Abstract
While the fashion industry has exerted significant economic and cultural influence, its centralized structure has contributed to environmental degradation, resource waste, and social inequality. In response to growing societal and policy demands for sustainability, participatory design—redefining users as co-creators—has gained traction, particularly in academic discourse, as a pathway toward sustainable transformation. This study proposes a blockchain-based co-creation framework for sustainable fashion design that integrates Digital Product Passports (DPP) to ensure transparent and sustainable digital fashion ecosystem. Using a design-based research methodology, the framework is articulated through a six-stage participatory fashion design model detailing stakeholder roles, decision- making processes, DPP data integration, and NFT-enabled reward mechanisms. By structurally linking user engagement, sustainability validation, and decentralized incentive systems, the proposed framework addresses key limitations of traditional fashion system and offers a theoretical model for building a transparent, collaborative, and sustainable digital fashion ecosystem.
Keywords
Blockchain; Digital Product Passport; Participatory Fashion Design; Sustainable Fashion Design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1013
Citation
Lee, Y., Liang, C., Cho, E.,and Yang, E.(2025) A Blockchain-based Participatory Design Framework for Sustainable Fashion: Integrating the Digital Product Passport system, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1013
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 8 - Circular/Sustainable Design
A Blockchain-based Participatory Design Framework for Sustainable Fashion: Integrating the Digital Product Passport system
While the fashion industry has exerted significant economic and cultural influence, its centralized structure has contributed to environmental degradation, resource waste, and social inequality. In response to growing societal and policy demands for sustainability, participatory design—redefining users as co-creators—has gained traction, particularly in academic discourse, as a pathway toward sustainable transformation. This study proposes a blockchain-based co-creation framework for sustainable fashion design that integrates Digital Product Passports (DPP) to ensure transparent and sustainable digital fashion ecosystem. Using a design-based research methodology, the framework is articulated through a six-stage participatory fashion design model detailing stakeholder roles, decision- making processes, DPP data integration, and NFT-enabled reward mechanisms. By structurally linking user engagement, sustainability validation, and decentralized incentive systems, the proposed framework addresses key limitations of traditional fashion system and offers a theoretical model for building a transparent, collaborative, and sustainable digital fashion ecosystem.