This study seeks to advance upcycling methods in fashion practice with the specificity of design methods that centre on revaluation and resignification of waste materials. The development of three key approaches to upcycling were tested for future application as design briefs and pedagogies in practice and education. These were developed through the acquisition, sorting and selection of a large sample of secondhand, consumer waste materials across fashion and textiles sectors. Practice-based experiments and the use of different forms of photo documentation examined and explored distinct ways to creatively understand waste material properties, conditions and potential. Fashion and material studies frameworks of object biographies, wardrobe studies, waste, secondhand material economies and art practice approaches of reclaimed materials expanded and refined the approaches. “Material Inventories” is proposed as a creative and analytical method to identify, sort and annotate pre- and post-consumer waste materials. “Garment ontologies” delineates how traditionally “design” in fashion practice is separate from materials and production. These methods enable a deeper investigation into material qualities, conditions, and reuse potential for extended life cycles. This experimental study presents novel and relevant findings with a compelling material sample and practice-based methods adjacent to scholarship in this area that are predominately theoretical- or case study-based.

This research proposes design methods for reuse and upcycling of post-consumer waste materials as an integral part of responsive design approaches for fashion design practice. The study seeks to overcome institutional barriers that limit potential applications of upcycling practices and how post-consumer waste materials can be included in fashion design curriculum and pedagogy. The findings reveal the need for a variety of design methods for upcycling to be embedded throughout education programmes from Bachelor to Master’s levels. The research suggests that academic institutions need to create a variety of assessment frameworks, foundational courses, learning activities and experiences that scaffold engaged uses and understanding of materials and diverse contexts and conditions.

Exhibited Artefact

Carefully placed on top of each other, the discarded sweaters, devalued and unsellable, pile up into layers of knit, shapes, structures, textures and colours – a mille-feuille of discarded design decisions. In the act of layering, new expressions arise, inviting one in seeing newpossibilities, potentials, ideas, and fantasy to dive into, and to explore. The artefact consistsof 50 discarded knitwear garments, sorted and donated by the non-profit organisation Björkåfrihet.Knitwear is among the most difficult of garment categories to resell due to its changingproperties. The garments are used in their given state without any further sorting or manipulation.

Role of Artefacts in this Research Project

The role of the artefact in our research practice is to visualize and communicateexplorations and developments of design theory and practice. The physical examples holda generative role, to evoke questions, visualize reasoning and inform the development ofthe thought process towards abstracted concepts and theory building. Hence the artefactembodies concepts and knowledge made available only through its existence. The physical example in our work generates and communicates knowledge and thoughts. It is both question and answer, both exploration and theory. The artefact serves to develop the theory in theprocess, the resulting artefact is the theory in concrete means. ‘Such a discovery can be founded on a very sudden, or more gradual, insight. It is a matter of “seeing”, in this case seeing that there is a certain substance/element with certain remarkable properties.’ (Hallnäs, 2018)

The level of complexity in designing and making knitwear is high, as it entails learning about both textile construction techniques and form-building. This research explores the potential of discarded knit garments as a learning tool in fashion knitwear design within higher education, to bridge the gap between translating small-scale two-dimensional knitted samples into a garment collection. Digital sketching and virtual sampling are not sufficient for the full understanding of knitwear design. Practice-based learning is key to fully grasping the potential of the knits. In addition to foundational technology and practice, existing garments can also be considered to be an open source for deriving technical knowledge and a basis for design ideation. In order to explore the potential of garment-based learning in knitwear design processes, a three-and-a-half day workshop was conducted within a basic knitting course for first-year BA Fashion Design students. The participants were divided into groups and instructed to select, analyse, and create new knitted designs using discarded garments, and to reflect on their learning outcomes. The knowledge gained during the workshop bridged the gap between the knit samples and the garment collection making. In their reflections, the students expressed a deeper understanding of various knit properties, structures, and technologies in relation to knitted garment forms and details, as being useful learning outcomes from the workshop, which they were then able to apply to their collection making processes. The collaborative, interactive, and communicative nature of the group work in relation to processes and actions was expressed to be highly beneficial, and the inclusive approach of sharing knowledge and joint learning facilitated creative and technical development. This ‘re-design for pre-design’ approach deepened the understanding of knitwear design using existing garments – constituting garment- based learning – and suggested a sustainable, practice-based method of learning with a high potential within higher eucation in fashion design. 

Dressed–Integrity presents new logics of expression and functionality in dress and its relation to the body. As an aesthetic research program in dress it is about the fundamental relationship between form and material, between technique and expression. Through the development in art the program aims to challenge the institutions of craft through the appropriation of technology, and through the development science and epistemology the program aims to challenge the institutions of technology through the appropriation of art. The research program is therefore not an empirical research program that aims to introduce new theories about fashion. It is about developing foundational concepts and theoretical propositions of fashion design in and for itself as an academic field with an obvious integrity. As such the exhibition present a few examples of new techniques, methods, models and definitions of dress and its relation to the body, conducted by handful of PhD candidates within the research program in fashion design at the Swedish School of Textiles, Borås, Sweden.

With a belief that the core of fashion is to recreate the past in perfect congruence with the present together with a photo by Stefanie to set the mood we turned to Marcel Proust for guidance. In his novel In search of lost times Proust introduces the concept of involuntary memories. The taste of the Madeleine cookie evokes Swann’s involuntary memory of things that have vanished over times. How can we through fashion evoke involuntary memories? If the garments are vanishing into transparency will that evoke our involuntary memories of bodies and dresses. If only half a lapel is appearing will that evoke our involuntary memories of coats we used to wear? Isn’t a good piece of fashion one that reminds us of the past but at the same time gives us a feeling of being totally here now? Exploring the themes of form and memory through vanishing details and fabrics. This is carried out through the cuts in detail and silhouette and through the use of prints and ausbrenner treatment of the fabrics.

Fashion design can be described as perpetually having to produce new suggestions of dress. The foundational tool for realising such propositions in a precise and focused way is the act of seeing. Rather than referring to the sense of sight or visual perception, the act of seeing builds on the concept of the ‘inner eye’ in the sense of imagination, discovery, and the direction of design ideas.

Seeing as a foundational act in the creative process is not a novel concept; on the contrary, it is usually an intuitive act that any designer performs when directing design ideas towards aesthetic goals. However, systematisation and an awareness of seeing in design processes, as methods of developing ways of working in the field of fashion design, are still open for further research. Therefore, the research presented in this thesis is aimed to systematically explore the act of seeing as a methodological tool in fashion design processes.

The experiments described in this thesis were used to explore the act of seeing in relation to concepts such as ideation, decision-making, direction, and reflection. The acts of seeing were documented iteratively in photographic sequences, and were important materials for documentation and reflection. The interaction between seeing and doing was recorded using action/reaction chains, and analysed through two modes of seeing: forming and materialising.

The most important contributions of this research are: 1) The hypothesis that the act of seeing is a methodological tool that is fundamental to creative processes. 2) A framework of ideas that builds on the interplay between the act of seeing and consequential act of doing, which was the basis for experiments that shifted between the two modes forming and materialising. 3) A mapping of different kinds of seeing.

This raises awareness of design sensibilities, and could lead to more conscious and focused ways of working in which the act of seeing is a foundation for ways of designing that are both methodological and systematic.

In fashion design, the designer strives for the development of ideas in view of significant visual goals. The process of specifying and developing ideas is a highly visual process. Based on what has been ‘seen’ as for example in a reference material or in explorations, designers define possible tracks to follow, decide which ideas to deepen or which ones to reject. Their activities can thus be described as a process of seeing.

There is nothing novel about the importance of seeing as an act in the design process; on the contrary, seeing, is usually an intuitive act that any designer explicates throughout the process of shaping his/her vision. However, the systematisation of seeing in the design process in order to advance ways of working in the field of fashion design is still very much an area that is open for further research.

In this thesis, possible ways of seeing are explored through experiments in different stages of the design process. Based on an image serving as a point of departure, seen elements were derived and put in relation to a body in a two-dimensional photographic sketching stage, in accordance with different ideas of dress. Selected ideas were then further elaborated and explored in terms of their design possibilities.

The results of the experiments are propositions of design ideas that have been ‘seen’ in a single sketch or a series of sketches. The contribution of this licentiate thesis are: 1) A thorough mapping of two design stages (point of departure and two-dimensional sketching stage), and how they provide a deeper understanding of the design process, leading to 2) an improved sensibility with regard to design possibilities, their value and developments, and finally 3) the establishing of a methodology with which to discern the composition of a visual language/vision in fashion design based on ‘seeing’.

The act of seeing is presented as the fundamental tool of designing for shaping a vision. By delving into the systematisation of the notion of seeing in a fashion design process, a methodology of seeing is introduced, which aims to enhance the possible ways of visualisation when designing.

The research project presented in this article investigated the role of the garment as an instigator of change through a series of practice-based experiments. Twenty-five knit garments, which had been discarded due to their being unsellable post-consumer waste materials, were collected and used to explore the potential of past design decisions The group of garments was considered to be a single design material to work with and reflect upon. A data analysis was conducted on the material with regard to fibre composition, colour, production country, structure, and shapes, before a series of experiments was conducted. Rather than being used to create a permanent artefact or a fixed form, the garments remained loose, plastic pieces throughout the research process, in order to be redefined through new actions to lead to the generation of new artefacts. Each experiment in the series ‘Expressions of Discarded Design Decisions’ was documented and numbered before the next was undertaken. Past design decisions, made during the production of garments, present a set of design variables and properties that can be used as a foundation for defining future design decisions. The design examples created as part of this experiment series raise questions, generate knowledge, and stimulate new thoughts in relation to the changing role of the designer and the process of searching for and adapting to new areas. The reflective framework suggested in this article posits the garment as an instigator of change, and has the potential to catalyse new ideas and methods for design practice and pedagogy.  

The result is a shift in perspective from the notion of ‘discarded garments’ to that of ‘discarded design decisions´. This points to the responsibility of the designer and opens up for new possibilities regarding rethinking habitual modes and procedures for new visions, ideas, theories, and practices.

In the paper that the session draws upon, a case study on a small-scale creative producer in fashion design in Gothenburg, Sweden was conducted which led to conclusions relating to fashion design education. 

The session acknowledges that with the common outsourcing of production, there is a division between ideation and production processes in fashion. Conversely, at small-scale creative producers the two phases are intertwined, constituting a melting pot for innovative forms and ideas for new organizations and creative leadership. In turn, this facilitates sustainable approaches within the design as well as economic processes. This case study was conducted through interviews with the founder, designer and creative director of industry, Rickard Lindqvist, where three main areas were looked into; new organizational forms and innovative leadership that have been generated within this local small-scale creative producer, the challenges of new organizational forms and innovative leadership that this small-scale creative business had to face, and the meeting of economic sustainability and design skills within the business.

The interviews highlighted several key elements in how to form a sustainable small scale creative production with innovation and development in focus. Key elements were identified; synced team building, development of business models as part of the design process, collaborations, openness to new craft approaches, digitalization, open source and self-leadership. Rather than as a separate process, the production process is here viewed as a source for ideation. A division between ideation and production risks overlooking possibilities for conscious sustainable design decisions embedded in the production process.

Independence and flexibility were emphasized in this case study as being of main importance for resilience in the challenges of future innovative developments, on organizational, design and production level, but evenly on a creative director’s level. In the context of higher education in fashion design, the talk will conclude that there’s a need to further develop and strengthen above core values - independence and flexibility- through pedagogic strategies and principles within course syllabi, aiming to facilitate the forming of innovative and economically sustainable design organizations. 

Exhibited at Drafts 3.

Exhibited at Drafts 4.

Exhibited at Drafts 4.