1) I enjoyed this lab, the work does come out as what I hypothesized, although the colors of the checks pattern come out unexpectedly as there are mixtures of blue and purples inside. However, I like this surprising outcome. Next time I will pay more attention to drawing more carefully my patterns.
3) Yes, my country has the same tradition of repair broken dishes. Additionally, there are a lot of clothes repairing and retailoring tailors exist. When my clothes are small or big, rather than throwing them away, my mom will take them to the tailors and let them do the retailor. Kintsugi fulfills the criteria of “repair, cost, manufacturing, function, safety, planned production, user, environment, and design”. lastly, I do think that repaired kintsugi design becomes more interesting than its origin because by redesigning the object, it gives the object more history and life; while the origin design looks more complete, the repaired one looks more organic and lively. My aesthetic is more appealing to the repaired ones with its randomly distributed gold organic lines.
4) I would like to attend a repair cafe or a repair party one day, after reading the news, I starting to get to understand more about this event. It seems like it is not only a professional repairing station, but it is also a party and a safe place to share one’s beloved things. This special event is very attractive to lots of people because it gathers different people that share the same heart and responsibility to protect our mother earth, but also it creates a community for those who came to the party. You can meet new people through this event, and also have an opportunity to hear a lot of interesting stories. A repair party helps you to feel more human than ever.
5) I always consider a lot of things before I buy a new piece of garment. I think about how often would I wear it; how strong is the fabric; how much do I love the design; and how useful is it… etc. I have this habit of making myself go through every little consideration in mind then to purchase a new piece of clothing. I am very strict about doing so before purchase because: firstly, Fashion is such a big part of my life, but since I am not working yet, I make sure to think carefully so that I don’t waste a penny. Secondly, I moved around a lot, every time when I packed and cleaned my closet, I would feel strong guilt of throwing away so many things; I also felt enormous stress because I owned too much stuff. My experience tells me that I need to take responsibility to own resources, and now, I pay less on fashion, rather, I only buy things that have good qualities and that are more useful.
6) I would like to see this kind of tax be possible in my county China. China has always had a tradition of getting things repaired. Since I could remember, my mom or my grandparents would always take things to the repair exports for fixing instead of throwing them away. “Not wasting” is also a custom that most of the eastern countries shared, kids have been taught to follow this custom at a young age. However, the incomes that the repair exports have are not so optimistic, some afraid that if there is no encouragement of the custom then it will fade away. If having a tax reduction encourages the custom then it will be a win-win for both the environment, the customers of repair(since they pay less to buy new things), and maybe the repair exports too. I am not so sure if this tax is possible for the United States, because of how everything is based on capitalism. This form of encouragement will definitely discourage people to buy new things, however, if people stop purchasing, then there is no room for capitalism to exist. Lots of things will face a change, where marketers need to find a new way to market, and the population will face a shift in consumption view.
7) I do agree with the author of this article that buying high quality yet high prices products would save money. To be continued with the opinion that I mentioned for question 5, high-quality products promise a longer time to use when compared to low-quality ones. When you are using a higher quality product, it saves your time for searching for a new one if it brokes; hence, it saves you money to keep buying new things. Although high-quality things are usually expensive, I don’t think that a good quality product has to be expensive, because when think about Japan’s long time design products. Not every product is luxuriously designed and sells, but they all have good quality. What needs to be improved is that the mindset of customers needs to change from buying the brand to buying what they actually need.
8) I love this design and think that it is such a genius piece. The most innovative about the design is that it truly thinks about customer needs, saving both parents’ money and resources. I think that it is possible for adults to enjoy long life fashion designs, however, it wouldn’t be as popular as the children since most adults and jobs are so deeply linked to the fashion industry, it will be hard to encourage something that promised a long time.
