Background: The fashion and textile industry is considered to be one of the most polluting in our industrial world. The main reason for that is that the production and use of fashion garments and textiles is causing extensive waste, which many times ends up in landfill leading to pollution of the environment. The decisions made early in the process by designers regarding material selection as well as other design elements largely influence the impact a product has on the environment.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the challenges fashion designers face when making decisions within the design process in the context of design for circularity. Therefore, the focus is to investigate the designers perceptions of their ability to influence design decisions within their companies and associate circularity issues.

Method: The research makes use of a qualitative method with a research design that is built on a study of semi-structured interviews held with five fashion designers from small to medium sized Swedish apparel companies. Based on the research question, suitable topics for the semi-structured interviews were deducted. The empirical data gathered through the interviews was analyzed by making use of a thematic analysis.

Conclusion: Findings from this research show that designers perceive that their actual ability to influence design-decisions is limited, as they do not have the power to make decisions related to the final design of a garment. This is due to challenges including (1) monetary boundaries, (2) losing control over design decisions to the buyer and (3) a constant need to sell their ideas to other departments. The main challenges that could be determined regarding decision-making in the context of circularity are: (1) combining aesthetic features, (2) no consideration of garment after use-phase and (3) lack of education.