Design for Longevity
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TOPIC 6 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK CREATED BY REDRESS DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY CONTENTS OVERVIEW - A note to educators - Learning outcomes - Why should students learn about design for longevity? INTRODUCTION | 40 mins - A note to educators - What is design for longevity? - How to approach design for longevity? - Physical longevity 1. Durability & Quality ∙ Choice of materials ∙ Garment construction ∙ Colour and dyeing methods ∙ Special finishes ∙ Product testing 2. Size and Fit ∙ Measurement & fit ∙ Adding stretch ∙ Customisation ∙ Size alteration 3. Customer Use ∙ Care ∙ Repair On the cover: Outfit designed by Redress Design Award CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENT Alumni Cher Chan for the 2014/15 competition cycle. PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY CONTENTS - Psychological longevity 1. Building customer loyalty and engagement 2. Creating emotional links through storytelling 3. Style ∙ Timelessness ∙ Multipurpose ∙ Gender neutrality 4. Personalisation - Learn more about design for longevity CASE STUDIES | 15 mins each - Classics Anew - Eileen Fisher - Fashion Clinic EXERCISES | 30 mins each - Assessing garment construction - Uncovering our emotional connections with clothes PROJECT BRIEFS | 1-3 weeks time frame - Designing for multipurpose and maximum functionality - Promoting the value of garment longevity through marketing and consumer engagement - Challenging norms in consumer behaviour - Understanding consumer behaviour through your own purchasing habits On the cover: Outfit designed by Redress Design Award CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENT Alumni Cher Chan for the 2014/15 competition cycle. PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY OVERVIEW A NOTE TO EDUCATORS This pack contains entry-level educational materials to enable educators in higher education to deliver an introduction to the topic of a garment’s longevity. The pack provides tools and resources to introduce the topic to students, including ready-to-use slide shows with talking points, which aim to minimise time spent on research and preparation. Content within this pack provides a minimum of one-hour of teaching materials. In addition, out-of-class project briefs of varying lengths are also provided to supplement the content. We advise you to deliver this lecture along with the Lifecycle of a Garment, three design techniques, and Sustainability in Fibres in order to provide wider context on the environmental issues. LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will: - Obtain an understanding of the physical and psychological factors which contribute to a garment’s longevity. - Gain a broad understanding of how to incorporate circularity when developing a brand concept. - Explore how different brands approach longevity through design choices and through interaction with customers. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 1 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY OVERVIEW WHY SHOULD STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY? - To understand the needs and desires of the consumer during the clothing use stage. - To build a holistic understanding of how their design choices can impact the consumer use phase and environmental impacts beyond the purchase point. - To prepare themselves for future careers in the fashion industry where sustainability will increasingly feature as a critical factor across the entire supply chain, as well as influencing changes in consumer behaviour and the adoption of circular business models. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 2 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY INTRODUCTION A NOTE TO EDUCATORS You are strongly advised to begin the lecture with Exercises 1 and 2 (p.41-45). This will provide students with a clear context and understanding of designing a garment for longevity. As with the main lecture content, you have been provided with a number of slides to support the introduction of the topic outlined below. You can find additional references using the links on p.26-28 for further reading. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 3 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY INTRODUCTION WHAT IS DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY? - Everything that is made has a lifecycle and both the designer and the user play a critical role in determining its longevity. Longevity is the timespan across which the item remains relevant and useful. As designers it is important to understand that items change with age, and Slideshow #T6DL-01-1 that the use of an item can also evolve over time. - The current linear model of production for fashion and textiles can be wasteful and often results in negative impacts to our natural world (as reviewed in Topic 1: A Garment’s Lifecycle). For example, every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned globally.1 The move towards a circular system enables designers and engineers to recapture and reuse resources including materials, energy, water and chemicals used in the production of textiles and garments. - With this in mind, when considering how to design garments that withstand the test of time, a designer must also consider this new circular system of production and usage. It can be an exciting design challenge to create a garment by first studying how to extend a garment’s usage to ensure it remains actively used (and hopefully cared for) by the consumer. This also adds value to the designer, as no one wants their design creations to be disposed of early or to remain unworn in wardrobes. - Extending the active life of half of all UK clothing by 9 months would decrease the UK’s carbon footprint by 8%, water footprint by 10% and textile waste footprint by 4%, per tonne of clothing.2 Simply put, if a customer is fully satisfied by their garment and it fulfils their needs for an extended period of time, the purchase of additional garments that fulfil the same need could be avoided, thus saving critical natural resources. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 4 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY INTRODUCTION - So, how can a designer actually control and influence how long the owner uses their garment for? Whilst there is no easy answer, by considering the many reasons why people discard garments and working backwards to solve these problems as part of the design process, a designer can Slideshow #T6DL-01-2 ensure that a garment has the best chance of long-term use. - It is important to differentiate between making long-lasting clothing and making clothing last longer. Making long lasting clothing refers to the physical aspects of a garment, which can include the garment construction, fibre blend, colour fastness, and resistance to abrasion, odours and stains. Making clothes last longer refers to the psychological aspects which relate to how the user feels about their garment over its life and can include the comfortability of the garment over time, how it looks and feels as it ages (including surface damage and colour changes), the relevance of the style and the emotional link developed with the garment. - Designing clothing with the intention for it to withstand time does not automatically mean that it will remain in the fashion loop. This depends on how the user cares for or customises the item and its function for them. At the design stage many designers do not consider how garments can remain in the fashion cycle longer through the user’s creativity. The Local Wisdom project (started in 2009), is a great resource for designers and showcases the many different ways in which consumers use clothes. It explores interesting practices and how garments evolve beyond the design stage through repair, shared use or adaptation for changing needs, demonstrating the power of users to ultimately control the lifespan of a garment. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 5 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY INTRODUCTION - Extending the longevity of clothing through the psychological aspects - by understanding the user’s attachment to a particular garment - can be more difficult to tackle. This is due to the fact that it might not be related to the item itself, but to external forces such as the relevance of the Slideshow #T6DL-01-3 garment’s style within the owner’s peer group, or a sentimental value, for example, if the owner inherited the garment from a significant person in their life. - Garments can also act as a visual cue to represent an identity or opinion which is developed through the user’s lifestyle and experience. For example, designers can take inspiration from Vivienne Westwood who achieves longevity by embedding a shared value into a garment to enhance lasting relationships between garments and their users. An activist and rebel, Westwood is known for using provocative political messages, which resonate with the values of her customers, which they wear as a statement. - By examining both the physical and psychological elements related to the longevity of a garment, we open up the possibility for continuous use over many years and potentially even generations of wearers. On a commercial level this also provides an interesting starting place for designers to explore how designing with longevity in mind can help to cultivate relationships with their customers. - Where may be limiting to add psychological aspects to design for longevity, for example in garments such as underwear, it is advisable to focus on other circular strategies such as design for recyclability instead. REDRESSDESIGNAWARD.COM SUSTAINABLE FASHION EDUCATOR PACK | 6 COPYRIGHT © REDRESS 2019 DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY INTRODUCTION HOW TO APPROACH DESIGN FOR LONGEVITY? - To maintain a clear vision when designing for longevity, it is important to analyse which qualities sit within the physical and the psychological aspects of a garment. - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Slideshow #T6DL-02 Design Guide defines a product as being truly circular when there is no end to its life as the item continues to live on indefinitely in different forms. By understanding both the physical and psychological aspects, you will gain the knowledge to map a garment’s journey through its original form, as well as being able to provide users with potential options for other future uses.