Draft written from the Beyond Labels concept. Beyond Labels is a concept, not a trading brand. Damilola to review.
A QR code on each garment opens the wearer's own story. This is the thinking behind it.
Plain-language summary
In my Beyond Labels idea, each piece of clothing has a small code on it. If someone scans the code with their phone, they see a story that the wearer chose to share. The wearer decides what the story says and who can see it.
A label tells you what something is. A story tells you who someone is. Beyond Labels starts from the gap between the two.
The problem with labels
My research looked at how a lack of inclusive fashion, and stigma, affect the way disabled people express themselves and feel about themselves. Clothing is one of the first things people read about each other. When the choices available are limited, or designed only around function, people lose one of their easiest ways to say who they are.
And when others meet a disabled person, they often meet the label first. Pity, assumptions and other people's stories arrive before the person does.
The idea: a story you can wear
Beyond Labels is a concept for a tech-driven fashion brand. Each garment carries a QR code. Scan it, and it opens the wearer's own story, written by them.
The tagline is "Wear your story".
The code is small and quiet. It does not announce anything on its own. It waits to be invited.
The wearer stays in control
The whole idea falls apart if the wearer loses control of their own story, so the concept was built around a five-part ethics framework:
- User privacy and data protection
- Accessibility and inclusivity
- Environmental sustainability
- Cultural sensitivity
- Fairness and transparency
In practice, that means the wearer chooses what their story says, can change it at any time, and decides who can see it. A story can be public, shared only with people they choose, or switched off entirely.
Why technology, and why clothing
I could have made a website of stories. But a website waits for people to find it. Clothing goes where the person goes. The QR code turns an everyday moment, someone noticing what you are wearing, into an opening for a real conversation, on the wearer's terms.
What it is, and is not
Beyond Labels is a concept, not a trading brand. The work includes the brand identity, an app interface, a consumer journey and a poster campaign. What it does not yet have is testing with the people it is for, and that is the next honest step.
Add images of the garment label and the app screen where a wearer edits their story, with alt text.
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