Student Nora Müchler from the Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology at Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) and graduate Alexandra Plewnia have been awarded a distinction by the Wilhelm Lorch Foundation. Plewnia received the prize in the Technology category for her Master's thesis on the conceptual design of a manufacturing process for a water-repellent yarn, while Müchler impressed the jury with her Bachelor's thesis "Revitalization Second-Hand Shopping: The Role of Customer Experience in Encouraging Sustainable and Circular Fashion Consumption among Generation Z" in the Business category. The prize is endowed with 5000 euros each.
At the end of her Bachelor's degree in Textile and Clothing Management, 25-year-old Nora Müchler focused on improving the marketing of second-hand fashion.
She investigated the importance of the customer experience when shopping second-hand both in bricks-and-mortar stores and online. Her aim was to promote sustainable and circular fashion consumption among Generation Z.
There is no doubt that young people born between 1997 and 2012 will have a significant influence on consumer behavior in the coming years. However, Generation Z still exhibits paradoxical behavior: Although they value sustainability, they also tend to consume fast fashion.
In order to effectively counteract this contradiction, Müchler developed five important, effective retail strategies in her work based on a survey. "Among other things, it's about how used clothing can be presented in the same sorted, tidy and appealing way as new clothing," explains the Cologne native, who has since joined the Master's degree programme in Textile Products at HSNR. Her supervising professor was Dr. Marina-Elena Wachs.
Nora Müchler would like to invest the prize money of 5000 euros in a stay abroad in Bangladesh or China, a language course or a tailoring course.
As part of her Master's studies in Textile Products, Alexandra Plewnia from Mönchengladbach studied the properties and production of her own innovative yarn.
Her "Octogarn" combines many useful properties: it is free of harmful substances, sustainable, cold-insulating, breathable and friction-reducing. The special feature: It is not only water-repellent, but also non-wettable. If a textile made from this yarn is immersed in water, it remains completely dry.
Alexandra Plewnia came across this phenomenon while searching for green alternatives to water-repellent textiles, which are often treated with fluoropolymers or other chemicals. The environmentally friendly products available on the market are often not powerful enough. A situation that the 30-year-old wants to change.
Once the yarn has been produced, it is to be sold to companies. They could in turn use it to produce outdoor clothing or protective equipment, for example.
This idea is currently even giving rise to a start-up. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection has approved around 1.84 million euros in funding for this promising approach. The young researcher has already applied for a patent. The master's thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Robert Groten.
"I would like to use the prize money from the Wilhelm Lorch Foundation to further my education in human resources, especially in team management and patent law," reveals the Mönchengladbach native.
The Wilhelm Lorch Foundation bears the surname of the founder of Deutscher Fachverlag and TextilWirtschaft, who died in 1966. Every year, it honors projects and talented young people in the textile and fashion industry in the categories of creation, business, technology and continuing education in the retail sector. This year, the foundation, whose chairwoman is Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Maike Rabe from The Hochschule Niederrhein, selected seven young men and women from a total of 60 applications for their outstanding work.
