Standards selection approach for clothing longevity indicators

Given the diversity of textile products, their uses and also the reasons related to their end-of-life, it appears that estimating the effective lifespan of clothing items is unrealistic. To estimate a lifespan equivalent, a reasonable solution is to rely on standards commonly performed by the apparel industry. However, according to the international classification of standards, the textile and clothing sector benefits from more than 1.900 standards covering the aspects of processes, materials, semi finished and finished products. Thus, this paper focuses on how to make the standard selection consistent to estimate the product in accordance with the end of life of apparel. First, a list of objective clothing disposal reasons is proposed and is to associate to a standards pre-screening that enable the assessment of the ability of a product to withstand the damage. Then, since a single aggregated score is desired, the tests results are aggregated into a single normative duration index. In a robustness analysis, the influence of the number of metrological tests constituting the score is investigated. It enables the identification of the most appropriated tests with the aim to rationalize the methodology regarding time and cost consideration. In a case study, 29 T-shirts were tested regarding five damage categories. Based on expert knowledge and literature review, the laboratory tests procedure involved a selection of ten tests, out of which the five providing the maximum explanation rates were investigated.