
Sarah V. 2025 | BASIS Independent Silicon Valley
- Project Title: Kodawari for Green Growth: Integrating the Customizability of Small Asian Fashion Businesses to Outline a Sustainable American Business Model
- BASIS Independent Advisor: Mr. Brady
- Internship Location: Ariat International, Inc.
- Onsite Mentor: Mrs. Marie Cunningham
"Context: Currently, the fashion industry is fueled by overconsumption. People, driven by social media microtrends, buy ill-fitting clothes that were mass-produced using chemically intensive processes harmful to the environment. As quickly as they decide that they love their new clothes, people discard them, realizing that those clothes no longer align with their personal style or fit their bodies properly. This leads to issues beyond excess clothing waste and dissatisfying customer experiences in the fashion industry, including low self-esteem and water pollution. I believe that the solution to this problem is to create an eco-luxury fashion brand that prioritizes environmentally-friendly production practices and sells small seasonal collections with limited pieces that will be customized to fit the wearer based on their size and body shape. Through my senior project, I hope to create an outline of a business model for this type of brand.
Location: For my project, I will be interning at Ariat International, Inc., a boot brand that incorporates sustainable production practices. There, I will observe industry professionals (including my external advisor Mrs. Marie Cunningham-Yi) to learn about different types of materials and business practices. Ultimately, I will learn about the essential components necessary for my outline. More specifically, I will learn about the various factors that play into running a fashion business and how to balance the cost of sustainability with revenue generation. Throughout this internship, I will develop my outline, tweaking my ideas based on what I learn and the feedback from my external advisor.
Methods: Through my internship, I will observe how industry professionals carefully choose materials, production practices, and production sites while trying to maximize revenue generation and minimize production costs. Additionally, I will take a Fashion 101 course on the basics of starting a fashion business. Independently, I will research the price points and the materials used in the products of sustainable brands. I will combine the knowledge I gain from this course, the internship, and my independent research to develop my outline. Over the course of this project, I will share iterations of my outline with my advisor, who will point out the problems and direct me toward resources where I can find solutions.
Hypothesis/Expectation: I do not have general predictions for my outline due to my lack of industry knowledge. However, I expect that my brand’s products will have luxury price points due to the high cost associated with eco-conscious production practices and the inability to mass-produce customized clothing items."