Fashion and Product Literacy: The Case of Blockchain Technology and Digital Product Passport as a Communication Tool

As the physical and digital worlds continue to merge in the upcoming decades, there is a need to address the information gap in fashion literacy and the fashion industry. This gap can be filled by utilizing blockchain technology and digital product passports to allow for enhanced transparency between companies and individuals, increasing the overall communication and product literacy of fashion items. Through the traceability of blockchain technology, an individual could track the origins of a product and find details related to the fabrics, dyes, and production cycle on the digital product passport. Currently, fashion literacy definitions are built on the professional’s need for knowledge and skills, while there is a consistent lack of consumer training on general knowledge related to fashion. Subsequently, definitions for product literacy focus on the trade-offs between limited information resources and making a purchase. This ongoing research will first look at the infancy of the fashion literacy field, how it interacts with product literacy and at the gap in literacy between the two fields of study, presenting an ongoing study into how blockchain and digital product passports can be adopted and orchestrated to bring more transparency into the industry and increase communication between brands and consumers, as well as increase community knowledge.