What prevents people repairing clothes? : an investigation into community-based approaches to sustainable product service systems for clothing repair

This paper explores how we might reinvigorate community-based approaches to the repair of clothing and garments and examines the potential roles for online and offline activities to facilitate knowledge exchange, build communities and revisit repair processes and strategies. Until the mid-twentieth century in Western society cloth was considered to be a valuable commodity, and clothes were regularly maintained and repaired to prolong garment use. Today the cultural and economic value attributed to clothing has on the whole dramatically changed and the practice of repairing or altering clothing has largely disappeared. While there is renewed interest in the creative potential of mending or altering garments in some quarters, in particular amongst the online and offline craft communities, within mainstream society damaged clothing is typically discarded to landfill rather than repaired. Based on empirical studies conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Sheffield Hallam University, this paper discusses the preliminary project findings and suggests what needs to be done to encourage and support people to engage in clothing repair.</p

Where does wearable technology fit in the Circular Economy?

Environmental concerns have become a core focus in today’s fashion and textile industry. Sustainability underlies all aspects of the industry from sourcing raw materials through design, manufacturing, consumer use and end-of-life disposal. Wearable electronics has emerged from a niche industry to one with an estimated market value of US$20billion in 2015 and expected to rise to US$70 billion by 2025 (Harrop, 2015). Although still a relatively immature industry, it is starting to recognise environmental concerns but thus far it has not become an industry driver. In this paper we first look at the current state of sustainability within wearable technology. In the second section we identify key drivers and issues then propose ways in which wearable technology can more fully embrace the Circular Economy. In the concluding section we look at future technologies and their likely environmental impact. As wearable technology has now started to mature all aspects of sustainability need to be addressed. We will look at lessons that can be taken and applied from the textile and fashion industry such as the sourcing, use, reuse and disposal of material. We will also examine issues unique to wearable technology for example the need for a power supply and the problem of technological obsolescence within the garment. From a design perspective we examine the ways in which wearable technology is applied within fashion and how this could more closely relate to the activity of garment use. From this position we then question whether it is possible for wearable technology to contribute to garment longevity by examining issues and concepts related to fashionability, durability, and repair. In the concluding portion of the paper we consider the introduction of future technologies and disruptive manufacturing processes that have the potential to provide challenges that demand design and manufacturing solutions that are both sustainable and innovative

Understanding the caring practices of users

This paper explores how people extend and preserve the life of specific objects and domestic spaces through ‘caring’, drawing on early findings from an empirical study conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Sheffield Hallam University. Researchers from across the design disciplines of fashion, product and interiors explore the attitudes of users towards care routines by profiling and comparing the specific practices, customs and rituals that are adopted in the care and maintenance of products and domestic spaces in regular use. During the 20th century the cultural and economic value of products dramatically changed as the availability and affordability of mass-produced, low cost goods increased in the marketplace (Walker 2006). As a consequence, the emphasis on product care and maintenance has become less important, and is fostering a “careless” society in which a growing lack of skill, knowledge, and motivation means that users do not routinely engage in the appropriate care practices that are known to help extend the life or use of particular objects and spaces. Although in general terms consumer products have come to be considered disposable, it is argued that through ‘good’ design there is an opportunity to establish an emotional bond or attachment between user and product that together with associated practices of care can help sustain and extend product lifetimes (Chapman, 2005; Walker, 2006; Schifferstein & Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 2008). However, while the designer may be able to enhance the relationship between user and product, this paper highlights a range of unpredictable care practices that exist amongst consumers, which can affect these intentions. Motivated by a desire and the perceived need to encourage users to engage more with care and maintenance routines as a means to preserving the life of products and environments, this research reveals user-centred insights that may help designers to support and encourage better maintenance and ‘care’ practices

Old and Cold: Challenges in the Design of Personalised Thermal Comfort at Home

The link between winter cold and illness is a major health concern because 'cold kills'. Worse still, old and frail older people can feel cold at any time of year. Solutions need to be found to increase thermal comfort. Whilst clothing manufacturers have produced garment solutions for people to enjoy outdoor activities in the cold, there is a gap in our understanding about how to protect frail/older people from becoming chilled and cold at home. To date no evidence exists on the benefit of innovative clothing interventions for keeping older adults warm (and healthy) in the home. Our aim therefore was to first understand the behaviours of older adults at risk of indoor cold, living in different domestic environments. Focus groups/semi-structured interviews were used to identify body regions where old/frail older people feel cold and to learn about their attitudes to traditional and modern fabrics and garments for keeping warm at home. Findings from a funded pilot study (RDSYH, Public Involvement grant) are presented. The body regions most vulnerable to thermal discomfort are trunk and extremities (feet, hands). Given the anxiety, discomfort, pain, reduced activity (including taking to their bed to keep warm in early evening) design/engineering-led solutions for a ‘smart’ warm clothing 'wardrobe' for today’s and tomorrow’s older people are needed. Feedback suggests that older people are open to fresh ideas about garments and technology; important to them being fabric weight. Older people do not, as often thought, wear outdoor clothes (hats, gloves, scarves) indoors, and are not averse to ‘modern’ fabrics and garments. Style remains important to many. These findings provide the first step towards identifying 'candidate' fabric, material and garment designs preferred and acceptable to older people for the next stage of work; development of ‘smart’ personalised thermal comfort solutions for health and wellbeing at home

Space|Time|Place : enabling participation in design research for higher education staff

This paper explores the value of design research to better inform design pedagogy in Higher Education. It describes a programme of initiatives aimed at giving staff involved in delivering undergraduate and postgraduate design courses the space, time and place to fully engage with practice-based design research and describes the results of that research. These initiatives aimed to address a perennial problem in design education in the UK. Although being actively involved in research is recognized at the highest levels as beneficial to better staff morale and resulting in better informed teaching, the daily pressures of working in Higher Education combine to restrict the very people who wish to engage with research from doing so. To retain the initial momentum Space/Time/Place provided, the staff established a Community of Practice (COP) ((Lave and Wenger)). The goal of a COP is to bring the peripheral members of the community into full participation within the community guided by more experienced peers who form the core group of the COP. The Space/Time/Place COP met to develop the initial discussions into bids to secure funding for further practice based research. The Community of Practice meetings were supplemented by the use of social media platforms. The strength of support the Space/Time/Place event and Community of Practice have engendered in the staff is undeniable. The outcomes of Space/Time/Place will be exhibited in a group exhibition and used by the authors to model and broker the impact of this approach to other lecturers across the department, faculty and University

Graphic design research: a cause for the concerned

There is an immediate need to clarify and develop the role of graphic design research for the theoretical underpinning of graphic design education. A report that accompanied the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) described ‘the intellectual and theoretical underpinning of graphic and communication design’ as ‘generically weak’. We report on progress about a project designed to identify and map graphic design outputs from REF2014, involving both a data analysis of the ‘Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory’ submissions, and focus group research with graphic design academics designed to elicit feedback on the emergent themes being addressed by the data analysis exercise as well as broader concerns. The aim has been to identify the nature of graphic design outputs submitted to the REF audit. In this paper, we provide a response to this state of affairs from a community of graphic design educators concerned about the perception of research in the discipline. Keywords: Graphic design research, Graphic design education, Research Excellence Framework, Graphic Design Educators’ Networ

The power of the designer to create change

This article explores the issue of sustainability and the role of the designer in creating change in the fashion industry

Valuing the role of the wearer in the creation of sustainable fashion

A number of recent studies have documented the views and experiences of wearers as a method of profiling patterns of garment use and care. These findings tell us how wearers engage with garments and, importantly, have unearthed common problems in clothing care, including neglect, abuse and disengagement. Critically these narratives can provide the fashion designer with a fresh perspective on the design of ‘meaningful’ garments that engage sustainable strategies. Few designers located within micro- or small- to medium-sized fashion companies consider a life cycle approach to the design of fashion garments. Moreover, many do not appear to appreciate the significance of the wearer as a participant in the success of sustainable fashion. Within the design process there is scope for the designer to develop garments that can assist the wearer to extend the life cycle of a garment during the use phase. In acknowledging the use phase as an important area for consideration in the design process, it becomes apparent that the responsibility for the success of sustainable fashion might lie with the designer, the producer, the wearer or all of these. This issue is a key point that will be raised and discussed at intervals throughout the paper

Fragments: methodologies Of making fashion

Everyday fashion components and elements such as the pocket, the sleeve, or the seam often become eclipsed 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 photograph. Through an examination of the details in fashion garments we can reconsider traditional methods and techniques of fashion making and lead designers to explore new innovations

Exploring a framework for fashion design for sustainability

This chapter discusses a new framework for fashion design practice that aims to empower the designer to facilitate changes in the current production/consumption model of fashion garments. In the current forum the fashion designer is presented with a range of generic tools, guides and texts that explore the issue of sustainability and fashion design in broad terms. However, while these resources are of value it is often difficult for the fashion designer to establish an approach to design that can be applied specifically in the fashion design studio. Although a range of ideas and concepts are often discussed and advocated, to date no methodology for an improved model of fashion design practice has been presented. Developed as a practice-focused model for the fashion designer to reference and use within the studio environment during design inception, the Fashion Design for Sustainability (FDS©) model promotes the notion of life cycle thinking as an approach to fashion design practice. Based upon a re-examination of the design process, the FDS model helps the designer reflect upon current practices, and identify and engage with sustainable design strategies that can reduce / avoid specific environmental and social impacts. The chapter will introduce the development and application of the FDS framework and discuss a select number of sustainable design strategies in relation to the life cycle phases of a garment