Emotional durability : The secret weapon against fast fashion

Why do we love a garment? What creates this very particular attachement to a specific piece? Emotional durability lies in this connection that makes one cherish a clothing piece, thus take care of it, washing it carefully, pleating it neatly, and taking the time for repairing it. Coined by design academic Jonathan Chapman¹, emotional durability refers to a product’s ability to elicit a long-term emotional connection² with the user – an antidote to disposability, rooted in intimacy, identity, and memory. In fashion, this could be the most underrated form of sustainability. In order to consider the whereabouts of emotional durability, we can turn the question another way round : How many items in our wardrobe do we truly love? And why don't we love your clothes anymore? 

Would emotional durability be fashion’s missing link ?

In the age of fast fashion and ultra-rapid consumption cycles, sustainable innovation often fixates on materials, production processes, and recycling. Yet one of the most transformative levers remains almost entirely overlooked: emotional durability. This often missing piece in the sustainability conversations is nevertheless being included in the French Eco-score. As Carbonfact explains:

"This methodology aims to correct the biases and shortcomings of the European PEFCR (Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules ) framework which does not yet include emotional durability, micro-plastics, biodiversity loss and significantly underestimates the impacts of polyester, favoring fast fashion. It thereby introduces criteria that relate not only to the products but to the commercial practices of the fashion brand that manufactures them (…) through the “extrinsic” sustainability coefficient, composed of three parameters: the breadth of the range, the incentive to repair and the display of the traceability of the garment. These criteria do not exhaustively define fast fashion, but they are relevant." ³

©KHGarts

Technology has a critical role to play, not only in measuring these criteria or enabling longer lifespans, but in cultivating emotion itself. Technology isn’t the enemy of emotional value – it can enhance it. Digital storytelling, embedded memories, and customisation tools can help people form real connections with their garments. In this era dominated by data and digital experiences, fashion has an opportunity to reframe the way it engages with customers – by designing not just for wear, or wanting to wear, but wanting to care and to keep. Imagine scanning a QR code inside a jacket to learn its history – or contribute to it. Imagine garments co-designed by the customer, or AI tools that adapt cuts and colours based on emotional memory. Fashion becomes not just something we wear, but something we co-create.

So, while the prerequisite for circularity relies in its physical, intrinsic durability, the shift in consumption patterns – from quantity to quality, will only be made possible by emotional triggers. These must evolve from the desire for novelty to a deeper craving for meaningful beauty, uniqueness (which may justify a higher price, but invites more care, repair, and second-hand value) – or alternatively, functionality (creation business opportunities such as rental models).

This idea resonates strongly with Georg Simmel’s early 20th-century analysis in « La Philosophie de la Mode ». Simmel saw fashion as a system built on the tension between individuality and belonging, novelty and imitation, freedom and conformity. Fashion, he argued, derives its seductive power from its fleetingness – its promise of inclusion and its right to be discarded.

“The sharp and exhilarating charm so characteristic of fashion lies in the contrast between the vast extent of its empire and its sudden and complete disappearance – in the very right to be unfaithful to it. Its charm no less lies in the selectivity through which it encloses a group, whose cohesion appears as much a cause of fashion as an effect, and in the clear way it opposes this boundary to other groups. It also resides in the feeling of being carried by a social group that requires its members to imitate each other, thus freeing individuals from all ethical or aesthetic responsibility; and in the freedom, within this perimeter, to invent new nuances, even by exaggeration or outright rejection of existing fashion elements. Thus fashion – no matter how individual it may appear – proves to be one of the many social constructs through which the usefulness of society has objectified the opposing currents of life while placing them on equal footing.”

Simmel's words highlight a key dilemma: if fashion’s emotional pull lies in its transience, how can we re-engineer that pull toward lasting resonance rather than constant renewal? And how can technology help fashion fix that? By creating space for personal meaning, co-creation, and memory, technology – including AI – could offer tools to slow fashion down, not by opposing its social nature, but by redirecting it. Fashion has always been about connection. Perhaps now, it’s time we design for connections that last.

Reinvesting in the Upstream – Designing for attachment

Emotional durability begins long before a garment reaches the wardrobe. At the design stage, the focus must shift from seasonal desirability to long-term resonance.

Timeless collections, tactile materials, visible craftsmanship and personalised fit all contribute to attachment. Brands such as Toogood and Margaret Howell deliberately steer away from trend dependency, creating garments with integrity and quiet permanence. High quality fabrics, that evolve beautifully over time (and about this natural evolution, the « patina » which is totally accepted and even valued in denim or leathergoods, could it not be envisioned in other items, and fields like colour…?) – these reward wear, inviting users to form a lasting relationship with the item. Another Tomorrow exemplifies this ethos, utilising its resale model to offer free exchanges, an offering that addresses the real concerns many consumers have about investing in high-quality clothing, especially when they fear fluctuating sizes over time.

Technology is now beginning to support this design-for-attachment mindset. Parametric and AI-assisted design tools allow for garment customisation at scale, enabling brands to offer co-created pieces that reflect individual preferences or emotional touchpoints. These tools are especially powerful for emerging DTC models aiming to align product with personal identity from the outset.

Revolutionising production – Compliance and meaning through memory, identity and data

©Foraeva / STRATASYS

Beyond design, production processes can embed emotional value into the garment itself. Exceptional pieces in terms of design, traceable origin stories, and garments with narrative depth all increase the likelihood of long-term retention. Technology plays a growing role here. Digital product passports, powered by blockchain or NFC, allow garments to carry their own biographies – from origin to ownership. These interactive tags are no longer just tools for transparency; they’re storytelling platforms. But indeed, the first role of these is compliance, and as legislation is stepping further, especially in France, many brands are already equipped with these digital labels and traceability tools, and customers are growingly demanding this transparency.

Artificial intelligence will further deepen this dynamic. Future-forward applications include:

• Emotionally intelligent design systems that learn from consumer sentiment to suggest mood-aligned aesthetics or tactile preferences.
• AI-generated garment narratives tailored to customer profiles, enabling bespoke storytelling at scale.
• Digital twins that evolve with the physical garment’s use, offering virtual archives or style memories through AR (Augmented Reality)-enhanced experiences.

Addressing longstanding challenges like virtual try-ons (the real-life sizing problem remaining unresolved), innovative platforms are making significant strides. For instance, Doji, an AI-powered fashion app, allows users to create lifelike avatars by uploading selfies, enabling them to virtually try on curated designer items.

Reinventing the downstream – Caring, sharing, and keeping

But most importantly, emotional durability doesn’t just delay disposal, it activates deeper participation in circular models. When garments carry meaning, they’re more likely to be cared for, repaired, handed down, or resold. While storytelling can add residual value to garments (listings that include personal anecdotes often outperform generic ones) apps such as Save Your Wardrobe and Prolong go even further. The latter is addressing both consumer and brands’ needs.Their objective is the facilitation and optimisation of refreshing and reparation services, making them as easy and affordable as buying new items, all while informing brands with feedback loops for design improvements. Likewise, visible mending, care tutorials, and emotional repair campaigns – such as Patagonia’s Worn Wear or Tilli – elevate the emotional currency of longevity.

©Celia Pym

Technology can scale these values. Digital labels & IoT-Enabled tracking, AI-powered apps, like those under development by Labla.co in the TRICK project support various circular business models, including resale, rental, and take-back programs. Meanwhile, digital wardrobes could soon integrate emotional data, wear frequency, memory tagging, outfit mood-matching, making digital fashion management more intuitive and more human.

From data to depth

In contrast to Georg Simmel’s early 20th-century observations – when fashion operated through visible social imitation and collective belonging – today’s algorithmic culture accelerates these forces to an extreme. Trends are no longer passed through communities, but pushed through personalised feeds. Novelty is constant. Desire is engineered. In such a system, garments are rarely worn long enough to mean anything.

This is precisely why emotional durability matters more than ever. It is not only a sustainability imperative, but a form of resistance. A quiet counter to algorithmic ephemerality. Designing clothes that invite care, storytelling, and emotional connection is a way to slow down fashion’s pace without sacrificing its magic.

Yet, to stay relevant socially, environmentally, and emotionally, fashion must shift its focus from grabbing attention to sustaining affection. Technology and AI can support this by enabling more meaningful, personalised experiences – but technical solutions alone aren’t enough. Real change depends on educating consumers, creators, and marketers to value longevity, uniqueness, and care over constant novelty. Marketing, too, must evolve – moving away from engineered scarcity, planned obsolescence and impulse driving toward storytelling that builds lasting relationships with garments. Ultimately, embracing emotional durability also invites a deeper economic reflection. It challenges the fashion industry to move beyond its dependence on endless growth and volume,  toward models rooted in degrowth, or as Kate Fletcher puts it in  Craft of Use : « Post-Growth ». 4

Only by aligning education, design, communication, and economic imagination can fashion move beyond fast, and into the realm of the lasting. While the the least impactful (or most sustainable) garment probably is the one that already exists, in the transition toward a slower, more circular future, maybe the strongest fibre isn’t found in material innovation, but in the invisible threads of meaning we choose to hold onto.