The development of electrically conductive fibers, exhibiting higher mechanical properties and their integration in smart and interactive textiles, has become a prominent research area throughout the world. Smart textiles have increasingly been used in medical, sports and military applications. In other words, we can say, smart textiles are going to shape our future. This paper describes our ongoing research in which, we have produced relatively highly conductive fibers by coating commercially available textile fibers (viscose, polyester) with conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). A novel coating technique, called oxidative chemical vapor deposition (OCVD), was used for this purpose. Different testing and characterization techniques were then employed to investigate electrical, mechanical, thermal, and surface properties of PEDOT coated fibers. The surface modification of electrically conductive textile fibers with silicone resins is also discussed and an analysis is given to show how silicone coating enhances the mechanical as well as hydrophobic properties of coated textile fibers. The obtained PEDOT coated textile fibers showed good electrical as well as mechanical properties. From this research, we can easily select the most appropriate type of fiber according to the specific electronic application, exhibiting the required end-used properties. These conductive fibers could also be used as substrates for heat generation devices, such as solar cells, and organic fuel cells.
Value innovation is a key in developing competitive advantage in most industries. Value innovation is both related to the physical products and accompanying value-adding services. Logistics has evolved from an order qualifier – that is a necessity – to an order winner. Increased focus on the consumer and co-creation with the consumer as a vital partner lead to alignments and rethinking of the channel structure. The supply chain evolves into a demand chain! Deeper knowledge about the why, how, and when of consumer buying behaviour is a main ingredient in demand chain thinking, and the starting point in designing and developing segmented demand chains in the fashion market. These chains are built on partnership and trust oriented relationships. The game of power is increasingly replaced by the game of trust. This is a necessity when the competition shifts from rivalry between companies to rivalry between chains. In this position paper we discuss visions of the fashion future, and how to develop innovative concepts that deliver added value to the consumer. The “old school” of distribution economy, and the concept of convenience, are the basic theoretical grounds, and we argue that innovations could be reached when investing in consumer insights and closer relationships in the demand chain.
This narrative focuses on one aspect of the growing phenomenon of textile recycling: the act of “getting rid of” one’s no longer wanted clothing. The story here derives from many visits to Wearable Collections, a business that collects apparel (as well as towels, sheets, shoes, and other textiles) with an “inlet” at the popular Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan. Over several months, I watched hundreds of individuals drop off thousands of kilos of materials for recycling and talked with many of them about what they were doing and why they were doing it. This investigation was undertaken for two purposes. On one hand, it was a device for practicing a variety of ethnographic field methods to support my current Ph.D. action research with enterprises aiming to build more sustainable fashion systems. On the other hand, it was a means to gain knowledge of what is happening with textile recycling in New York City. The pages that follow have been excerpted from a longer and broader account. The term textile recycling is used here broadly. It encompasses upcycling (for example, making a dress from old dresses, or producing yarn from trimmings from garment manufacturing); downcycling (such as shredding worn out textiles for insulation); practices such as selling, swapping, or giving away; and any other ways of reusing or repurposing that saves — or at least delays — textiles from being buried in landfills or otherwise wasted.
HeadCrowd is a collaboration between the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and the School of Textiles and Design at Heriot-Watt University. It investigates how rich web and mobile applications may be employed to provide designers with near instantaneous and highly visual feedback from thousands of potential customers, or crowds. We are exploring the use of state of the art rich media applications to add quantity, speed and statistical accuracy to the study of semiotics, and the use of visuals in fashion as communication. The project seeks to add to participatory design and market intelligence processes by enabling rapid and iterated co-design cycles between crowds and designers based on visual forms of communication so as to mirror the highly visual nature of fashion design inspiration. Such a scheme shows applications for sustainability in fashion if it can give crowds a concrete sense of ownership of the design process and provide enthusiastic target markets, thereby offering potential to significantly reduce the risks of producing unwanted product. The paper provides an analysis of prior knowledge before describing the first two stages of the project, in which a pilot browser has been constructed that allows observers to navigate a vocabulary of 500 images which have been ordered into 48 similarity stacks using a mixture of human and crowd sourced sorting techniques. A first test involved the presentation of 20 terms to observers and asking them to choose 3 images from the browser to represent each term. Analysis of the resulting pilot data has given insights into the communicative certainty that a selection of 3 images from a vocabulary of 500 can provide for certain types of terms, and amongst certain groups of testers. It has also prompted deeper analysis of the pilot browser. To put the communicative value of visual feedback to the test, the current research phase is preparing the reverse experiment of asking a fresh cohort of participants to associate images back to the original terms, and various interfaces are currently being constructed to facilitate the presentation of visual choices from phase 1. The similarity relationship between test images is investigated and visualized before a case is made for comparative experiments of raw selection data and versions of visual summaries in this second research phase, in order to test which way of data presentations best convey the intended visual communication.
Smart textiles with its vast range of possibilities provide a considerable opportunity for societal sustainability for the waste-oriented fashion industry. May the new textiles react to the environment, wearer, have a mind of its own or simply provoke and inspire people – it is a great tool for the transition from the product-oriented industry to the service-minded economy. Fashion field needs to mature and adapt to the new rules set by the user within today’s environment. While developing the new field of smart textiles, this paper stresses the importance of learning from traditional crafts and the value of craftsmanship. We start by introducing the importance of crafting and connecting it to the industrialized way of producing. Then, we ask whether we could merge valuable insights from both in order to develop the smart textiles area. Later, you will find an example project merging Quick Response (QR) codes with traditional embroidery that inspired a set of TechCrafts explorations in a form of student projects. In case of the embroidered QR codes, the link to technology is an add-on feature to textiles. In the other examples, craftsmanship technologies are used to create the textile substrate itself. These explorations are the input for a discussion about the role of craftsmanship and skills in developing materials with interactive properties that is held with relation to the possibilities for societal sustainability.
Earth’s current state demands new perspectives in many fields; political, private, global and local. This article examines sustainable functions within workwear and fashion. A design process is argued to be developed within a sustainable frame concerning the whole chain of ecological, sociocultural and economical factors. The two construction traditions of a. tailored: pattern pieces constructed next to the body, and b. empty space: simplified construction using squares and space between body and garment, are investigated and contrasted in order to find elements of sustainability within aesthetic. The article argues for a greater view upon what could be sustainable aesthetic, in forms and values. This is related to a construction of clothes which allows movement and durability. A proposal is finally given which contains three various shapes and constructions for workwear trousers.
Today’s fashion market is characterized by short life cycles, low predictability and high impulse purchasing. Many fashion companies are responding to this by constantly introducing new collections. Zara, which is considered to be the leader of fashion are introducing as many as 211 new models per week. One of the drawbacks of Zara’s and others’ methods is the resulting overproduction; many garments have to be sold to reduced price or are thrown away. An average of one third of the collections is considered waste. It costs money for the fashion companies; it reduces the sell-through factor and wastes natural resources. Knit on Demand is a research project at the Swedish School of Textiles that aims to reduce the waste and increase the sell-through factor and service level. A local producer of knitwear and a retailer of tailored fashion in Stockholm also participate in the project. The purpose of the project is to test new methods of supply chain management and to analyse whether mass customization is applicable on knitwear. There are several benefits with mass customised garments: the customer receives a garment that is better suited to his or her needs, the producer does not have to make garments on forecast, and the environment and natural resources are spared because only what is bought by the end consumer is produced and shipped.
This article presents a study that investigates product satisfaction in the context of clothing. The paper furthermore presents suggestions on how this knowledge can be used to create proactive fashion design for sustainable consumption. One of the main challenges in today’s consumer society is how to design products that encourage consumers to engage in more environmentally responsible behaviour, sustainable consumption. This paper opens the discussion on how to change current unsustainable consumption behaviour related to clothing through a visionary, far-sighted design approach. Designers can create future-oriented sustainable designs that can transform consumption patterns towards more sustainable ones. Design for sustainability can thus be a redirective practice that aims for sustainable consumption, and the ways in which fashion design can be a proactive process with this aim will be described. This article shows why emotional satisfaction and enhancing a product’s quality and other intrinsic characteristics are most important when attempting to extend the product’s lifetime. Furthermore, this paper shows that services can create an opportunity to extend the enjoyable use of a product and offer satisfaction to consumers in a sustainable manner.
overwhelming studies are on the general public and its behaviour. Here we discuss a way for the company to lower consumption by avoiding inventory investments. Added value in terms of sustainability can be gained by using standard manufacturing technologies frequently found in the textile industry to produce new products beyond present paradigms. Specifically we develop knitting techniques on a circular knitting machine to enable production of a thermally insulating textile composite for a multicomponent footwear system. Four cornerstones defined the project; sustainability, availability, comfort and flexibility. The first two relate here to the production, while the last two are coupled to the wearer’s experience of the product. Two key questions initiated this project. The first question elaborated on the possibility to produce an untraditional material for a new type of product on a circular knitting machine, which is generally used for high speed production of full-width fabrics. The second question explored the possibility to apply the three-layer principle - generally used in sportswear - on footwear. We show that we can answer both these questions positively. Using an elaborated functional design tool the footwear system was theoretically divided into functional layers; inner, middle and outer, combined with an inner and outer sole. These detachable layers together create a flexible footwear system. A ready-made product, the middle layer with thermal insulating properties, was practically developed, taking use of a heat and water soaking protocol for inducing relaxation in the material and by this air encapsulation.
As machinery and processes in the field of textiles are developed, opportunities for new pro-ducts are also opening up. The manufacture of textiles for various technical uses is a type of manufacturing which has increased in the last few years. This paper presents a type of textile, spacer fabrics, which can be manufactured in many different ways for many different uses. The term spacer fabrics is defined, and different types of manufacturing methods in knitting technology, are described. The paper deals with the manufacture of spacer fabrics on warp, flat and circular knitting machines. Types of application and examples of products are described.
Fashion is a huge industry and affects environmental, economic and social system in many ways. Exploitation of resources for ever changing trends in fashion is immense and providing these demands put enormous pressure on the environment. In such a situation sustainable practices in every human activity has become important and fashion is not less affected by this drive. Fashion professionals have to play major role to inculcate the concept of sustainable fashion with responsibility in their product line. It is important that while designing, designer should understand the benefits of sustainable operation starting with concept development level. In this paper design solutions for sustainable fashion are inferred in a design school scenario. The main idea to do so is to develop more sensible and responsible designs, which can be better solutions for sustainable fashion. The sustainable fashion was achieved to a certain extent by using available materials to its ultimate usage, using waste material, recycling of the products, planning second life for the fashion product, slowing down the fashion etc.
We are all affected by fashion: as individuals when we use clothes and other products to create an identity and an image and as consumers participating in the wheel of consumption and economy. As researchers, we try to understand fashion and its actors and how research can contribute to a better society and prosperous industries. This issue of the Nordic Textile Journal presents both articles based on research conducted at the University of Borås and articles from other researchers who share our interest in sustainable fashion and the textile industry.
This article is an essay that outlines the political movement towards sustainability in the context of the development of the sustainable fashion industry today.
The past decade has seen an increasing interest in our small-scale experimental textiles at the design lab at the Swedish School of Textiles. Representatives from various industries and professions have visited to find out more about our so called smart textiles and to collect product samples. We want to encourage designers to work directly with the textile material in the design process to enlarge the understanding for how to design with smart textile materials. Weand we are currently working to develop a collection of samples of “smart textile sample collection ́s for designers to use and work with, enabling them to better understand the great potential of smart textiles. This article also describes some new design variables regarding dynamic textile patterns; a result from the thesis Designing Dynamic Textile Patterns (Worbin 2010).