A user-centered recycling fashion design process: a sustainable approach through emotional awareness and engagement with clothing waste

Abstract Addressing the increasingly severe issue of textile waste requires innovative, user-centered recycling solutions that combine expert knowledge with consumer participation. This study developed and validated a user-centered creative recycling fashion design process that leverages emotional connections to clothing products to promote sustainable practices. The methodology involved engaging users emotionally with clothing waste materials through text highlighting, material weaving, and product design, followed by comprehensive evaluations. Users handcrafted new materials from waste through weaving, which were digitally twinned and transformed into final products. The users and experts evaluated the process and products on a 7-point Likert scale across various categories, including user satisfaction, emotional response, product design, public practicability, educational applicability, and sustainability. The results demonstrated a 76% success rate in recycling clothing waste, an 8% increase in positive emotions, and an 11% decrease in negative emotions toward the final products. User satisfaction averaged 6 out of 7 points, and experts rated the process at 60% for practicability, 90% for educational program applicability, and 70% for sustainability. This study highlights the importance of integrating emotional awareness and user participation in fostering sustainable fashion practices and proposes a model that can be widely applied in design education and the fashion industry.