Interaction Design Methods in Fashion Design Teaching

The expressiveness of use is of focal interest in fashion design, which makes the perspective of act design important in learning/teaching. The objective of the project presented here was to introduce interaction design methods in fashion design teaching to make act design explicit throughout the different stages of the design process in a systematic manner; to develop a general workshop curriculum in experimental fashion design focusing on the expressiveness of wearing and use. A series of test workshops were implemented to provide a foundation for reflection and critical discussions. The main results, motivated by workshop evaluations, consist of theoreticalmodels for a systematic development of workshop exercises in fashion design aesthetics

Repetition Recurrence Return

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

Seven shirts

This text is a rewriting of the artistic research project Seven Shirts included in the licentiate dissertation Repetition Recur¬rence Return (Lundstedt 2021). In this text, I further describe the exploration of the project in which seven slowly made shirts were worn for 49 days as an everyday performance, to not get lost in the interesting and new, but to force the clothes to be kept in active use. The article and project explore the experience of time when making seven shirts by hand to put attention to the accelerating speed of fashion and expand the definition of the concept of Slow in fashion design. Handling waste as well as using natural dye in the process has been important to explore imperfection as a design possibility and then challenge the way we look at garments and fashion that often has a sterile and spotless expression.  Wearing has been a part of the process and was intended to be slow and like a ritual with the expectation of creating a relationship with each garment. The purpose of wearing the same kind of garment for 49 days in a row was about paying attention to something, time and adaptation. There is a stigma around how often one can use the same garment which means that being able to wear the same item this many times requires strength. The social aspects of wearing were sometimes hard to challenge and thus wearing each of the seven shirts for seven days had to be performed. The time spent with the shirts by making and wearing them created a relationship and together with active noticing I could embrace boredom and that created new meanings and relief

Seven shirts

This text is a rewriting of the artistic research project Seven Shirts included in the licentiate dissertation Repetition Recur¬rence Return (Lundstedt 2021). In this text, I further describe the exploration of the project in which seven slowly made shirts were worn for 49 days as an everyday performance, to not get lost in the interesting and new, but to force the clothes to be kept in active use. The article and project explore the experience of time when making seven shirts by hand to put attention to the accelerating speed of fashion and expand the definition of the concept of Slow in fashion design. Handling waste as well as using natural dye in the process has been important to explore imperfection as a design possibility and then challenge the way we look at garments and fashion that often has a sterile and spotless expression.  Wearing has been a part of the process and was intended to be slow and like a ritual with the expectation of creating a relationship with each garment. The purpose of wearing the same kind of garment for 49 days in a row was about paying attention to something, time and adaptation. There is a stigma around how often one can use the same garment which means that being able to wear the same item this many times requires strength. The social aspects of wearing were sometimes hard to challenge and thus wearing each of the seven shirts for seven days had to be performed. The time spent with the shirts by making and wearing them created a relationship and together with active noticing I could embrace boredom and that created new meanings and relief

Repetition Recurrence Return

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