Sustainable Wardrobe Strategies

This unit equips students with practical skills to extend garment life, assess sustainable brands, and make cost-effective wardrobe decisions through swaps, resale, rentals, repair, and upcycling. Students will apply lifecycle thinking, calculate cost-per-wear, and execute small refashion and styling projects to prepare for advanced merchandising, entrepreneurship, or capstone experiences.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and compare sustainability claims and business practices of at least three apparel brands represented in the unit using a provided evaluation rubric, and rank them by environmental and social impact.
• Evaluate the lifecycle and cost-effectiveness of garments by calculating cost-per-wear for five items and recommending keep, repair, resale, rent, or upcycle actions with justification.
• Apply sustainable wardrobe management strategies to design an 8–12 item capsule wardrobe plan that incorporates at least two reuse channels (swap, resale, rental, upcycle) and maximizes projected cost-per-wear.
• Demonstrate basic repair, alteration, and upcycling techniques by completing one refashion project and two accessory transformations (e.g., scarves, belts, clutch) documented with before/after evidence and a reflection on environmental benefit.