Will Data and Transparency Reshape What Clothes We Buy?

🎙️ The Fashion Stitch -- On Fabrics, Facts and Feelings

Episode 4: Will Data and Transparency Reshape What Clothes We Buy?

Why do we really buy what we buy --- and could transparency change that?\ From emotions and status to sustainability and data, this episode explores how our shopping habits are shaped by both feeling and fact.

💡 Beyond the problems, we spotlight solutions:

• The psychology of fashion consumption --- and how awareness can bridge the knowledge--action gap\
• How the EU Digital Product Passport could make fashion more circular and traceable\
• OEKO-TEX® MADE IN GREEN -- linking verified data with social and environmental responsibility\
• EU textile regulations pushing brands toward greater accountability\
• Turning transparency into true empowerment, not information overload

👥 Featuring

• Prof. Renate Stauss -- The American University of Paris, on desire, price, decoration, and social status as drivers of fashion consumption --- and why sustainability often struggles against emotional appeal.\
• Carolin Franitza -- Stakeholder Manager at OEKO-TEX®, on the EU Digital Product Passport, MADE IN GREEN certification, and ensuring verified, trustworthy data.

💬 Street voices:\ Berlin shoppers on transparency, price, and whether they'd scan a QR code before buying

🔑 Topics we cover

• Why emotions, desire, and status drive fashion consumption\
• What "transparency" really means --- and what it can't fix\
• How the Rana Plaza tragedy shaped calls for accountability\
• Opportunities and limits of digital product passports\
• Greenwashing, trust, and the importance of verified data\
• Why real change needs both facts and feelings

📌 Sources and further reading

• The European Textile Regulation\
• EU Digital Product Passport\
• Hot or Cool Institute -- Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable: Resizing Fashion for a Fair Consumption Space (2022)\
• Simon-Kucher -- Nachhaltige Mode: Nur jeder Dritte akzeptiert Aufpreis (2024) (in German)\
• Kate Fletcher -- Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion (2016)\
• Fashion Revolution -- Fashion Transparency Index
• The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education