Repurposing Design Process

The fashion industry has innumerable damaging impacts to the environment (Zaffalon, Text World 16:34, 2010). Presently, the vast majority of all textile-based products, including clothing and home good fashions, end up in landfills (Kozlowski et al. J Clean Prod 183:197-207, 2018). Consumers often purchase new clothing because the style is outdated rather than because of lack of functionality. In other words, what consumers discard can still be functional and valuable in another form. The current phenomenon of fast fashion and increased turnover of merchandise has led to an abundant quantity of functional production-level textile waste and secondhand clothing (Fletcher, Sustainable fashion and textiles design journeys. Earthscan, London, 2008). It has been suggested that the greatest opportunity for reclaimed fashion goods is to repurpose them into new products (Hawley, Recycling in textiles. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, 2006a; Hawley, Cloth Text Res J 24: 262, 2006b). Design efforts that employ reuse, repurposing, or upcycling techniques could assist in assigning renewed value from unwanted yet still functional, discarded clothing. In this chapter, the term “repurposing” is used to describe the process that utilizes discarded textiles to create new fashion (textile-based) products. Textile “recycling,” described by Lewis et al. (Int J Fash Des Technol Educ 10:353-362, 2017), is the process of returning a textile product back into its original fiber form and is not covered in this chapter. Repurposing researchers (Irick, Examination of the design process of repurposed apparel and accessories: An application of diffusion of innovations theory. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 2013); (Irick & Eike, Teaching the repurposing mindset: The introduction of a repurposing project into an advanced apparel construction course. International Federation for Home Economics Conference. Sligo, 2017) have identified four levels of repurposing: (1) re-style to repurpose, (2) subtractive repurposing, (3) additive repurposing, and (4) intentional patternmaking to repurpose. This chapter provides analysis of the four repurposing levels through case study application to detail the creative design process employed by select designers for the purpose of repeatability and advancing research connected to repurposing. Case studies walk the reader through research and discovery, sampling of techniques, descriptions of full-scale design, and reflection to share learned experiences alongside detailed images of completed repurposed fashion designs. The chapter concludes with a cross-case analysis of all repurposed designs and suggests future directions to advance “repurposing” endeavors for industry and/or academic design scholars

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field