to be interested in rental businesses in order to promote that. 

The internship is so much fun, and I have learned more than just having meeting with different nordic brands and retailers, I have learnt that to rent items, buy less, care and repair more indeed will help the environment. How facts are evident and why brands or retailers should invest in rental business.

However, my journey is not ending and i still have the internship until August, but I have been currently writing the report for the field study course and it is a puzzle to make time for everything! 

Hopefully we can meet each other later this year,
Until then - Have a nice summer! 

All the best.

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report.pdf 

Research in Impulse Buying 3/3

 Hello everyone,

 

Time really flies when it comes to writing the report! Well, I have had lot of thoughts churning up in my mind, as always, regarding impulse buying and often, I am not hopeful for the near future, if I specifically talk in Indian context and emerging economies. I will give you all one important aspect in this blog from my report. 

 

After reviewing all the interviews, the common trigger for making an impulsive purchase was price. Indian culture has had a long tradition of haggling, and are extremely price sensitive and conscious, which is their weakness, so to speak. All the respondents agreed to the fact that they are lured by discount offers, promotional offers, and any offer which has reduced their price. It is interesting to note that an economy as huge as India, which has high young population, rising aspirations, purchasing power and modern technology, will lead to a consumerist society, which has traditionally been different. There are various research showing cultural tendencies, and this study will throw some light on various tendencies specific to Indian context. 

 

I am glad to see existing research talking about the influence of technology in emerging economies, and how it aids to more consumption, an issue which will be widespread in coming years. Through this study, I will give some insight on such issues, which will have worrying consequences if not alleviated. Extrapolation of such research studies will bring out interesting results, some which may surprise the consumers themselves! I do not wish to make this blog an academic writing, so I will leave it as it is.

 

I said in the starting of the blog that I am not hopeful for the near future specifically in the context of emerging economies, as the consumption will rise, as aspirations and purchasing power rise, it is a cycle which will complete its destined route. It is a genuine feeling, and we all know that it is true, but I am hopeful with the fact that globalised economies and interaction is helping us to learn from each other. This blog is not exactly the summary of the finding but some of the feelings which emerged while writing this study. I took this platform to express it, as we all won’t meet each other during the seminars.

 

I hope you all are doing well, with your projects and health! I will see some of you during the seminars, and the rest of you, hopefully on the campus! 

 

Have a great summer and see you all soon!

 

Warm regards

Influencer Marketing part 3 - last weeks

Hi everyone, hope everything is good with you! 

Today is Monday, and I have already been here at my internship for 3 months. The time flys past so fast. I still feel like I have more to learn and more to give. But I had in general a very great time and my supervisors and colleagues have been amazing and supportive during my internship. It feels like I am a part of the team! 

Since last time, I have been doing the same thing repeatedly. It is part of influencer marketing. The main task is to find the right and suitable influencers and the next part is to contact them. The previous weeks I have been activating my influencers and they have been provided clothes and discount code for their followers. It is amazing to see how creative influencers can be and every time I receive pictures from them I have a big smile on my face. The past weeks I have seen different influencers within the category of outdoor, for example hiking, gardening, horse and dogs. I especially am in love with the picture I get from the dogs owners and they interact with each other so well. 

The last step in the influencer marketing strategy is to evaluate the profiles. The discount code is connected to Google Analytic and the tool is calculating the numbers for use. There have been positive and negative numbers, but regardless if it is positive or negative we never end a collaboration. You never know today, because influencers are growing daily or weekly. If the collaboration was not that positive this time, maybe you can try again after 3-6 months. 

I have about 2 weeks left (if I count this week as well) and I will try to use it wisely while learning as much as I can. As far as I have come, I think all of the learnings I have learnt during my 10 weeks I will take with me forever. The company, my supervisors and colleagues have taught me to work more individually, but also that you work better when you are in a team. You should never be afraid to ask or tell your opinion, because maybe I saw something they did not. As well, I think I have improved my detective skills a lot because searching for right and suitable influencers is not easy, even though there are millions of profiles you can choose from on the social platforms. 

I am very grateful that the company gave me the opportunity to do my 10 weeks internship and I am so thankful I have been working with such inspirational and wise people. This is definitely a work place I want to come back to. 

This was my last post. 

Hope you got a brief angle of influencer marketing. 

Best regards,

Michelle

Circular textile for hotel - post 3/3

Hello,

We are coming near the end of internship. How is everyone doing?

As mentioned in the previous post, I conducted a survey about consumers' awareness about sustainable textile in hotel and finally we will close the survey. With the data I have got in so far, I'm so excited to be able to share with you guys in the report. But one thing that really struck me is how little have been done in the travel and hotel industry in regards of textile, compared to what have been and are doing in the fashion industry. Although the possibility is much higher because here the textile is in controlled most of the time by businesses. The more I learn about it, the more I realize how slow big corps are in this game. And it is frustrating.

But I'm not negative about it. And that's what keep me enjoying and excited about my internship still today. From the survey, I realize that consumers somehow forget how much textile they use for their hotel stays, or just have been so poorly informed that they often mix textile with "housekeeping" service. And once you think something is a "service", you care less about its lifespan, its origin or its impact on the environment. I hope this will change, at least for people who answered my survey.

So for the remaining time of the internship, I will focus on creating marketing material for the company based on the survey data and my market research. I have been working closely with the PR manager of the company and learnt a lot. 

Hope everyone stays safe and can't wait to see you again soon in seminars.

Warm regards,

Ly

Inherently flame retardant regenerated cellulose fibres -1st update

Got a little bit long time to publish my 1st blog in the “Blogspot” since I had to face continuous changes during my Research Assistant Internship due to lab requirements as well as COVID restrictions. I am working with one of the projects of “Textile and Fashion 2030” where the school has been assigned by the government to establish and lead the national platform for sustainable fashion and sustainable textiles in collaboration with the (RISE) Research Institutes of Sweden. The main and initial part of the research has been done by the researcher at RISE and I had to conduct fellow testing procedures to see further criteria.

Untreated regular cellulosic fibers such as viscose, cotton, and linen can easily catch on fire and spread if not protected against fire. Flame retardants can be added to the fabrics to avoid ignition or slow down the fire spread for application in workwear used for firefighters and similar workplaces with a higher exposure risk. Most flame retardants were developed as finishing agents (coatings) to attach to the fiber/fabric physically or chemically. To ensure the proper functionality, coated flame retardants potentially must be reapplied. Moreover, the chemicals used in FR-coating lead to environmental and human health concerns.

As an alternative emerged inherently flame-retardant fibers, as for example regenerated cellulose fibers- viscose, can incorporate the flame retardant into the cellulose solution with the incorporation of silica nanoparticles. Silica nanoparticles are known as low-cost, earth-abundant material and potentially low environmental and human toxicity. Since a knowledge gap still exists for the technique, I am doing a literature review and leachability test to investigate this further.

Hope I can share, clear and more reliable findings of the above points in my next update.

The life of a research assistant (part two)

We’re nearing the end of the line now and I have to say it’s been so fun to read about all your different internships and projects and I’m looking forward to hearing about a few of them in the final presentation seminars!

In our team at Handelslabbet, things are running smoothly, despite a few speed bumps along the way, and next week we’ll have our last official meeting before the summer break. However, as the relaunch isn’t until September and there is still so much to do in terms of planning, I’ve decided to push my research presentation until later in the year so that I can gather as much data as possible for the report. Speaking of data, if you haven’t already, please fill out the survey that the team sent out to your school emails. The lab wants to create an exhibition space based on your opinions and preferences so this is a golden opportunity for you guys to influence the final outcome! If you’ve missed it, you can click the link below to access it:

https://sunet.artologik.net/hb/Survey/1678/en

In terms of research, the articles and journals I’ve found have given me such a great insight into what actually gets us to walk through the doors of a store and how vital visual merchandising and storefront windows are in terms of approachability and engagement. My biggest obstacle now is to find a methodology that fits my purpose, but I’m lucky enough to have a mother with academic research experience who’s been helping me find the right books and references to guide my path. All in all, this period has been great fun so far and I’m excited to see your responses in the survey so that the Handelslabbet-team can get to designing and building an exhibition space that can intrigue and excite you all by next fall! 

Stay safe,
Malin 

Internship in Neritude 2/3

 Hej everyone!

My name is Irina and I study Textile Value Chain Management. I´ve been helping with lauching a new plus-size fashion webshop to Finland the past weeks. We had a very tight schedule and tried to open the shop end of this month but because of delays in the orders the opening is postponed by two weeks. 

It´s been challenging to work from distance as I can´t help with the practical things that the company would really need my help for. But anyways I feel like I´ve managed to learn from this internship even from distance. There´s a lot to take into consideration when setting up a business from stratch. For example contracts have to be made with different retailers and logistics providers, how much time will the customs add to the delivery time of the products (this we learned the hard way) and where to get all the packing materials. 

It´s been also interesting to see how much work goes into photoshoots, product descriptions, editing and marketing. Luckily when the products got delayed we had time to pre-launch the webshop on Instagram and TikTok (go and follow @neritude) and the response has already been great. We´ve been able to get some followers including finnish plus-size influencers and give little sneak peeks for them about the upcoming products and the journey to become a company. 

Only few weeks and my internship is done. Can´t believe how fast time has gone by!!

Have amazing week

-Irina 

Internship at [a]industri, post 2/3

Hello everyone, 

Hope that you all are doing great and enjoy the last weeks of this semester even if it starts to be a bit stressful now with deadlines coming up! 

To remind you all I am doing an internship at a garment factory and design studio named [a]industri in Gothenburg and I have already been here for 7 weeks. Since my last post I have continued to take part in client meetings with different kinds of customers. Some of the clients need for example only help to realise their design ideas but don’t have any textile background or need help in the product development phase and some clients wants help in all the steps from initial idea to produce samples and have their hole production here. Beside this I also assist in planning the production and help where I can with for instance printing and final inspections. Because of this I have learned so much about how product development works and all the steps taken in the pre-production and production phases that we discussed in Ahsan's course last fall. It is really all from fabric and trim choices to the right measurements and all the different kind of samples. So it has been really fun to experience this in real and relate this to the courses we have had.   

Regarding my report, I will write about the use of 3D digital design tools in product development and relate this to sustainability. Here at my internship they use a program named CLO 3D where all garments that are going to be designed or produced are designed in this program first. One of the advantages that I have learned so far is how this can contribute to a more sustainable sample production since so many adjustments can be made in 3D in the program, both without and with an avatar so you can see exactly how the garment will fit and look like in a certain size. This then means that less samples in many cases need to be produced and sent all over the world since changes can be made and tested visually several times first without any physical material and shipments. More on this in my last post!

Good luck with your reports and take care!

//Anna

Company internship post 3/3

 Wow, times really travel fast and only 1,5 weeks are remaining of the field study. I feel relieved as I then can focus more on the report which I haven't had much time for. 

Since my last post here I´ve had a lot of days off due to the fact that I was sick (not covid puh) and Ascension day. However, I have still gotten some work done, believe it or not. ;) 

I´ve been in contact with a GOTS certifier to investigate how everything works and what it would mean to the brand to join. I've also done some calculations on what a membership with GOTS and BCI would cost and how it will affect the margin of the products. I've also started to map the different sizes of the polybags in order to order recycled ones to all of our suppliers. I´ve also finalised the product care guide and information text that will go up on the website. 

The company is in a lot of stress atm as they have had a tough year and also because it is high season on samples. Therefore, they have a lot of other things to prioritise and my projects take some extra time to conduct. For example the jeans project that I´ve been writing about in all of my previous blog posts, not much has happened there yet. But this is also due to the fact that no one knows who's responsible for it haha, the struggles… 

Hopefully my last weeks will include fully implementing the preferred fibre list and integrating it in the AW22 development, finalising the suppliers list and maybe start the jeans project once and for all. 

Looking forward to hearing some of your presentations now and good luck with the writing. 

Best regards, 

Hanna

Digital Marketing Intern . 3

 Hi everyone. 

Last week was hectic, as it was Ascension day the week was shorter at the internship and I had a lot to do. We have shifted my focus from emails now as we are done with the "email-journey" - which is a set of automatic mails that will be sent after the customer has made an order. We will analyze it further once we have enough data to see what needs to be changed. So, last week we shifted focus to ads! I worked on making an ad and it was a lot to think of. As it's a swimwear brand it is a lot of bodies in our content, and there are policies to follow when marketing skin at different sites, like how much skin you could show in a picture. I've never thought of that before. However, I think it's good even if it's a lot to think of and creates a lot of barriers. So, when I was done making the Ad we also published it to our target markets. The feeling is kind of surreal, but I'm so thankful for the company to believe in my ideas and thoughts. I hope that you also get to test your ideas in a way that you didn't expect! 

Now it's only 2,5 weeks left of my internship, and I hope the weather forecast for these weeks changes so I will have the chance of seeing how content is created with a photoshoot. It's predicted rain, rain, and even more rain and therefore we have waited with the photoshoot. Hopefully, the sun will shine in a few days!

/Sara

"Size and Fit" Research Assistant Internship Blog 2/3

Hi everyone!

I hope you guys are doing great and enjoying the rainy summer days especially those who are in Borås.

This is my second blog here after many weeks. In my first blog, I mentioned that I am conducting a Research Assistant Internship on the topic of “Size and Fit”. In connection to my previous blog about my responsibility in research assistance. I have made substantial progress in my work. In the past week, I have finalized my database for my research. I have also studied Boolean operations and other operators for the selected database. I have also developed my keywords and search strings. I already started working on an excel sheet and it is in progress.

Now I have my tentative research topic ie systematic Literature review on consumer satisfaction for Size and Fit. The focus of my research is online shopping and its consequences on customer satisfaction. The purpose of my research will be to analyze the effect of online shopping and digital technology on customer satisfaction for Size and Fit. My research will dig down into the detail of these technologies and will analyze the pros and cons of these technologies have on customer purchase behavior.

Have a good weekend to all  😊
Best Regards
Aiman ​​Khan

Looking Forward to an End - It's Hectic! 😑

Soooo...

At the edge of the cliff of the game design and planning to jump into a bigger ocean of academic writing. 

To make the game more complete and give the players a clear picture of the bigger part of the industry I had to add another module; Retail Module. In this module, player will get the idea how to maintain inventory, a glimpse of product costing, markup, markdown and a lot of decision making aspects. The main agenda of this module player will be to clear out the inventory of the running season before entering to the next one.

At this stage the finalised version will be a game-played by 5 persons: 1 person  for Purchase Module, 3 persons for Supply Module and 1 person for Retail module. I believe, now the game is more in a complete shape to reflect an apparel industry supply chain. Demand will be generated and purchasing responsible will place the order with the suppliers after considering the necessary points and negotiations. The suppliers will be responsible to manage the manufacturing or supply of the product and communication with the buyer with a view to maximise their profitability and gain a sustainable economic growth. Finally, once the order will be delivered, the retailer will be doing "stuffs (!)" to sell the order and manage the inventory.

Still a formula is pending to implement that is, the linear demand function to determine the possibilities of selling the inventories after markdown of price. Still studying that :p.

About writing, I am thinking more towards a research paper formate where I will be explaining different terminologies and the basics of the game with a framework of it. Hopefully, will be able to pen down in a licid format for you all :).

At this moment, enjoying EID vacation. Hope to drag me to the chair again on Monday!

Enjoy and stay safe!

21st Century Tailoring - (2/3)

Hello everyone, 

I hope you're all doing great and that you have some time to enjoy the nice spring weather (finally!). 

My days are busy at Blugiallo and right now they mostly consist of analyzing the data gathered in the survey and preparing for presenting it for the company and their business developers. The survey resulted in 500+ completed answers, which will hopefully generate valuable insights that can help drive business modifications in the requested direction. It's been a bit of coding and analyzing to do (including overcoming my fear of SPSS...) but it's great to see the enthusiasm and engagement among all the respondents. 

I have never done a quantitative study like this one before, so there were some concerns before starting the project. The biggest challenge was for me to distribute the survey to non-customers. We really wanted to reach those potential future customers, like law students for example, but we didn't know how to. It was tricky because Blugiallo was using their channels to distribute the survey, via social media or email marketing for example, but many of those are already customers or at least very familiar with the brand, and thus the figures customers/non-customers were very unequal percentage-wise. Ultimately, my solution to this problem was to write individual messages to all the guys I'm friends with on Facebook and Instagram and then move on to repeat the procedure on my boyfriend's, mom's, dad's, and sister's accounts. When I closed the survey a few days later, we had reached a number of 51% customers and 49% non-customers. VERY satisfied with that number! 

Once all the analyzes are done and presented, I will fully focus on the report. 

Looking forward to my last few weeks at Blugiallo in my dear hometown Borås, before moving to Stockholm in August.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

/Edith  

Circular development, blogpost 2/3

Hello everyone, hope you all are doing good!

Now I have started my fifth week on my internship in circular development at Boob Design. I have decided to write my report for the last two weeks instead of doing it in parallel, given that I collect information and the basis for it during the internship. I recently had a presentation for the company where I suggested some concepts for second-hand sales that I think would suit the company well. After the presentation, I received good input from co-workers to continue working with the remaining weeks. The plan is for me to work this out into a final concept and once again hold a presentation the last thing I do. Between these presentations, I have had meetings with, among others, Houdini, which has been very rewarding and exciting to hear about their second-hand project and how successful it has proved to be. Although I have learned a lot and appreciated my internship, it has also been challenging many times to work remotely. But for now, it is just to keep on going and do the best of the situation!

Really appreciate reading everyone’s posts, nice to hear that so many of you seem to enjoy their internships! I wish you all a wonderful week 😊

Best regards,

Hanna Skoglund