The fashion system is contributing to the environmental and social crises on an ever increasing scale. The industry must transform in order to situate itself within the environmental and social limits proposed by economist Kate Raworth, and the 17 sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations. This research explored methods of eliminating textile waste through utilising zero waste pattern cutting to expand the outcomes possible within industrial contexts and speculates as to the implications for the wider industry and society. Employing an experimental and phenomenological approach, this thesis outlines the testing of known strategies in the context of industry and responds with new emergent strategies to the challenges that arose. A series of interviews were conducted with designers who have applied zero-waste fashion design in an industry context – both large and small scale – to unpack the strategies used and contextualise the difficulties faced. The findings that emerged from the iterative design practice and the experience of working within the field tests inform the surrounding discussions and reflections. This reflection brings into sharp relief the inherent conflicts that exist within the fashion system and has led to the development of a series of theoretical models.The implications for design and industry are broad. Firstly that while this thesis outlines garment design strategies, and broader – company-wide – approaches that can work to reduce waste in a given context, this research finds that a holistic transformation of the internal design and management processes of the industry is required for them to be successful. In response, theoretical models have been developed which seek to articulate the constraints, roles and actions of design within broader company practices, while contextualising these within the economic system it operates. It is clear that reducing waste will only have a minor positive effect on the environmental outcomes unless we also reduce consumption of raw materials through reducing yield or reducing consumption – ideally both. These findings and models point towards a necessary recalibration of the industry as a whole – small changes are not enough as the existing methods, processes and ethos are deeply embedded, and its agents are resistant to change. The results concur with previous research and conclude that a fundamental shift in thinking is required – one that prioritises a different set of constraints to those the industry and society currently focus on – in order to make the rapid and meaningful change necessary.

Zero Waste System Thinking: Multimorphic Textile-Forms is situated in the context of the rapidly unfolding environmental crisis and the dominant response to this in the industry - the circular economy. It began by building on existing knowledge around sustainable fashion and textiles, and zero waste design practice. The research program is constructed from three interconnected theories: transition design; post-anthropocentric design; and design as future-making. It adopts a transition design “posture” of holistic zero waste system design to develop processes for garment design and manufacturing.

Zero Waste Systems Thinking: Multimorphic Textile-Forms explores the theoretical, aesthetic and technical development of systems and methods for zero waste textile-forms. It presents a range of experimental field tests, as well as interviews and design experiments using a variety of prototyping methods to deepen understanding of the existing context, and to propose methods and theory for a new understanding of the relationship between designer and system, textile and form. Outside of fully fashioned or 3D knitting, methods for simultaneous textile-form design and construction are limited. Conventionally, weaving is a two-dimensional practice – which through cutting and sewing may become form. Cut-and-sew is the most common method of garment construction used in industry; however, it can also be exploitative, time-consuming and wasteful. The current shallow understanding of the relationship between woven textiles and form limits how designers could transform industries and the built environment. This research questions how technology can further shape form-making, and follows some of the lines of inquiry forged by the work of Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara in A-POC, and recent explorations on whole garment weaving by Anna Piper, Jacqueline Lefferts, and Claire Harvey. This research undertook a series of experiments which aimed to expand the form-design methods available for whole garment weaving in the context of zero waste system design. The multimorphic and analogue-digital craft practice develops new understandings of textile design and manufacturing elements, such as jacquard looms and weave structures, for use in micro-manufacturing contexts. Its holistic and disruptive reshaping of form-making has the potential to future-make the industry, our cities and our social fabric.