Reflekt-Inform yourself to choose better
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
Reflekt is a smart mirror that informs consumers about the positive environmental impact of their jeans while they are trying them on and making it easier for them to make more conscious and sustainable purchasing choices. Reflekt shows animations that illustrate the impact of the jeans in terms of water usage, carbon emissions and transparency. By doing so, the smart mirror creates a new shopping experience where the focus is on the customer's personal definition of sustainable fashion
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
There’s a rising consumer awareness of the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Customers want to buy more sustainable, but don’t really know how. Extensive research proved that there’s a lack of guidance for customers during the purchase of sustainable fashion. Reflekt provides a solution: a smart mirror that informs you on the positive environmental impact of the jeans you are trying on. The target groups are those who want to buy more sustainable clothing but don’t do it yet because they don’t know how.
Reflekt is used in multi-branded clothing stores, more specifically in the room where the fitting rooms are. When the customer stands in front of the mirror, Reflekt shows the positive environmental impact of the jeans the customer is wearing. Using animations, it shows how much water and carbon emissions are saved and how transparent the brand of the jeans is. On top of that, the mirror displays the cost per wear and the used materials. This information provides a solid foundation that customers can use to make a more conscious choice based on their personal definition of sustainable fashion. Furthermore, Reflekt has three buttons, each for a different aspect of information, that the customer can use to specify their personal preferences. They can do this by changing the ranking of the buttons, and thus changing the importance of the water usage, carbon emissions and transparency. With this input, Reflekt offers suggestions of jeans that score better on the entered priorities and thus better match the customer's values. Reflekt is complemented by an app that has the same functionalities as the smart mirror but can be used anywhere and at any time.
With these functionalities, the customer can effortlessly search for sustainable jeans that completely matches with their values and standards and that the customer know for sure that it is a sustainable choice.
Key objectives for sustainability
1. Guidance during the purchase of sustainable jeans
The purpose of Reflekt is to provide clear and understandable information that the customer can use to make a more conscious and sustainable fashion choice. By emphasizing the environmental impact of the garment, Reflekt ensures that besides price, fit, color... the customer also takes the environmental impact into account during the fitting and purchase of a new pair of jeans. It's an approachable way that teaches the customer more about the environmental impact of the fashion industry and how they can do their part to create a better and fairer world.
2. Highlighting the sustainable development of jeans
By suggesting sustainable pairs of jeans, Reflekt provides a platform to sustainable fashion brands to promote their sustainable jeans. The data (water usage, carbon emissions, transparency) communicated to the customer is checked by Reflekt to make sure the information is reliable and there is no greenwashing.
3. Design for disassembly
The smart mirror is designed by the philosophy of design for disassembly. This means that the mirror can completely be taken apart, down to component level. If a component is damaged, it can be exchanged or repaired very easily. Further more, at the end of life, the components can be fully sorted out and recycled.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Reflekt is all about creating a new experience while trying on clothes. Through the interaction between digital animations that are shown and the intensity of the light around the mirror it creates a positive and pleasing feeling. It aims to create a happy and healthy feeling for the customer to experience when trying on new jeans and therefore experiencing a direct positive feedback of what the impact is of his sustainable fashion choice on the environment. The design of the mirror was deliberately kept very minimalistic because the focus should be on the feeling and the experience that the mirror creates and not on the design of the hardware.
It is very important to inform the customer on the positive environmental impact. The emphasis lies on how much water your jeans saves and not uses. It is much more pleasant to see how much better your jeans is for the environment compared to conventional jeans. Every drop of water or kg of carbon that is saved matters and it is more important to highlight that, than to leave the customer sad and unsatisfied they see how much their jeans harms the environment. To create this feeling, the mirror shows three different animations that change based on how good the jeans scores on the topic. For water: the more water the pair of jeans saves, the lower the water level drops. Carbon emissions are illustrated by plants that grow on the sides of the mirror. More carbon emissions saved equals more plants that grow in the mirror. Lastly, transparency is illustrated by a clouded sky. If a brand scores 0% on transparency, the sky is very dark and cloudy. The more transparent the brand is, the more the sky clears up and the brighter the light starts shining.
Key objectives for inclusion
1. Reflekt for multi-branded clothing stores
The multi-branded clothing stores Reflekt is aiming at are often small stores that don’t have a large budget available to make large investments like Reflekt. Based on a monthly payment, stores can rent the smart mirror. This way, the use of Reflekt is much more affordable. It is also an opportunity for stores to test out Reflekt. If the use of the smart mirror turns out not to be very efficient for them, they can simply cancel their subscription.
2. Reflekt for customers
Reflekt will be available to use in the fitting room of clothing stores. It is free of charge, and anybody can discover their impact by simply standing in front of the mirror. Second, the dimensions of the mirror have been carefully chosen so that its use is not hindered for anyone. Lastly, it is important to note that living sustainable is a privilege. Not everybody has the means to buy a more expensive pair of jeans just because it saves more water. Reflekt also takes budget into account and by showing the cost per wear, the customer sees how much the pair of jeans will cost him each time he or she wears it. Furthermore, buying 1 pair of jeans that is timeless and of good quality is better than buying a pair of jeans made from recycled fibers that you’re just going to wear one time and then throw away.
3. Reflekt app for customers
Reflekt also has an application that basically has the same functionalities as the smart mirror. This app is free of charge and can be used by anybody and anywhere. Therefore, making the purchase of sustainable fashion more approachable for everybody.
Innovative character
Reflekt is an innovative product because the software isn’t dependent on the embodiment and vica versa. The software refers to the animations that show the environmental impact of the jeans and algorithm that offers suggestions based on the customer’s input. For this design a smart mirror is chosen as embodiment, but this can also be a screen, an app, a projection… Furthermore, Reflekt is designed to be a full-length mirror, but this can also be a smaller mirror that for example can be used to compare different types of glasses or handbags. On the other hand, the software can be altered to the type of product that’s being compared. Reflekt compares jeans based on environmental impact, but the software can also be used to compare shoes, dresses or even furniture. The innovative character thus lies in the fast and easy adaptability of Reflekt to what product needs to be compared, on what ground and in what context, while the basic idea and software remains mainly the same.
