I know you’ve faced this problem too. You’ve worn out your favorite pair of jeans, or finally had to let go of that special shirt, and you wish that you could go back to the same store and buy the same exact item. Yet the fashion business model dictates that you shouldn’t be able to do something as simple as that.

So what if one of the major fashion players out there started sharing the refabrication instructions (material choices, layouts, designs, cutting instructions, assembly) into a free online repository?

It could initially apply only for past collections but maybe based on the goodwill and popularity of the platform, could even include the current season designs. Possibly this would evolve into a whole ecology of companies that would be able to fulfill deliveries on top of these instructions, of users hacking and upgrading the designs, of online stores selling raw materials (all viable startup ideas for these major fashion conglomerates).

Who will take the first step?