Ecotextile News Interview with a UK-based Technology Start-up
LONDON – A UK-based technology start-up is seeking to challenge the throwaway culture of ‘fast fashion’ by utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help consumers in reusing and upcycling garments which they already own.
Save Your Wardrobe has developed an online platform which enables users to build a ‘digital wardrobe’ equipped with suggestions on how to reuse and reimagine their existing clothes rather than seeking to keep buying new ones.
As is the case with many industry innovators, statistics which reveal the extent of the sector’s polluting impact served as one of the motivating factors behind Save Your Wardrobe’s inception.
Hasna Kourda, co-founder and CEO of the company told Ecotextile News: “There is the figure that we only use 20 per cent of our wardrobes. We are trying to find creative ways to repurpose the 80 per cent we don’t think about.”
The company’s solution to the problem is providing consumers with a digital resource to keep a track of their wardrobe, enabling clothing to be used to its full potential – decreasing the need to continue buying garments at such a staggering rate and extending the use phase of those already purchased.
Technology from Fintech and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) are used by the company to facilitate reading the receipts whether online or on paper, also using Computer Vision to tag the main features of garments in order to make the digitisation a simple process.
Simply put, consumers can scan in receipts from participating retailers and the technology utilised by the firm will upload this to form a bespoke ‘digital wardrobe’. Kourda confirmed that a wide variety of high street and luxury retailers are already covered by the technology – including Asos and Net-a-Porter.
She went on to say: “We are creating an ecosystem of services as a way to upcycle and extend the life of garments. As a user we help you use more of what you already own, helping you create outfit ideas which you may not have thought of.
“We also help you upcycle garments which may be at the back of your wardrobe through collaboration with our partners. For instance, we can give them a second life by getting a seamstress to add something to a shirt that can make it trendy again.”