Re-Modelling Fashion through Scenario Planning: Conceptual scenarios informing design practices

Abstract

This research explores methodologies for transformation design as a means to extend the value of fashion encompassing social, economic, environmental and cultural dimension. This is realised through ideation, design and business model development for fashion products, services and systems. Foresight and scenario planning are proposed as valuable tools for imagining models that are relevant in a contemporary context. The initial results of the study presented here is based on a broad review of literature and practice exemplifying plausible trajectories for fashion. This review identified four critical uncertainties as key to co-creating the future of fashion. Using Schwartz’s (1991) scenario planning matrix approach, we construct eight scenarios based on these themes. In turn, these scenarios will be used as tools in collaborative workshops involving a range of stakeholders in the field of fashion to imagine and prototype concepts for new fashion practices and business models. This study is part of a wider program: The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT). It is a five-year UKRI funded, industry-led project, which focusses on delivering sustainable innovation within the entire fashion and textile supply chain. This short paper reports on initial findings specifically from the BFTT Challenge 3: Re-Modelling Fashion: design practices and business models for sustainability bringing together researchers from University of the Arts London’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion, and from the Centre for Industrial Sustainability at the Institute for Manufacturing of the University of Cambridge