EXPLORING EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT AND GARMENT LONGEVITY THROUGH PERSONALIZED UPCYCLING

Abstract

The global fashion industry generates vast amounts of textile waste each year, while garment lifespans continue to shorten. In response, circular strategies such as upcycling have gained traction; yet much of the existing scholarship on circularity in the fashion industry emphasizes material innovation rather than the emotional connections consumers form with their clothing. This study explored whether embedding personal narratives into garments through creative upcycling practices, including embroidery, patchwork, and fabric painting, can strengthen emotional attachment and support garment longevity among individuals with low engagement in sustainable fashion. The research was guided by Person–Product Attachment Theory and a co-design methodology. Ten participants who scored at or below the midpoint of the Sustainable Fashion Consumption Scale were recruited to contribute a garment they no longer used and a personal story they wished to see represented on it. The researcher translated each story into a design through creative interventions with participants reviewing sketches and mid-process iterations. Participants wore the completed, upcycled garments over a four-week period and then took part in semi-structured post-use interviews. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase reflexive thematic analysis. Five primary themes and several sub-themes were developed through the analysis. First, participants re-categorized their upcycled garments from ordinary or disposable items into singular, personally meaningful objects. Second, they described the upcycled garments as carriers of present-tense identity and as portable memory artifacts, in some cases capable of being passed across generations. Third, affective responses to both the finished garment and the making process emerged as central to the experience overall. Fourth, behavioral intentions shifted, with garments once considered for donation re-entering active wardrobe rotation. Fifth, co-creation and the social visibility of the upcycled garments also contributed to attachment, and a subset of participants reported broader reconsiderations of clothing consumption. Taken together, the findings suggest that personalized upcycling can singularize garments by transforming them from replaceable products into personally meaningful objects that resist substitution. The study contributes to sustainable fashion scholarship by indicating that garment longevity may depend not only on material durability or circular systems but also on the emotional meaning garments hold for the wearer.