Project Summary

Clothing has always been a significant portion of human life. As Solitaire Townsend, a sustainability expert, and female entrepreneur, has said, “Wear clothes that matter.” Nowadays, fast fashion trends have pushed the establishment of low-priced and mass-produced clothing, and the value of clothing has thereby declined. Quantity became all people ask for. Among all diverse styles and outfits, denim products have been around in fast fashion trends for years. Some iconic styles include bleached jeans, dark wash jeans, oversized jeans, trucker jackets, denim bags, etc. As a result of fabric industries fulfilling high denim product demands, approximately 10 billion garments of denim fabric are manufactured and produced each year. The global denim industry is worth 77.67 billion USD and is estimated to be worth 121.50 billion USD by 2030. Little do they know, the fast-growing denim industry comes with substantial pollution and waste. Water consumption, carbon emissions, chemical use, waste generation, energy consumption, and so many more factors are impacted in the production process of denim products. In this project, the team introduces the audience to the history of denim fabrics, the positive and negative impacts of denim production, statistics about denim waste and production, the project’s connection with SDGs, survey analysis, as well as a Taiwanese sustainable fashion brand, “Story Wear.”  
Story Wear is a local brand founded by Kuan Chen, a Taiwanese and United Kingdom college master's degree holder, whose family has participated in the fashion industry for years. In Taiwan’s variety of fashion brands, Story Wear stands out valuing and blending their concept of sustainability, fashion, as well as social enterprise. These qualities intersect and form a branch of a new industry, “sustainable fashion.” Not only has Story Wear taken part in popular events such as the London Fashion Week and Taipei Fashion Week, but they also cooperated with prominent international businesses such as IKEA, 7-Eleven, and L’Oreal. Established in 2018, the brand has thrived in the industry and become a leader and model for new companies who are willing to turn to “sustainable” action. On this website, the audience may expect a deep inspection of the brand “Story Wear” and how it stands out to the team among all Taiwanese sustainable fashion brands. To add a sense of liveness to the content, the team has scheduled an interview with the founder Kuan Chen, to discuss some of her concepts and stories in Story Wear’s 6 years of operation, this includes current statistics on the brand, the mental journey she went through when founding the brand, and last but not least her expectations and shout-out to everyone working in the sustainable fashion industry.

Computer/Internet Access

In the age of the internet and online resources, access to the internet allows the team to manage everything in an organized and simplified manner. Shared online resources allow teammates to work on the same document simultaneously thereby increasing the quality and quantity of our content. All members working on this project have both at home and school internet access. All 10 members including 2 teachers add up to more than 12 laptop devices as well as 12 mobile phones. The connection speed in our classroom is approximately 10.58 MBPS and the speed of downloading is 2 MBPS. Some purposes of using personal devices in the project include research, planning, organizing information, video editing, creating the website, communicating, as well as reflecting on the project. Most portions of the project are done in school. Since our school, Kang Chiao International School Xiugang Campus lies high up on mountain terrains, internet access may be inconsistent and unstable in rare circumstances.

Problems to Overcome

Throughout the whole project, the team did not encounter any significant problems or issues that impacted us heavily, if this had to be said, the greatest challenge was keeping up with the schedule and progress. To begin, 10 is not a large number. It’s difficult for 10 students, under a busy curricular and homework schedule, to squeeze in time for this project. In Kang Chiao International School Xiugang Campus, the CyberFair club is where each of us works on our task and finally turns drafts into a final website. Our club time remains at 2 periods each week, which adds up to 90 minutes, or 1.5 hours. Although 1.5 hours may sound like a lot, it takes time for each of us to re-enter the situation and begin from where we left behind last week. As this process repeats over and over again, the team loses time to work on the project and thereby slows down our progress. Aside from this, since club time is only present on school days, the team would need to attend a winter training event during the winter break, allowing more progress to be made. Since a small portion of the team already scheduled plans for the winter break, not everyone attended the winter training, our progress was therefore even more delayed and deferred. This means that each member had to spend extra time at home or rush out the progress when we had time. Aside from this, a few teammates did not participate and put as much effort into the project as others, which meant extra work for the rest of the teammates. Even so, the group still managed to finish the project on time and with great quality. Not many troubles were met and the whole team enjoyed the experience and process in the production of the project.

Project Soundbite

In a world where the concept of “reduce, reuse, and recycle” is valued, the principle of sustainability blends in with a variety of industries, hoping to elevate the quality of living while limiting waste production. In the project, students from Kang Chiao International School Xiugang Campus study one of the branches of sustainable industry, sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion is a concept that arose in the 70s thanks to the Punk Rock Movement. While developed countries such as the US and the UK may have persisted in a greater effort and history towards this criteria, Taiwan has followed Western countries' footsteps and began with its own culture and style of “wearing sustainability around.” In the path of innovation and development, students from Kang Chiao International School Xiugang Campus explore local sustainable fashion companies and dive into their motivation, motto, products, influence, and features. Throughout the project, they learn to socially interact with company owners, organize information, research, schedule an interview, and cooperate to learn concepts beyond what the school has taught. In a greater context, the project turns students into global participants, as they strive to show Taiwan’s beauty and sustainable efforts to the world; responsible citizens, as they persist in promoting sustainable concepts and qualities to individuals across the internet; effective communicators, as they demonstrate efficient connections with each other and employ fair work distribution to make collaboration possible; active achievers, as they enthusiastically and gladly participate in the project to inform the public about environmental awareness and local attractions; and thoughtful leaders, as some walk out the crowd, stand up, and lead the team to their deserved success.