Want to live sustainably and fashionably? There is an app that can help you

An application lets you store your clothes digitally and access services to extend their lifespan. Photo: AFP

How many of the items of clothing tucked away in your closet do you actually wear? Based on the observation that most consumers only wear a fifth of their wardrobe,

Hasna Kourda created the Save Your Wardrobe app in 2020, inviting people to store their clothes digitally to help them optimise their use and increase their lifespan.

Three years later, the initiative has been so successful that it has been awarded the prestigious 2023 LVMH Innovation Award.

Research is unanimous: people buy far more clothes than they need.

According to a 2018 Movinga Group survey of 18,000 households in 20 countries worldwide, UK residents didn't touch 73% of their wardrobe in the last 12 months.

This figure rises to 82% for Americans while the Japanese were found to ignore 72% and the French 68%.

And that's a real waste when you consider that fashion is one of the world's most polluting industries, with no less than four billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted per year, according to France's Agency for Ecological Transition, ADEME.

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For several years, this has been driving industry players to reinvent by introducing new materials and new manufacturing processes, and through the emergence of new services and practices such as repair, resale and upcycling.

Tunisian-born Hasna Kourda has gone one step further, launching the artificial intelligence-based Save Your Wardrobe app in 2020.

The platform, which has just scooped the coveted LVMH Innovation Award, aims to reduce waste by enabling people to track their clothing consumption step by step.

The aim is not only to visualise your entire wardrobe digitally in just a few clicks, but also to optimise its use on a daily basis and significantly increase its lifespan to avoid overconsumption.

And that's all without having to delve deep into your closet to find a forgotten item packed away several years ago.

Reducing the environmental impact of your closet

In concrete terms, the application lets you scan and store the items in your closet in just a few clicks, then organise them by model, brand, colour, and type of garment or accessory.

And that's not all, since Save Your Wardrobe lets you build complete looks, then schedule them to be worn on specific days using a calendar.

It's a fun feature, at first glance, but above all it's designed to help you stop forgetting about the clothes in your drawers or closets, and therefore stop buying more unnecessarily.

But it's also – and above all – about increasing the lifespan of the dresses, skirts and jeans that sit at the back of closets, by putting consumers in touch with all kinds of services.

In just a few clicks, you can find a cleaning, repair, alteration, upcycling or customisation service, depending on the problem with your garment, then access prices and book an appointment.

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It's incredibly simple, and a timely reminder that, for several decades, consumers have tended to repurchase before seeking to repair or upcycle a particular item of clothing.

Not content with just targeting consumers, the app is targeting fashion brands too.

No doubt the recent award won by Save Your Wardrobe will boost its partnerships, as well as its downloads.

To date, the founder of this innovation claims to be able to extend the life of a garment by at least a year, reducing its carbon footprint by 24%. – AFP Relaxnews