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