Grad student shakes up industry with transformative new project: 'It's been a great journey'

Arizona State graduate student Jill Stein is aiming to upend how we think about sustainable apparel — something a growing number of consumers crave as they reconsider investing their hard-earned dollars in a fast-fashion sector with a worrying track record.

As The State Press detailed, Stein launched The Box Project as part of her research with the College of Global Futures. The initiative calls out the fashion industry for overusing and diluting the term "sustainable," a practice that can amount to greenwashing.

To combat this, Stein challenged students at ASU's Fashion Institute of Design and Manufacturing to work with dead stock materials. Supima Cotton and Arizona's Sustainable Fashion Week donated the leftover textiles. According to The Box Project's official website, submitted garments had to consist of at least 75% of the donated materials.

The students, who participated in the project as part of professor Jessica Kosak's class, also assisted with creating The Box Project's website and a public display entitled "Fusion on First" — the recipient of a grant from the Humanities Lab.

The showcase warns against the dangers of fashion overconsumption and encourages consumers to examine their purchasing habits and make adjustments if needed.

In addition to being a drain on the wallet, overconsuming in order to keep up with ever-changing fast-fashion trends is a significant public health concern, contributing to water and soil contamination through toxic dye runoff and cancer-linked microplastics. The sector has also come under repeated scrutiny for unethical and exploitative labor practices.

"The whole idea was to educate not only ASU FIDM students, but also anyone that would be visiting Fusion on First would get an exposure to what sustainable fashion is and what the problems are driving it," Stein told The State Press, also highlighting how "nine times out of 10" boxes in parcel-pending waste rooms contain unwanted clothing.

According to Earth.org, approximately 101.4 million tons of textiles end up in dumps every year, producing heat-trapping gases like methane — which is responsible for a warming effect on the planet that is as much as 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide.

Atticus Doan, a senior minoring in fashion and majoring in business sustainability, told The State Press that The Box Project helped him dig deep, inspiring a new wave of creativity.

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"I felt a sense of achievement in it, because when I initially got the box, I wasn't necessarily happy with the fabric that I had gotten and how little of it there was. And so it was really rewarding to try to design something that's outside of my comfort zone," he said.

After a successful launch, Stein hopes to bring The Box Project and her reimagined future of fashion to more schools and companies. Interested parties can reach out through the information provided on the initiative's official website.

"Just being in the fashion industry, when you get exposed to how the sausage is made, you really start to see the underbelly and how disturbing it is," Stein told The State Press. "I'm the kind of person where I have to do something about it."

"It's been a great journey," she added. "The collaboration with all the different disciplines and the different universities has been amazing ... seeing everyone come together under a unified vision is really fun."

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