WornWell: The Smart Hanger
2025
the goal
The goal of WornWell was to create a future artifact based off signals in the fashion industry seen today. I was assigned to create a product that would indicate what the future would look like based simple off this product. After conducting research across different resale platforms and learning about sustainable materials like Tencel, I developed the idea for the WornWell Smart Hanger. The Smart Hanger is a product paired with an app to track the number of wears a garment has.
the challenge
During this design process, researching about future signals gave me little optimism about the trajectory of the fashion industry, but this was also an opportunity to create a future artifact that is designed for optimism. The ideation process consisted of coming up with roughly 50 different artifacts that related to my research. Ultimately, my strongest idea was The Smart Hanger because it had the most to do with the consumer taking more of a role is waste reduction and a company like WornWell that would support the consumer. Initially, the artifact was simply the hanger, but as I developed further, I realized I needed more details to show the viewers what the future would look like based off my research. This meant developing an idea for an app and the story behind the company.
the outcome
The WornWell Smart Hanger was effective in telling the story based off my research of signals seen today in sustainable fashion and the future this could lead to. This project taught me a lot about the importance of the ideation process and spending time based off of research to brainstorm to my limit. WornWell exceeded my expectations because it required a lot of back end storytelling in order to show the audience what this future could look like and ultimately the viewers that engaged with my product were fascinated and surprised something like this didn’t exist. Many viewers shared that they thought it was an interesting idea especially because it looked optimistically at an industry that generally has little optimism as far as how it is effecting climate change.
Initial image generation with AI to get a sense of the box I was intending to design
Hand made WornWell box including pamphlet and QR code to give viewers a sense of the product
External design of the trifold pamphlet
Internal design of the trifold pamphlet
My initial sketch of the Smart Hanger
Final presentation of WornWell and all previous research conducted