International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles - Circular Economy in Fashion and Textiles, Oct 2022

The purpose of this article is to provide information about the approach to developing circular fashion collections concepts built from scratch. I documented my approach to design my collection otherways[project], launched in 2020, to understand and analyse the challenges and barriers stemming from applying circular design strategies. Current literature highlights organizational but also individual factors as instrumental in hindering the transition from a linear industry into a new one that embraces the circular economy as a solution to tackle environmental and societal issues. Bridging the various design stages and production, fashion designers play a major role for the urgent industry shift. However, limited time availability and a lack of knowledge and guidance often influence the adoption of new skills that can foster circular fashion design. To address this, I exemplarily applied circular design strategies and used reflective practice as a research method to analyse the technical as well as the cognitive impact of designing for a closed-loop business model. By using a visual diagram of a core loop with four additional satellites to map my design decisions against, I identified opportunities of designing with a circular strategy affecting all aspects from material sourcing to collection production and distribution, repair, reuse/closing the loop. The consideration of external factors such as customers (here users) enriches the value of circular design; hence, I conducted a free pilot with five users to test the effectiveness of my prototype collection. Open-ended questionnaires revealed their experience of wearing a garment of their choice and enabled a user-centric iteration process resulting in improving my collection for lease. Flexibility and systems thinking were main internal factors that I defined as essential for creating my circular collection concept alongside expanding the designer’s role from garment developer to facilitator of closed fashion loops.

This article introduces the term Aesthetic Surgery as a strategy for the designer to contribute to circular economy. Our aim is to discuss this strategy as a way for designers to employ their core competencies to create and innovate the potential of irrelevant materials (waste) through aesthetic means and a material-driven design process. We argue that designers have the skills and experience to seek opportunities in unwanted materials and keep them in a loop of relevance and at a high value. In recent years, mechanical recycling has been gaining footing in the industry. Recycling has, therefore, primarily been concerned with material recovery at fibre level. This can appear to be an easy way to continue business as usual. Yet, this approach is not suitable for all types of materials and material blends and requires further innovation to develop solutions for these situations. Furthermore, these recycling methods use external resources in the process of bringing the material to a point zero and do not utilize the existing parts, components and material qualities. At the same time, sustainable transition requires a break with traditions of large volume productions and fast fashion. Therefore, we argue that we need to broaden the understanding and perspective of recycling and upcycling. The research presented in this article explores fashion and textiles methods of working with aesthetics by proposing Aesthetic Surgery as a material-driven design strategy for recycling and upcycling. Working with aesthetics is well known as a powerful means to create desires and spark imaginations, in this article we suggest turning the attention towards these powerful aesthetic competencies to substantiate the potential of irrelevant (waste) materials. The discussion emerging from this practice-based research offers the potential to further explore the possibilities in design for circularity through an Aesthetic Surgery strategy which may empower designers to contribute to circular economy.

This study explores the unintended consequences of circular fashion and whether perceptions of acting sustainably give consumers ‘permission to shop’. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of Gen Z consumers aged 18–24. Findings reveal that the circular initiatives that give ‘permission to shop’ are charity shops in terms of disposal and fashion brands’ sustainability initiatives, such as the incorporation of recycled materials in their product ranges, in terms of consumption. Charity shops are the disposal method consumers feel most comfortable engaging with, and access to them allows consumers to justify purchasing new clothes they do not need and may dispose of swiftly. In addition, consumers feel less guilty about shopping for items that they do not need when those items are made from ‘more sustainable’ or recycled materials.

A growing number of studies in sustainable fashion suggest that small-scale manufacturers have begun to gain momentum as a viable strategy for sustainable apparel development. Some of these smaller organizations have turned to a ‘micro-factory’ model, in which localized, vertically oriented operations allow for more control over the supply chain and development. Others have chosen to focus on ‘slow-fashion’ models, which emphasize value, such as quality over quantity, as the means of achieving sustainable development goals. This article evaluates the case study of an American south-west based micro-factory, which utilizes slow-fashion methodologies, against the current literature. This study aims to see if the micro-factory framework is a viable alternative business strategy of sustainable entrepreneurship that could be incorporated into the fashion design curriculum. The case study documentation, a blend of interviews and observations, was guided by Brush’s model (1992) of female entrepreneurship. The data analysis identified opportunities and challenges in practising the micro-factory model in women’s performance apparel clothing through a slow-fashion model. Based on this research, the authors propose the framework of the micro-factory as one alternative to meet the needs of apparel design product development. This research indicates successful approaches to sustainable design and production and tertiary elements involved in sustainability, such as mental health and financial well-being, identified as benefits of the slow-fashion approach.