Re-birth design analysis for developing sustainable fashion products

Sustainability in fashion cannot ignore fashion attributes required for the design of rapidly changing and innovative products. This study examines "Re-Birth Design" development and provides a means to apply academic and industry perspectives to the investigation of Re-Birth fashion product development. This study defines "Re-Birth Design" as stock that has been designed and launched through distribution channels, subsequently returned unused, then improved and reborn into a new product for redistribution. This study analyzed specific cases. We selected 100 designs for Re-Birth from 11 brands of "K" fashion company in Korea, to be successfully sold in 2014. These cases are used in the analysis and are categorized into design types. As a result of the analysis, "Re-Birth Design" had five levels: Level 1. Changes in supplementary materials such as adding or removing decoration, Level 2. Changes in patterns or materials (changes within the product), Level 3. Partial changes in design (leading to a new design), Level 4. Complete deconstruction and rebirth of the design, and Level 5. Complete deconstruction followed by the use of the design source for a new product that is not a garment. This study analyzed products owned by brands, as well as successful cases of Re-Birth designs that reused existing resources, reduced energy consumption, and increased environmental and economic efficiency by recreating new products that could be resold.