The human body is a central aspect in design and is considered to be a fundamental starting point in body-based design processes. During the design process, both the existential and functional aspects of the body are explored in relation to the different activities that need to be considered with regard to the design of clothing, dress, and its association with objects in the world. Within these design processes, the models and alternatives to the human body that are used to develop designs are often confined by the body’s spatial and structural characteristics. This thesis both explores conceptions of the body and challenges conventional design methods and design thinking in fashion design processes in order to open up for alternative bodies as a methodological foundation.

Alternative aesthetic approaches and understandings of the body were explored through experiments, reflections, dialogues, and discussions. Observations on the insights attained are presented, as are the results of a process of insight sorting and an analysis workshop with both fashion and textile design students. Mixed methods and speculative design were used within the qualitative research approach, providing a creative spark for the research process. The explorations and their outcomes bridge theory relating to artistic research and art and design research.

This thesis suggests a set of concepts that have emerged from workshops and experiments that questioned preconceived notions of the body and facilitated a process of re-learning fashion-design processes. The explorations resulted in tools and methods that augment knowledge of and provide alternatives to standard methods used in fashion-design processes. They are alternative ways of working, constituting knowledge of recursive design methods and facilitating the enhancement of artistic approaches to design practices. The body alternatives that emerged from the exploratory experiments provide artistic openness in design thinking and introduce conceptions of the body that can facilitate or improve design practice. The results also contribute knowledge regarding design methods in general and how to facilitate learning regarding alternative methodological foundations and what a body could be within fashion-design education programmes.

To regard the electromagnetic domain of conductive textiles is to unlock a realm of expressive possibilities. The underexplored area of the electromagnetic domain in con­ductive textiles implies that numerous computational and electronic textiles created thus far possess untapped capabilities. These textiles, composed of metals and metal alloys, transcend our perception by constantly interacting with electromagnetic waves, fields, and signals. Serving as energetic materials, they extend a textile’s design qual­ities beyond its visible and tangible elements, ushering designers into an intangible, non-visual, extrasensory realm.

Through experimental design research, the research program aims to explore the ex­pressive possibilities of the electromagnetic domain of textiles. To achieve this, there is an initial focus on material development to understand the means through which these phenomena can be expressed. Subsequently, the design of methods and tools for sens­ing and perceiving the phenomena are explored. This foundational knowledge is crucial in uncovering the aesthetic potentials of electromagnetic systems involving sensing circuits and textile artefacts. Additionally, design variables that extend the expressive possibilities of textiles are proposed including textile radiance, electromagnetic texture, electromagnetic fusion, electromagnetic coupling, diffusion, and field shape. Further­more, the results suggest a framing for how electromagnetic textiles function through acts of sensing, acting, and revealing. 

Through examples, exhibitions, and publications, an argument is made for positioning electromagnetic textiles as a distinctive category of smart textiles, unveiling the often overlooked design potential residing within electromagnetic phenomena. The choice of how to sense and reveal electromagnetic phenomena through textiles presents aesthetic implications for multisensory textiles, requiring designers to transcend the realms of visibility and tactility, thereby challenging the predominant senses employed in conventional textile design. This presents as an expanded design space that allows for unconventional textile expressions. This forms the basis for radiant textiles: a type of smart textile that regards a textile’s electromagnetic qualities and properties, and which opens to multisensorial textile expressions.

In relation to waste hierarchies, activities such as redesign, reuse, and remanufacturing are often promoted because they can recover more resources than other activities. For example, studies have repeatedly shown that reuse and remanufacturing have more beneficial effects for the environment than recycling on the fibre level. In the clothing and fashion industry there is a growing interest in the design and business possibilities of redesign. However, despite the many examples of redesign practices and research projects being carried out to broaden theoretical understanding, a relatively underexplored area is redesign methodologies and approaches that provide the foundations for redesign as both an artistic field and business model.

This thesis explores challenges for conventional design methods and design thinking in redesign processes and introduces an alternative methodological foundation for redesign. The research was carried out through experimental design research. Design exploration and developments were conducted by design students and the author, who investigated various design methods and redesign processes; the results of these were analysed, as were accounts of and reflections on these, to identify central concepts in design thinking that present challenges and future possibilities with regard to redesign methods.

The results suggest that traditional fashion design processes, methods, and terminology are problematic when designing with garment as materials. Existing methods are based on using garment-materials as sketches, in mood-board-type processes, and as templates for creating garments using other, virgin materials. This research proposes novel ways of understanding the expressive properties of raw materials for redesign, on the basis that things that have already been designed are often then not considered further by designers. On the basis of the theoretical findings, examples of alternative design techniques and tools for redesign are discussed, and fashion as a practice is discussed from a redesign perspective.

The tendency to wear out and change is inherent in most materials, yet textiles are usually designed to retain a single expression. Within an experimental, practical work, materials that are inherently changeable were used to create woven and knitted structures in order to approach textiles from the perspective of changeability and explore what this might mean for the field of textile design. This was undertaken in order to improve our understanding of what designing textiles that change over time means for the practice of designing textiles.

The experiments explored changes in colour, texture, and structure within single textiles, and used textural changes to create form based on three variables: material, textile structure, and the stimuli textiles were exposed to. Further experiments explored the potential applications of these textiles in the context of fashion and interiors. The outcomes of the experiments showed that how materials are treated and used influences a textile’s expression and properties and how these change over time. 

The research presented in this thesis suggests an alternative way of perceiving and designing textiles: as things that are changeable. The changes in the properties, expressions, aesthetics, and uses of textiles could be embedded during the design process through three interconnected variables: time, change, and context of use. This further suggests an alternative conception of quality for textiles which is based on the aesthetics of change, in terms of when, how, and as a result of what a textile changes. Such a perspective could even encourage an increased acceptance of changes occurring in textiles, and help to re-establish a connection between people, the textiles that surround them, and the materials that textiles are made of.

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.

Movement and temporal qualities have a significant effect on design expressions. However, in the design of dress these are often overlooked, and the static form of a positioned body is considered to be the main driver of design. This work explores the expressions of the body in motion, engaged in the interaction constituted by wearing. Through a practice-led experimental approach, the research presented in this thesis aims to establish strategies for utilising the motion of the body in the context of design development. 

The research has been carried out through multiple series of experiments. Initial series of experiments focused on exploring wearing as an entwined dialogue between body and material that is expressing and informing the motion of the body. This was followed by series of experiments focusing on more particular variables such as body movement principles, material properties, and somatic experiences. Through analysing and implementing movement as a design material the work suggests an alternative type of form-thinking and form-giving where materiality together with the body movement extends garments into a temporal expression.

The result suggests an alternative model consisting of methods, concepts, and variables for design for designing temporal expressions wherein dress is defined as a temporal form and designed as a system of possible movements and ways in which a wearer can interact with a garment. Within this model, body movement is under-stood as a material and the body is viewed as a temporal structure and a mechanism for changes in the design. Overall, temporal expressions, or temporal form suggest acts of wearing and the somatic presence of the body as foundations in body-based expressions of equal importance as worn material. In particular, the design examples suggest another use of the joints of the body – the crucial points that enable move-ment – which were the main design material for temporal expressions.

The methods and thinking proposed in this thesis may be beneficial for multiple fields of art and design that use the body’s motion as design material extending the findings from the origins of dress.

The design of smart, interactive, computational, and electronic textiles involves working with unknown variables that expand the tangible dimensions of textiles. Non-visual concepts such as electromagnetic fields, electrical current, computational code, and the temporal attributes of materials that exhibit dynamic qualities require that textile designers be able to perceive and manipulate domains of the textile that extend beyond its conventional forms of expression. Through these qualities, the textile becomes an interface to otherwise imperceptible phenomena of electromagnetism and thereby opens up to new textile design expressions. However, to do so requires a shift in the understanding of how fundamental textile concepts such as material, form, and expression interrelate to affect the expressive domain of the textile itself.

This research aims to describe the material attributes, characteristics, and expressions of electromagnetic phenomena as explored through experimental research methods and suggests ways in which electromagnetic phenomena can be worked with as a design material for smart textiles. Further, it seeks to expand upon conventional design variables of textiles to include its electromagnetic domain. The experiments presented in this thesis suggest a framework for working with magnetic, dielectric, and conductive materials through textile techniques of weaving and knitting. The experiments point to the interrelationship between the textile material, structure, and form, identifying this triad as the key influencers that determine how textile expressions can embrace electromagnetic phenomena.

The results of the experimental work are methods that show accessible ways for textile designers to visualize and perceive electromagnetic fields in textiles, such as sensing the impressions of textile structures on the magnetic field using a method of scanned-surface imaging; perceiving electromagnetic fields using textile antennas and spatial exploration, resulting in sonic expression; and kinetic textile behaviours at the yarn level through magnetic interactions. Furthermore, the design possibilities of the materials, methods and tools suggested in this thesis are demonstrated through examples of interactive artefacts, e.g., in the form of ambient energy harvesting forest mobiles and radio-frequency (RF) body extensions. The results suggest the variety of electromagnetic textile expressions that can be created when methods and tools to perceive and manipulate electromagnetic phenomena in textiles are consciously utilized.

Repetition is part of our everyday lives: it is all around us, in patterns, art, and habits like having a cup of tea or getting dressed each morning. Repetition, recurrence, and return are also fundamental in nature – there are shifts in the seasons and regular, rhythmic elements, such as the weather, that occur over and over again. In order to repeat you have to remember what you did last time, and memories are intimate and can be associated with personal relationships with objects or clothes; they are not written down but preserved in memories of lived events, which over time become mythologised. In fashion, repetition is linked to imitation: we see how our friends, partners, and people on social media are dressed, and we want to look the same. This has created endless loops of trends, wherein we constantly strive for the new. When we consciously repeat or return there is the possibility to pay attention to our behaviour in relation to consumption and how we spend our time, wear our clothes, and relate to the natural world.

This thesis has taken me on a journey which started with the world of repetition, where memories, habits, and nature are visited and revisited. The journey progressed through five destinations/projects at a slow pace: at each, textile art, craft and fashion were explored. Repetition, recurrence, and return were used as methods to explore time and timing in textile making with a focus on the tension and duality between the making and the made.

With a starting point in defining space through materials, colours, planes, and surfaces, the aim of the work presented in this thesis was to explore and introduce spatial concepts as design variables in textile design. Another aim was to explore surface patterns in terms of their possible functions as spatial definers, and to make spatial properties (which here take the form of implicit knowledge) explicit in design processes in order to increase awareness of spatial concerns in surface pattern design.Workshop experiments with design students and professional designers were used as a practical method in this work, and played a major role in the investigations. The objectives of the workshops were to explore the use of spatial concepts as design variables, and to understand the roles that they play in design processes and how they affect a design outcome. The analysis utilised a phenomenographic approach, wherein the intention was to study and describe the different types of experiences that can occur when designing surface patterns and making hidden design variables explicit, and to catalogue examples of the ways in which the participants interpreted these in their design processes. An exploratory design example was created to complement the workshop experiments. The main contribution of the research is categorised into three types of results: 1) examples in the form of students’ design outcomes, 2) knowledge gained from the workshops, and 3) feedback regarding responses to the overarching questions that framed the research presented in this thesis. Another contribution is in-depth knowledge of the field of surface patterns, and the highlighting of an area that is rarely in focus within design research. The main purpose has been to contribute to a broadening of the understanding of the design of surface patterns.

The ocular-centric approach predominant in the field of design, particularly textile and spatial design, focuses on visual aesthetics and visually mediated interactions. Whereas the non-visual materialities of a space, such as smells, are ignored in the design process, meaning that interior spaces with homogenously odourless environments lack interactions with the olfactory. However, multi-sensorial experiences are crucial to creating a holistic perception of an environment. The aim of this thesis is to investigate smell as a design material for spatial design. This research has been carried out using experimental design research methods, with the theoretical framework connecting smell as a design material to textiles and spatial and interaction design. Addition, modulation and subtraction of smells through textile surfaces and micro-climatic spatial zones have been investigated. Interactions with smells were explored through different modes of activation and dispersion of smells on two different scales; spatially near to body and far from body. The research findings show that atmospheric parameters play an important role in the detectability of smells, in that air flow carries smells and distributes them in a space. Humidity holds smell molecules in the air, and at higher temperatures smell molecules are extremely volatile and dynamic in their movements. Textiles have demonstrated to be good absorber of smells, and are breathable materials with regard to designing with plants and synthetic micro-encapsulated smells to create an olfactive dimension in spaces.These results have an implication for the design of spatial olfactive diversity and olfactory interactions, in that it is possible to disperse smells that are designed to transition from discrete to ambient, or vice versa. Interior textiles can be designed with the expressions of smells that add an olfactive dimension in addition to colours, patterns, and textures. The research presented in this thesis opens up for further interdisciplinary research with regard to developing the novel material systems proposed in this thesis – smell absorbers, dividers, and reflectors – which are responsive to existing smells and atmospheric parameters. Olfactory interactions have important applications from two perspectives: firstly, in relation to subjective and individual connections to people, places, and events; secondly, with regard to providing information about the near environment that is comprehended through the olfactory, in addition to being perceived by the other senses. Therefore, spatial olfactory interactions are essential to (re)connect human to the environment in which they live and work. These interactions in the real physical world are slow and analogue in nature, in comparison to fast digital lifestyles; smells can improve feelings of social connectedness, improving wellbeing.

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.

Fashion is primarily a visual ontology consisting of definitions, theory and methods that are based on visual language. This research revises fashion by approaching it from a different—sonic—perspective wherein sound is considered not as a negative aspect but as a potential source of a new theory and facilitator of the evolution of new methods. Sound is thus presented not as a secondary quality of designed objects, but as the main idea-generator. The research opens new avenues for design thinking with ears rather than eyes. This thesis explores clothing and fashion from the perspective of listening rather than seeing, sounding rather than showing, and is a form of rethinking and redefining fashion by starting with the the statement that dress is sound.An investigation into sonic expressions is seen as a disruptive fashion practice, and could be described as a process of ‘unlearning’—encouraging one to leave behind pre-existing knowledge of fashion expressions by focusing on something else when defining and designing processes. That something else is sonic expressions. By rethinking the dressed body as a matter of sound gestalt, this research goes beyond existing communication models in fashion design to examine sonic language, wherein foundational definitions play a central role and form the basis for the new practice. The research was designed to facilitate the exploration and design of sonic expressions.The research addresses an identified gap in knowledge through the Sonic Fashion Ontology, which constitutes new, foundational knowledge of sonic expression. The research findings challenge existing theory with new terms, definitions, methods, and tools, and show the importance of understanding fashion as a platform for new knowledge production and critical thinking, along with unlearning and rethinking preconceptions of what dress is and could be. Furthermore, the results have implications for ways of thinking in design in relation to e.g. diverse communities such as the visually impaired.

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.

The tendency to wear out and change is inherent in most materials, but – aside from a few exceptions – has been considered to be undesirable by both the industry and consumers. The work presented in this licentiate thesis suggests that, due to change in some form being an inherent property of textiles, it may be viable to look for alternative ways of designing and perceiving textiles that accept change as one of their qualities.

 The experimental work explores change as a quality in textiles from the perspective of the textile material, and examines irreversible changes in textiles from three different perspectives: form, use, and teaching changeability in the field of textile design. Changes in colour, pattern, texture, and structure were explored by developing knitted and woven textiles using materials with pronounced changeable properties, and exposing these to various stimuli, such as outdoor conditions and use in workshops.

The experiments suggest that the combination of material and structure defines how textiles change when exposed to various stimuli. A material’s properties define what the textile reacts to and how, while the structure of the textile influences how it changes through the amount and placement of materials. In addition, time and the handling of a textile shape the exact changes that take place.

Designing with changeability as a quality in textiles opens up for alternative possibilities as regards creating expressions, wherein time and change are design variables alongside more traditional qualities, and could encourage a diversity of lifespans and changes over various timescales, better connecting textiles to the properties of their raw materials. This may mean that an alternative method for evaluating quality based on change instead of permanence could be viable, wherein the notion of permanence as a sign of quality in textiles is questioned.

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.

Presently, designing with living systems such as insects, fungi and bacteria has become an area of extended interest, proposing collaborative processes of designing and manufacturing - as a solution for symbiotic ways of living. On the scale of the interior, modern systems for interior gardening, combining both functional, e.g., food supply, purifying the air, and aesthetic values, experience exceptional popularity, ensuring a complementary perspective on horticultural landscapes indoors. As a result, the spaces where people live and crops grow increasingly intersect and therefore open

up for developments that bridge both areas and where aesthetic perspectives become equally important. However, modern indoor gardening systems are shaped by commercial horticultural practices, bringing reservoirs such as buckets, tubs or tanks, mostly built of plastic, into the homes. Textile Farming aims to explore alternative forms of plant organisation by blending seeds and textile structures into a hybrid material for textile interior scenarios. Consequently the materials’ performative capacity becomes part of the textile design process. A foundational part are forms of human management, e.g. activation of the seeds, maintenance of the plants, interaction with the hybrid textile structures within and beyond interiors, that leads to experiences and expressions. By practice based design research and through a series of design examples that explore the transformative potential of seeds in textile structures, alternative forms of plant organisation and methods for the textile design process lead to scenarios that propose alternatives to how we live with and organise plants today.

In dance many choreographers uses neutral garments not to distract too much from the movement the ”natural” body performs. Still these garments paints the body with color, form, identity and movement qualities. The work exemplifies how the body can extend into materiality and through this it questions the borders of the body not only in form, which is usually the case in fashion design, but also in movement qualities as temporal form. Further it high lightens the importance of awareness of movement qualities in materials of dress as they express the form. The potential of dress in dance is explored in three chapters. For each of these, materials were chosen and arranged in order to provide an additional layer to the movement that the body naturally performs, allowing material to transform the body into various figures of movement. The first part introduces the use of dress in dance and how dress acts with the moving body. The second part explores how movement with the origin in the body can extend spatially and the last part focuses on the materials ability to interpret and materialize the movement.  

The result of this work suggest that dress has the potential in dance as both choreographic tool and movement quality of equal importance as the movement of a body in a dance performance. Further it intersects the aesthetics of dance, a temporal aesthetic, with the aesthetics of garments, as a form based aesthetic, as it suggests dress as temporal design, allowing dress to create a new body of movement.

This thesis describes an exploration of the principles of applying leuco dye-based inks to textile design practice. The main motivation has been to explore the design properties and potentials of leuco dye-based thermochromic inks when printed on textiles in order to obtain an understanding and facilitate the design of dynamic surface patterns. The significance of this is related to the development of a methodology to assist designers in seeing possibilities, making informed decisions, and predicting colour transitions at different temperatures when designing a dynamic surface pattern.

The research was conducted by undertaking a series of design experiments using leuco dye-based thermochromic inks, which resulted in various working methods and two pedagogical tools. This process offered the insight and depth of understanding required to design dynamic surface patterns, in that it highlighted the different colour-changing properties of leuco dye-based thermochromic inks, which have the potential to create a more complex and dynamic range of patterns on textiles than those that exist today. There is much to explore beyond the current design possibilities offered by thermochromic inks, and it is hoped that designers and researchers can apply the knowledge that has been obtained during the work of this thesis to their practical explorations so as to move towards new ways of thinking and designing, and further innovation in textile design.

Designing with non-visual attributes challenges ways of representation. This research explores methods for designing with invisible materiality within the research practice, as well as ways of representation through textiles when designing spaces. Exploring textiles and smells within a space, the research program investigates spatial interactions.

This research focuses on designing embodied experiences using tangible materials as expressions of smells. Through the spatial installations and performances Sight of smell, Touch of smell, and Smell, space, and body movement, haptics were explored as one of the methods of interaction with smells through textiles.

Through the sense of touch, this research also investigates ways of revealing, activating, and disseminating smells within a space. Smells were purposely added through the methods of dyeing, coating, and printing to the textile materials that did not inherently embody any smells, As a result, tactile surfaces create non-visual expressions of smell. Further ideas of research in this area would explore another perspective of designing with smells in spaces. As an example, by designing textiles being smell absorbers, dividers, and re ectors, could compliment the spatial concepts and deals with the already existing smells in a living environment.

In this licentiate thesis thinking through the olfactive dimension to design textiles is not only novel for the textile design eld; but also, its proposal for application in the spatial design is quite unique, and o ers a new dimension for spatial design. 

This licentiate thesis focuses on surface patterns, spatiality, and pattern relations in textile design, and aims to explore surface patterns as spatial definers and what they mean in the context of surface patterns. A secondary focus relates to applying conceptual spatial determinations as alternative design variables in design processes, and exploring how these could be used to define and analyse pattern relations.

Through a series of exploratory design experiments that used printed and projected surface patterns in a three-dimensional setting, which were documented using photographs and film, the notion of pattern relations, wherein scale was used as a design variable, was explored. The outcome of the experiments showed the expressional possibilities that surface patterns may provide in a defined space, and how these are connected to pattern relations. In order to encourage an accompanying discussion regarding alternative methods of analysing surface patterns, the construction of a theoretical model was initiated. Workshops with design students were used as another practical method in this work.

The results showed that there is great potential in using conceptual spatial determinations to define pattern relations by viewing surface patterns as spatial definers, rather than taking a traditional perspective on their functions. Another outcome is the theoretical model, which proposes a specific approach to pattern relations.

This research demonstrates how conceptual spatial determinations can benefit the textile design process, as well as design teaching, which could in turn provide the field with new expressions that may lead to a change in or fruitful addition to the practice.

This artistic, practice-based thesis has been developed based on the idea that design creates social and ideological change. From this perspective, Body Acts Queer — Clothing as a performative challenge to heteronormativity introduces an artistic way of working with and exploring the performative and ideological functions of clothing with regard to gender, feminism, and queer. The thesis presents this program for experimental fashion design—exemplified through a series of artistic projects—while also discussing the foundations of such an approach and the different perspectives that have affected the program and its artistic examples. Working with clothing and fashion design through artistic projects using text and bodies, this thesis transforms queer and feminist theory into a creative process and, by looking into bodily experiences of clothing, Body Acts Queer investigates its performative and ideological functions, with a focus on cultural, social, and heteronormative structures. Body Acts Queer suggests a change in the ways in which bodies act, are perceived, and are produced within the fashion field, giving examples of—and alternatives to—how queer design practice can be performed. In this thesis, queer design is explored as an inclusive term, containing ideas about clothing and language, the meeting point between fiction and reality, and the ability to perform interpretation and bodily transformations—where pleasure, bodily experiences, and interaction create a change. 

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.

Body Acts Queer is an exploration of the performative and ideological functions of clothes with regard to gender, feminism and queer. It is an artistic, practice-based thesis in the field of fashion and design. The thesis includes three projects: On & Off, If you were a girl I would love you even more and The Club Scene. In these projects I, using text and bodies, work with acts in which clothes have a fundamental role. By exploring bodily experiences of clothes, I investigate the clothes’ performative and ideological functions, with a focus on cultural, social and heteronormative structures.

Working with clothing and fashion design from a queer feminist perspective, I transform queer and feminist theory into a creative process. The projects presented in this thesis, together with the discussion, suggest a change in the ways in which bodies act, are perceived and are produced within the fashion field, giving examples of how a queer design practice can be performed. In this thesis, queer design is explored as an inclusive term, containing ideas about clothes and language, the meeting point between fiction and reality and the ability to interpretation and bodily transformations – where desire, bodily experiences and interaction create a change.

The work presented in this thesis investigates through practice a new field of textile design exploring the visual effects of moving light as a continuous time-based medium. Thereby, the textile design pattern reveals its composition, not in one moment of time any more, but in fact over time. The thesis consist of four parts: a solo exhibition at the Textile Museum in Borås from 17th February- 28th March 2015, five posters, an interactive thesis including 48 films (download file) and present thesis book. The artefacts displayed in the thesis show a varying range of examples which explore aesthetical possibilities of how light can be integrated as an active part into textile structures, ranging from weaving to braiding techniques, both hand crafted, as well as industrial produced. Thereby three main groups of experiments: colour flow, rhythm exercise, sound_light experiment explore and discuss a range of different time-based expressions. Thus define and establish relevant new design variables and notions, whilst working with time-based design processes. In the following descriptions of these experiments two forms of writing have been used to describe the experiments. One is purely descriptive, neutral form to describe the experiments as such, whereas text titled Research Diary Notes includes reflections and personal comments on the experiences during work on the experiments. The interactive thesis and the exhibited artefacts are an invitation to view new textiles expressions and are an initial guide on the road toward future time-based design works, particularly in the area of light emitting textiles.

Fashion designers are presented with a range of different methods for pattern cutting, and the interest in this field has grown rapidly over the past few years. This growth is both due to the publication of a number of works dealing with the subject in different ways and the fact that a growing number of designers emphasise cutting in their creative practices.

Though a range of methods and concepts for pattern cutting are presented, the main body of these methods, both traditional and contemporary, is predominately based on a theoretical approximation of the body that is derived from horizontal and vertical measurements of the body in an upright position: the tailoring matrix. As a consequence, there is a lack of interactive and dynamic qualities in methods connected to this paradigm of garment construction, from both expressional and functional perspectives.

This work proposes and explores an alternative paradigm for pattern cutting that includes a new theoretical approximation of the body as well as a more kinetic method for garment construction that, unlike the prevalent theory and its related methods, takes as its point of origin the interaction between the anisotropic fabric and the biomechanical structure of the body. As such, the research conducted here is basic research, aiming to identify fundamental principles for garment construction. Based on some key principles found in the works of Geneviève Sevin-Doering and in pre-tailoring methods for constructing garments, the proposed theory for – and method of – garment construction was developed through concrete experiments by cutting and draping fabrics on live models.

Instead of a static matrix of a non-moving body, the result is a kinetic construction theory of the body that is comprised of balance directions and key biomechanical points, along with an alternative draping method for dressmaking. This methodology challenges the fundamental relationship between dress, garment construction, and the body, working from the body outward, as opposed to the methods that are based on the prevalent paradigm of the tailoring matrix, which work from the outside toward the body. This alternative theory for understanding the body and the proposed method of working allows for diverse expressions and enhanced functional possibilities in dress.

Textile materials and textile design are a part of countless products in our surroundings,as well as diverse design fields and industries, each of which has very different materialtraditions and working methods. The aim of this thesis is to add to our understandingof the relationship between textiles and products in the design process, and to explorehow textiles enter and influence product design processes and how products functionin textile design processes. A further aim is to examine the effect of new textiletechnology, such as smart textiles and 3D printed textiles, on this dynamic.

This thesis is the result of an interplay between theoretical work, experimentalpractice-based projects, and observation of design practice, and it presents two typesof results: Firstly, descriptions of how the relationship can manifest itself in the designprocess, which give a broad picture of the relationship between textile and productand in so doing add to our understanding of textiles as design materials and highlightsome of the additional complexities and possibilities for the design process that comewith new forms of textiles. Secondly, this thesis presents ways of describing thedynamics between textiles and products in the design process, with the intention ofopening up for reflection on how we design, and can design, with textiles. Here, themain outcome is a theoretical framework which examines the relationship from botha product design and a textile design perspective, and includes methods and questionsthat can be used to explore and define how textiles and products meet in the designprocess.

This thesis presents and discusses the results of foundational experimental designresearch in the field of fashion design methodology, with a particular focus onknitwear. The research explored and broadened the foundations of form-thinkingin the design process for knitwear and knitting, with the objective of developingalternative form-concepts and working methods relevant to practitioners andstudents active in the field.

Knitting is not simply designing using yet another technique; it is designing from adifferent perspective. When making a knitted item, no material has to be preparedbeforehand, as material and item can be created at one and the same time. Thus,the prevalent distinction between form and material as two separate parameters inthe design process for knitwear can be questioned. Hence, developing the designprocess for knitwear by focusing on alternative ways of understanding the notionof form is of great significance as regards further developments in the wider field ofknit and knitwear design.

The key aim of the research was to replace the silhouette – used as a guidingprinciple in form thinking – with the notion of invariants, which define what wedo as we knit a given garment. The notion of invariants used in this thesis comesfrom topology, and refers to properties that do not change under non-destructivetransformations. The form of the garment is then given by basic invariants, whichdefine what we build and how we build it. As these properties do not changeunder non-destructive transformations, they do not suggest a specific silhouettewith regard to ready-made garments, but rather a more fundamental form, whichcharacterises the garment throughout making and use. Employed in this way,the notion of an invariant introduces a form of concrete geometry which focusesdirectly on the specifics of making.

Several initial experiments are described in brief, and this is followed by a discussionof the three more elaborate design experiments which led to the development of atheoretical framework. This is then exemplified with the last design experiment, inwhich theory informs the set-up, and consequently shows the design potentials ofthe suggested method.