Speculative Stuff
2023 - 2024 Student Works
* The intellectual property rights of each work are owned by each student.

The Cotton Production Ban in 2050




YOURIM STELLA PARK

 Fashion is a very conscious industry. But as an amount of clothing waste is poured out every year, it also has a great impact on the environment. Especially Korea is sensitive to trends, so clothes are cheap, and trends change rapidly as there are more fast fashion brands, so people consume more clothes and throw the clothes sway easily. Therefore, the average amount of clothing waste generated is 225t per day, and the amount of waste fiber generated is 27,083t. Especially, Cotton is one of the textile materials. In 2019-2020, 80 countries, including China, India, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, and the United States, produce approximately 2,100t of cotton. Cotton is abundantly produced among fibres and is durable. However, as environmental awareness has increased in recent years, environmental concerns regarding fashion have also become an issue. The cultivation and processing of cotton, the second most widely used of 21% of medical fibres, has a significant global impact on the environment and society. Environmental Impact 10,000L of water are used to manufacture 1KG of cotton. In addition, cotton production emits approximately 220 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. A substantial amount of synthetic fertiliser that emits nitrogen dioxide is used to grow conventional cotton. Nitrogen dioxide is 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming. If so, many clothes are thrown away every year, it will have a great impact on the environment. Is there a way to make clothes that people don’t wear or discarded useful?

Beginning in 2049 with the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, each country’s government legally restricted and regulated cotton production on May 30, 2050. This restricted the cultivation of cotton in certain regions and reduced production. The United Nations (UN) is investing in sustainable alternativecrop research and development in instead of cotton and is

seeking to mass-produce crops such as plant fibres or regenerated fibres that can be used as alternative materials. In addition, the government emphasised the significance of environmental protection by conducting campaigns to promote environmental education and awareness, and by promoting ecofriendly materials and consumption practices. Even if clothing is thrown on the ground, it will not rot or melt for over two centuries. As a result, the majority decided to burn it down, but they were concerned about the carbon dioxide emissions that would result. As cotton production is legally regulated, the fashion industry has developed measures. Cotton was made

geometrically and patterned by reusing clothing waste or clothes piled up in a clothing warehouse aeer the trend and repurposing these materials. This trend introduced a vintage style that recreates clothing waste by instituting a zero-waste, sustainable circulation system. In 2023, garments that were popular in the 1990s and 2000s were once again popular in Korea, a trend known as ‘y2k’. It was a trend among adolescents and young adults at the time. By 2050, however, dirty vintage clothing has become fashionable and expensive. “mélanger” (to mix up in French) is Korean Luxury fashion brand in 2024. These clothes are sold by luxury labels including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Hermes, and the consumers who purchase them are affluent. Then, in 2050, people from classes other than the wealthy will wear clothes that are simple, neat, and classy, and this fashion will be sold at a lower price. In the future, we expect that these messy vintage styles will gain worldwide popularity and that the day will come when we all wear them




2023



Speculative Stuff



Speculative Stuff documents the design works of Yonsei University's Integrated Design undergraduate students, showcasing South Korea's first speculative design course. Led by Hyunjae Daniel Shin (Assistant Professor) and Eun Sun Park (Lecturer), our 16-week program blends theoretical lectures, interactive workshops, and practical exercises.

This course aims to foster the ability to understand and speculate about macro and micro changes in technology, culture, society, and the environment through everyday products and services in future contexts. By using future scenarios, comedy techniques, and preposterous worldbuilding, students develop a critical perspective on alternative futures.