Textile-form as dress is often synonymous with the form-defining system of cut and assemble, and as such, cut and assemble can be argued as that which defines as well as restrains this discipline. The following work is an inquiry that aims to investigate alternative methods of form-thinking and manufacturing, and their aesthetic consequences for dress. This practice-led venture, explores other imaginaries both as initial point of departure and final objective. As such, the work strives to incrementally increase understanding of the accumulated traces that inform processes of forming and thus come to actively affect the structuring processes and outcomes of an experimental system that seeks form-defining systems as other realities, for, and of dress as textile-form. The context is the interdependent relationship of cut and assemble as a method for artistic practice and a system for manufacturing dress. 

Historically developed as a method and a craft practice for bespoke, on-demand production, cut and assemble is regarded by many as unsuited for industrial manufacturing. Driven by a high turnaround neo-capitalist system, its manufacturing industry is repeatedly described as unsustain-able, both in regards to environmental and social challenges. However, while there is an increasing search for alternatives, these commonly seek to maintain the linear processes of cut and assemble. Alternative proposals seldom take into consideration that systems of manufacturing rely on the methods of conception and vice versa, and that both entities need to be speculated dependently and in tandem. Therefore, this research explores processes of transposition through and within other imaginaries into form-defining systems for textile-form. It speculates the aesthetic conse-quences of dress through material and immaterial investigations neither commencing nor ending with the cut and assembly of mass-manufactured, roll-based textile. As such, the work explores the informing of textile-form through actual and virtual media and material inherently different to those of cut and assemble. This allows the implementation of tools and apparatuses generally not used within systems of dress, and investigates as well as integrates these through an elastic and experimental process, rather than as add-ons to a closed circuit of current practice. 

The work further elaborates on the theory of reverse crafting as a way of using other realities to facilitate alternative form-defining systems of dress, in a future where craft knowledge is foremost required at the initial stages of interpreting and developing that which is to be conceived rather than at the stage of manufacturing.

How do we design and produce textile-forms for the body without creating waste?

This paper discusses the collaborative project the authors undertook for the speculativefilm Planet City in the context of a research program titled Critical Textile Topologies. Itoutlines the experimental design research methodology undertaken in the project, andreflects on the tension between design practice and design research that occurred in thedevelopment of multimorphic textile-based forms using whole garment weaving. Afteroutlining the project as a whole, two key areas are discussed: The negotiation betweenexpectations relating to design practice and the requirements of experimental designresearch; and the emergence of multimorphic understanding of this kind ofinterdisciplinary design practice. Planet City provided the researchers with a clear‘laboratory’ context to experiment within, rapidly driving the research forward in order topresent a speculative vision for the future. The paper presents this research as an exampleof interdisciplinarity situated at the borderline between practice and research,demonstrating that when balance is maintained between various practical and researchdrivers new knowledge and an enticing vision for the future can be developed.

Experiment 0 tunic and trousers: cut but unshrunk, shrunk on mould, uniformly shrunk [6 pieces]

Cotton and polyester

These textile-forms do not require new technology, only rethinking how existing technology is currently used and understood. Using an innovative design process that enables the production of 2D woven textiles with the form embedded into the weave structure, these structures and heat-reactive fibres produce zero waste garments (or other textile-forms) through cutting and heat-forming over a 3D mould, with minimal or no assembly required. The textile-form can also be uniformly shrunk or altered with heat over many alternative forms to manipulate its form further at any stage of this lifetime. The overall aesthetic expression of the garment – its texture and form – emerges from the making process, and is therefore unique to each textile-form.

This process transforms garment construction from what is usually a labour-intensive hand process to an almost fully automated one – and front loading or reversing the 'craft' of making to the design stage, while leaving the design perpetually ‘unfinished’. Each different decision and the sequence of alteration becomes an extension of the design and prototyping process, unveiling connections and unintended consequences of earlier decisions and material choices.

Reversed Crafting is an inquiry that aims to investigate alternative methods of form giving and manufacturing and their aesthetic consequence for dress. It is a practice-led venture that explores alternative materials and mediums through digital and analogue tools, rethinking what dress can be if not relying on currently dominant processes of form-giving and production. Its context is the interdependent relationship of cut and assemble as a method for artistic practice and as a system for manufacturing. Historically developed as a method and a craftsmanship for bespoke, on-demand production, cut and assemble is regarded by many as unsuited for industrial manufacturing, often directed by a high turnaround capitalist system. As an industry it is often described as unsustainable, both in regards to environmental and social challenges. Currently, the field is experiencing an influx of 3D digital tools, both directed at final production and form giving. Often arguing a democratisation of both design and manufacturing, the integration of 3D digital tools to the field are highly anticipated. However, commonly migrated from other disciplines, these methods are often merged with cut and assemble, rather than investigated as holistic and real alternatives. In relation to digital manufacturing, the perceived absence of suitable materials for the final artefact is far more debated then what to produce when these materials inevitably become ready at hand. Arguably, these methods of digital manufacturing, the technical how, has a plethora of real or speculated solutions. Nevertheless, the question of what, through an aesthetic reasoning, these techniques can suggest or enable as examples of dress are often less considered. Therefore, the work presented in this licenciate wish to speculate on  aesthetic consequences of dress through physical investigations neither commencing, nor ending with the cut and assemble of textile on roll. It proposes the notion of reversed crafting as a way of thinking in order to facilitate the making of dress in a future system where craft knowledge is foremost required at the initial stages of interpreting and developing what is being produced rather than at the actual stage of production.

The Sulfuric Tunic, part of the Critical Textile Topologies X Planet City project, is a multimorphic textile-form, produced through whole-garment weaving. It embodies experimental design research that explores reversed crafting, zero-waste systems thinking, and complex textile behaviour. Its design incorporates notions of hyper-local manufacturing and circularity in a positive future-making context. Critical Textile Topologies is a collective of designer-researchers exploring new design expressions, processes and methods for critical understandings of textile-forms through questioning what materials, textiles, and form are.

Reversed crafting is a practice-led investigation of alternative ways of doing and thinking within a field where cut and assemble is perceived as the dominant method for artistic expression. Addressing form giving and crafting of surfaces as a simultaneous act of making propose questions that can not be answered through cut and assemble. Not only an artistic method for crafting dress, cut and assemble is a system for industrial manufacturing, or material hyper consumption. The production of textiles and their use in garment production stands for one of the most complicated chains in todays manufacturing industry. With its appetite for burning fossil fuels it is linked to the knowledge that human activities have changed the functioning of the earth system, introducing the age of the Anthropcene.

Employing an estimated 60 million people globally, nearly three quarters of the work force are female and the conditions of the labourer are often atrocious. This makes evident that cut and assemble as a system for industrial manufacturing is unsustainable and in order to re-think these systems of manufacturing, there is an acute need to re-think what is manufactured and how this what comes into being.

The field of dress is currently experiencing an influx of 3D digital tools, both in regards to final assembly and form giving. Commonly migrated from other disciplines, these methods are often merged with cut and assemble, rather than investigated as holistic and real alternatives. If eliminating the relation to cut and assemble, these emerging 3D digital techniques can aid autonomous investigations of form giving and surface crafting as a simultaneous action in dress.

This practice-led research formulates and proposes methods of reversed crafting, addressing suggestions that digital manufacturing requires front-end craft knowledge where craft and designerly ways of thinking is reversed within the process of dress. Through physical examples mimicking processes commonly found in the fields of glass and ceramics, it abandons cut and assemble as the artistic method of form giving. Exploring moulding, 3D digital techniques and analogue tools in collaboration with material alternatives to that of fabric on roll, the work allows for the modelling of holistic methods of dress and the speculation of future systems of manufacturing.

The traditional method of cut and assemble in garment making is accused of disregarding the importance of the materiality of textiles, and the three dimensionality of our body. Our joint venture aims to address this gap by investigating the expressive possibilities of woven textiles with inherent form-giving qualities in conjunction with garment moulds, similar to Miyake’s self-forming weaves (Howarth 2014) and Brown’s ideas on the relationship between form and surface (Brown 2013). Changes in texture, size and shape of the textile and the placement of openings for limbs inform the shape of the mould and the placement of the textile on the mould. 

Likewise, the form of the mould informs the shape of the garment through the textile’s ability for change. This allows for close communication between textile and form as both are developed in conjunction, from initial sketch through to final garment. The moulds are obtained using a method of ‘reversed crafting’, mimicking processes found in glass and ceramics where the space between body is addressed whilst treating form giving and crafting of surfaces as a simultaneous act of doing and thinking. Formability is embedded in Jacquard woven multi-layered fabrics through combining heat reactive shrinking yarns with stable base materials. Stops and seams are added in the fabric while weaving, creating a raw shape for the garment. 

The results are presented as 4-6 form experiments in scale 1:4, arrived at in collaboration with material, body and digital and analogue tools. Process images illustrate the relationship between the weave and the mould in the form giving processes of dress. Together, we suggest a renewed focus on the tangible materiality of textiles when forming garments in interplay with the three dimensional form. Further, the work proposes alternative methods for design making and thinking at the intersection of textile and fashion design.