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| University of Cambridge > Engineering Department > News & Features |
8 November 2010
Evolving Textiless
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Knit to Fit®
The definition of what it means to be sustainable within fashion is much debated, it is clear that there is no 'one size fits all' solution, however researchers at the Centre for Fashion Science at London College of Fashion and the Open University are one step closer to defining what it is to be sustainable to help the fashion industry revolutionise the way it designs through a new model of Considerate Design.
Clothes are well travelled commodities with brief lives, never before has fashion been so fast and so disposable, a situation that cannot be sustained. Despite being one of the most complex supply chains in modern manufacturing, fashion has proved itself to be highly responsive to the need for change and has the potential to move quickly towards becoming one of the worlds most ecologically aware and transparent industries - it just needs some help getting there.
The Considerate Design development team is led by Professor Sandy Black, Director of the Centre for Fashion Science at London College of Fashion in collaboration with Dr Claudia Eckert of the Open University, and Dr David Wynn of the Department's Engineering Design Centre (EDC), with expert help from fashion and materials researchers at London College of Fashion. Considerate Design makes sustainability accessible to fashion designers, empowering them to make informed decisions as part of their design process. It examines new methods of manufacturing for personalised fashion with long lasting appeal to consumers.
It has done this by recognising the power of the designer to influence the end product by developing a tool kit. The Considerate Design approach enables the designer to visualise the potential environmental footprint of their product in relation to factors such as materials, method of manufacturing and disposal using a simple visual tool. Through making better design decisions the designer is able to edit out the 'bad choices' for the consumer before the product even hits the shelves.
One of the strengths of Considerate Design has been the collaboration between subject groups that rarely work together. By fusing fashion, science and engineering Considerate Design has developed new ways of creating personalised fashion products. Through The Cambridge Advanced Modeller software developed by the Engineering Design Centre and used in the British aerospace industry, designers of bespoke fashion products can predict the real cost of their design, time and labour.
Three case-studies (detailed below) bring the research alive and examine the design processes behind producing a considerate product that puts the individual, the environment and the entire life cycle of the product at the forefront. Each item focuses on reducing waste, using locally sourced and manufactured raw materials (less fashion miles), utilising new technology and bespoke products tailored to the individual which increases the life span of the product and promotes the ethos of buying less but buying better:
For more information on Design Processes and Systems research in the Cambridge EDC please visit http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/processmanagement/pm1/
For more information on Considerate Design please visit the website at: http://www.consideratedesign.com/
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