Fragments: methodologies of making fashion

Everyday fashion components and elements such as the pocket, the sleeve, or the seam often become overshadowed by the theatrics of the fashion spectacle. Very little time is dedicated to the study of fashion in detail and the intricacies of high fashion become invisible in the catwalk show or fashion photoshoot. Since modern living has encouraged us to buy cheap, low quality, mass produced clothing the exhibition aims to discuss the opportunity to create high quality garments and components with a longer lifespan and that can be repaired, transformed, or be disassembled at the end of their lifecycle

Integrating sustainable strategies in the fashion design process: A conceptual model of the fashion designer in haute couture.

This thesis explores the role of the fashion designer in the contemporary design and production of fashion garments, and seeks to present an argument for the integration of sustainable design strategies across the fashion design process. Existing studies have revealed that within the fashion design process there is often no consideration for the life cycle of a garment, garment end-of-life strategies, or any sense of responsibility for the textile waste generated through pattern making, manufacture or use (Black, Eckert and Eskandarypur 2009; Gwilt & Rissanen 2011). This thesis explores what opportunities are available for the fashion designer to design garments that can lessen the impact on the environment, while balancing economic, social and ethical concerns. Moreover, the thesis proposes that the designer can integrate sustainable design strategies during the fashion design process, which can lead to a change in the way that fashion garments are produced, used and discarded

Textiles as Material Gestalt: Cloth as a Catalyst in the Co-designing Process

Textiles is the common language within Emotional Fit, a collaborative research project investigating a person-centred, sustainable approach to fashion for an ageing female demographic (55+). Through the co-designing of a collection of research tools, textiles have acted as a material gestalt for exploring our research participants' identities by tracing their embodied knowledge of fashionable dress. The methodology merges Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, co-design and a simultaneous approach to textile and garment design. Based on an enhanced understanding of our participants textile preferences, particular fabric qualities have catalysed silhouettes, through live draping and geometric pattern cutting to accommodate multiple body shapes and customisation. Printedtextiles have also been digitally crafted in response to the contours of the garment and body and personal narratives of wear. Sensorial and tactile interactions have informed the engineering and scaling of patterns within zero-waste volumes. The article considers the functional and aesthetic role of textiles

Material Futures:Design-led Approaches to Crafting Conversations in the Circular Economy

This paper explores the work in the area of Material Futures – undertaken by researchers at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA). We begin by presenting current debates within the textile sector and outline the challenges of the circular economy. The Scottish Government have established a £17 million fund to catalyse innovative approaches for the circular economy, which support closed-loop systems including collaboration, evaluation of different methods and future material ecologies. We discuss future material ecologies in two case studies in order to extrapolate the ways in which creative and participatory design approaches can be used to stimulate dialogue around the circular economy, broader environmental and economic issues and the socio-cultural implications. We identify six design principles for researchers and practitioners to consider when facilitating circular conversations and the evolving role of the textile designer. We go on to highlight the significance of design-led approaches in strengthening communication, promoting creative action and embedding collaborative ways of working. We conclude by making recommendations for future research and practice and how the insights might be expanded upon to support ethical, responsible and sustainable material futures

Collections and Space: an update on Syracuse University Libraries\u27 Journals Migration Project

To date, the Libraries have transferred to The Facility more than 100,000 volumes, including 7,000 journal titles, across all disciplines. By migrating these journals from Bird Library to The Facility, the Libraries will save the University more than $1.9 million within five years. Continued strategic use of The Facility helps the Libraries manage principal collections whose aggregate value exceeds$200 million. This paper reports on the progress of the Libraries’ journals migration project, provides additional context and data that led to the spring 2014 approval for the project from the provost

COVID co-design does not *HAVE* to be digital!: Why 'which platform should we use?' should not be your first question

"EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Groups most severely affected by COVID-19 have tended to be those marginalised before the pandemic and are now being largely ignored in developing responses to it. This two-volume set of Rapid Responses explores the urgent need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how policymakers, health and social care practitioners, patients, service users, carers and public contributors can make this happen. The second volume focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic. It explores a variety of case studies from across the global North and South and addresses the practical considerations of co-producing knowledge both now - at a distance - and in the future when the pandemic is over.

Public consciousness and willingness to embrace ethical consumption of textile products in Mexico

The Mexican economy has been showing a continuous and arguably remarkable growth in the last decade, and it is expected that this strong economic growth is based on a balance between social equity, fiscal growth and environmental protection. This composite situation requires us to have a clear understanding of changes in consumer behaviour and their attitudes towards ethical consumerism in this region. With the use of a semi-structured questionnaire, this pilot study presented a detailed analysis of the consumer attitudes towards ethical consumerism in relation to their socio economic class levels in this region, the public consciousness and willingness to embrace ethical consumption of textile products in Mexico were thus determined. It is hoped that this knowledge provides the basis for the initiation of a framework of activities and measures to develop sustainable consumption habits and to educate consumers on the subject of ethical consumption

Crafting the Composite Garment: The role of hand weaving in digital creation

There is a growing body of practice-led textile research, focused on how digital technologies can inform new design and production strategies that challenge and extend the field. To date, this research has emphasized a traditional linear transition between hand and digital production; with hand production preceding digital as a means of acquiring the material and process knowledge required to negotiate technologies and conceptualize designs. This paper focuses on current Doctoral research into the design and prototyping of 3D woven or 'composite' garments and how the re-learning, or reinterpreting, of hand weaving techniques in a digital Jacquard format relies heavily on experiential knowledge of craft weaving skills. Drawing parallels between hand weaving and computer programming, that extend beyond their shared binary (pixel-based) language, the paper discusses how the machine-mediated experience of hand weaving can prime the weaver to ‘think digitally’ and make the transition to digital production. In a process where the weaver acts simultaneously as designer, constructor and programmer, the research explores the inspiring, but often indefinable space between craft and digital technology by challenging the notion that 'the relationship between hand, eye and material’ naturally precedes the use of computing (Harris 2012: 93). This is achieved through the development of an iterative working methodology that encompasses a cycle of transitional development, where hand weaving and digital processes take place in tandem, and techniques and skills are reinterpreted to exploit the advantages and constraints of each construction method. It is argued that the approach challenges the codes and conventions of computer programming, weaving and fashion design to offer a more sustainable clothing solution

Hippocampal Disinhibition Reduces Contextual and Elemental Fear Conditioning While Sparing the Acquisition of Latent Inhibition

Hippocampal neural disinhibition, i.e., reduced GABAergic inhibition, is a key feature of schizophrenia pathophysiology. The hippocampus is an important part of the neural circuitry that controls fear conditioning and can also modulate prefrontal and striatal mechanisms, including dopamine signaling, which play a role in salience modulation. Consequently, hippocampal neural disinhibition may contribute to impairments in fear conditioning and salience modulation reported in schizophrenia. Therefore, we examined the effect of ventral hippocampus (VH) disinhibition in male rats on fear conditioning and salience modulation, as reflected by latent inhibition (LI), in a conditioned emotional response (CER) procedure. A flashing light was used as the conditioned stimulus (CS), and conditioned suppression was used to index conditioned fear. In experiment 1, VH disinhibition via infusion of the GABA-A receptor antagonist picrotoxin before CS pre-exposure and conditioning markedly reduced fear conditioning to both the CS and context; LI was evident in saline-infused controls but could not be detected in picrotoxin-infused rats because of the low level of fear conditioning to the CS. In experiment 2, VH picrotoxin infusions only before CS pre-exposure did not affect the acquisition of fear conditioning or LI. Together, these findings indicate that VH neural disinhibition disrupts contextual and elemental fear conditioning, without affecting the acquisition of LI. The disruption of fear conditioning resembles aversive conditioning deficits reported in schizophrenia and may reflect a disruption of neural processing both within the hippocampus and in projection sites of the hippocampus

Tangible Data Souvenirs as a Bridge between a Physical Museum Visit and Online Digital Experience

This paper presents the design, implementation, use and evaluation of a tangible data souvenir for an interactive museum exhibition. We define a data souvenir as the materialisation of the personal visiting experience: a data souvenir is dynamically created on the basis of data recorded throughout the visit and therefore captures and represents the experience as lived. The souvenir provides visitors with a memento of their visit and acts as a gateway to further online content. A step further is to enable visitors to contribute, in other words the data souvenir can become a means to collect visitor-generated content. We discuss the rationale behind the use of a data souvenir, the design process and resulting artefacts, and the implementation of both the data souvenir and online content system. Finally we examine the installation of the data souvenirs as part of a long-lasting exhibition: the use of this souvenir by visitors has been logged over seven months and issues around the gathering of user-generated content in such a way are discussed. Keywords: Tangible interaction; data souvenir; museums; user-generated content