M&S Launch Sustainable Fashion Lab

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Jen

LCF’ s Centre for Sustainable Fashion have been working with Marks and Spencer (M&S) to create the UK’s first Sustainable Fashion Lab in the heart of East London, at the Old Truman Brewery.

M&S, Oxfam and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion are bringing together an exciting array of designers, stylists and thought-leaders who will be exploring and debating the future of a more sustainable fashion industry.

The project will give M&S customers a behind-the-scenes look into the world of 21st Century fashion and offer the opportunity to witness the stars of environmentally friendly fashion at work. Eco-conscious visitors will even be able to try their hand at designing and creating their own items through expert-led master classes.

Customers can take unwanted items of clothing to the lab and each item will be assessed for potential use and will either be reused and transformed in the lab or handed to Oxfam to resell or recycle.

The M&S Sustainable Fashion Lab, in partnership with Oxfam and LCF’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the Old Truman Brewery, London, is open between 10am – 5pm every day (except Mondays) from 26 April – 9 May 2012.

The events calender is packed full of workshops and talks from LCF’s Dilys Williams and Dr Kate Fletcher as well as menswear designer Christopher Raeburn and Dr Noki

I am so excited to part of this event and will be delivering a new fashion concept titled Unpick and Remix on the 8th May. Read the full event listing here.

Sustainable Fashion Debate: From Awareness to Action

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Jen

Service Design For Fashion: some thoughts

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jen

Sorry for the lack of blog posts – I am intensely focused on the final stages my PhD writing and refining the work developed. This process has been really valuable to enable me to deeply reflect and question what I have been trying to achieve and to determine what results have the most potential to be taken forward into a real world context.

Alongside writing – I am developing some interactive fashion concepts which will be delivered through workshop sessions for the general public in the coming months.

When designing for participation its crucial to keep the end user / consumer / key stakeholder in mind – who are we designing for? Through the method of co-design I have used ‘empathy’ as a tool to capture stories from participants to build a narrative around their experience. Their design stories provide a real source of inspiration and also provide a sense of purpose for new design concepts to emerge. To expand upon workshops and co-design processes – the field of service design has so much to offer.

I was really inspired by the work of Lauren Currie’s (Director of Snook) recent workshop with TED Textiles for their MISTRA Future Fashion Project.

Lauren’s recent keynote : Craft the Secret Service challenges us to look beyond the work developed and identify how this work can be differentiated and offer additional touch points to enhance the consumer / end user experience. This requires deep consideration in a world where we already have too much mass produced stuff.

“When YOU as makers look in the mirror do you see someone that offers a service? A service that has been beautifully and brilliantly designed? A service that considers all the touchpoints? The experience of buying the output of your craft?

I don’t think many people in the craft industry do. We don’t usually think about craft as a service. I 100% believe there is a hidden service in every craft. I want us to think about how we can make that work – how we can identify that and bring it to the surface.” Lauren Currie (2011)

I think using empathy to capture insight from people has so much potential. And values also play a pivotal role - what do you stand for and how it this represented through your work. What are the values of the people you are trying to service through your end product /service?

“People find meaning in experiences and things based on a wide variety of personal values.” Chapman (2005)

The fashion experience is about aspiration – when shopping we buy to represent the person we want to project. Sometimes its purely functional – but aesthetics play a huge role in defining an image and overall look. Through the speed of fashion cycles / seasons it’s easy to become lost and confused through information overload and I think well designed, curated services have the potential to offer new fashion experiences.

Within high end retail there is much more attention is dedicated to refining the experience and the consumer pays premium for this luxury. How can this area of consumer engagement be expanded upon. Does this have the potential to create more meaningful interactions with our clothing? To support sustainability a consumer’s connection with their clothing is key. However, what happens when clothing no longer satisfies the consumer and loses the embedded value? Can new models be devised to support transformation / care & repair / or even exchange?

WAH nails - personalised menu

I recently visited the WAH nail bar in Topshop and think the social / experiential offer of this model is great. Its not only a nail bar – but a place to socialise with your friends, contribute to the menu, share your story on their website. They also host Zine nights in collaboration with the girls from the BLEACH bar to edit / collage images to produce mood boards for inspiration. Could a similar model be created for fashion creation in store and how would this be orchestrated?

It’s an interesting space and requires deep consideration. I think there is a lot to be learned from Service Design tools / methods – thanks Lauren for sharing your work and thoughts!

Service Innovation

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Jen

Last week I went along to a talk by Lucy Kimbell organised by Prof Teal Triggs at London College of Communication. This event was designed for PhD design-led research students and touched upon the social aspects of service innovation.

The concept of ‘Design Thinking’ has become heavily adopted within big corporations and organisations to pitch creative strategies as a vehicle to implement new concepts, products and services. Through application design thinking works alongside non designers who are invited to participate within the design process. Design then becomes a portable practice and new thinking is approached through action. But what does this actually mean?

This was Lucy’s starting point and she took us on a journey over the next 90 mins to scope the landscape and introduce us to her own perspective. As a PhD student, designer and researcher I have used ‘Design Thinking’ as my starting point to address new projects and expand upon co-design – I really connected to this presentation and left feeling very inspired.

This talk made us question:

What do designers do? How is it different and how can we describe it? If this role is about agency and participation the role changes and how do we manage this process? Is there something distinctive about having a design trained background? Do we need to go back to studios / education to explore what we are teaching designers to apply?

How does design change when applied within a larger organisation?

Who are the publics / who are you designing for?When we invite others to participate within the design process we refer to them as the ‘end user’ but how does this sample group represent the majority?

If design is about participation and adopting a people centred ethos its a social practice. This shifts beyond visualising solutions and moves towards giving things shape, form and meaning. Lucy highlighted that the reflective conversation with the materials can create a dialogue with stuff. I found think point really relevant especially within a fashion and textile design domain – the tangible and material form is central to the process and this becomes an interface to engage people. (images from one of my test session’s / workshops)

I liked her reference to prototypes and provotypes – something I have been exploring. Instead of mocking up a concept or solution – can we create something more controversial that provokes conversation and triggers an emotional response. Could this be more effective – if something is finished and refined its difficult to provoke conversation. Therefore, if something is incomplete or designed to make a bold statement maybe people would feel less intimidated?

There was lots of discussion about beauty, aesthetics and moving from visualisation towards stuff. Lucy highlighted that this is what designers are skilled and good at therefore this is an asset and should not be removed from the process.

There were references to Christopher Alexander “giving shape and form” and Thomas Binder“boundary objects”. Boundary objects become an interface to connect people and mediate action. They become learning devises to facilitate learning. When working with non designers managing expectation is a key aspect and I thought these points were key to the process. Another reference to Graham Harman who talks about the role of objects and how they can be used to connect people.

Big thank you to Lucy for sharing her thoughts and vast experience. And thank you to Prof Teal Trigg’s for organising this event.

TFRC: Perspectives on Future Sustainable Design

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Jen

Last week Textile Futures Research Centre hosted an event titled ‘Perspectives on Future Sustainable Design’ at Central Saint Martins.

This event began with a keynote lecture from Dr Jonathan Chapman, followed by presentations from Carole Collet, Rebecca Earley and closed with a PhD finishers platform which I participated in alongside Kate Goldsworthy and Aurelie Mosse.

Dr Chapman’s keynote was titled “Re-thinking Good Design in an Unsustainable Way” and started by highlighting why designers as beautifully positioned to champion sustainability. This keynote was packed with points which really made me stop and think

Good design is the ecology of doing and sustainability should be open for everyone to engage with. How can we make solutions accessible and encourage people to engage with them?

When exploring the broad terrain of sustainability confusion is good

“To be confused is to be combing things that were previously separate. To ‘confuse’ literally means, to ‘pair together’; a melting pot of ideas, paradigms to world views.” Hawkins (2011)

How can we be the change we want to see in the world and how does this all piece together? How can one individual connected to few inspire new action? Chapman went on to express that people are drawn to optimism and concrete solutions; they are not at all to pessimism, fuzziness and scare mongering. Therefore solutions need to be pitched in an exciting, positive way to invite people to participate and become involved.

I loved the pace and tone of this lecture – it really made me reflect and think about my own work and I felt we were taken on a journey through some of the complexity surrounding sustainability. I’ve simplified some of the points which I related to but the full podcast will be available to download via TFRC soon.

This was followed by Becky Earley who introduced TED’s TEN which is a toolbox for designers

1. Design to Minimise Waste

2. Design for Recycling / Upcycling

3. Design to Reduce Chemical Impacts

4. Design to Reduce Energy and Water Use

5. Design the Explores Clean / Better Technologies

6. Design that looks at Models from Nature & History

7. Design for Ethical Production

8. Design to Replace the Need to Consume

9. Design to Dematerialise and Develop Systems & Services

10. Design Activism

The TED team have curated the TEN into a collection of method cards which can be used to support interactive workshop sessions, seminars and consultancy packages with large fashion brands. This presentation illustrated each category with a collection of beautiful case studies to showcase how they can be adapted or built upon to inspire new working models for fashion & textile design.

This part of the seminar concluded with Carole Collet offering insight into the future of textiles. This future thinking approach took us on a journey of scientific wonder and combined beautiful images, prototypes to illustrations and possibilities which became very thought provoking. A connection to science and nature was made to identify sources of inspiration for designing textiles such a bio lace to explore new manufacturing processes which are engineered and constructed within a lab rather than an assembly line.

This was action packed and a huge thank you to the speakers and TFRC for putting this together. Some podcasts should be available for download shortly via TFRC connections and Shirahime have a fantastic write up.

I will complete another post on the PhD platform shortly.

Transparent Fashion - Introducing Honest by

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Jen

Reblogged from Launderette: Cleaning up dirty fashion:

The secrets of fashion are being revealed – every thread, every button, every process. Launched just last week by Bruno Pieters, accomplished fashion designer and Creative Director at Delvaux, Honest by is the first company in the world to share the full cost breakdown of its products, including store mark-up calculations. It’s truly one of the most exciting and insightful new fashion paradigms we’ve seen in decades.

The Makers Guild: Making Textiles @the V&A

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Jen

Last Friday I was invited along to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London by the Makers’ Guild to share my PhD research. The Makers’ Guild is a membership organisation founded by Rachel Coldicutt and Fiddian Warman to support and promote makers from all backgrounds from coders to crafters.

This session was titled ‘Making Textiles’ and kicked off with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino and Alexandra Jarup introducing Curious Scarves. This project was designed in collaboration between both girls who are from different design domains – Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tinker and within the last 12 months has established Design Swarm. Alexandra Jarup is a knitwear designer based in London who has worked on commissions for NME and North Circular.

Curious Scarves was initiated by Alexandea Deschamps-Sonsion after a period of being single – she explored the concept of designing a scarf which could signal your relationship status to others. After mocking up some digital prototypes she used social media to recruit a textile designer with the skills and expertise to support production. After some textile sampling and prototypes the finished product began to emerge. This is available to order online via their website and can also be downloaded to DIY.

I’m in love with interaction design and find it super exciting when it collides with textiles. Both speakers presented their background to illustrate how their skill sets combined throughout the design process. I found this inspiring in itself – for example to bring an idea to life you need to go out and have conversations both real time and online. I thought it was great they found each other via twitter and have established a great working relationship within this project.

I presented an updated version of Co-Everything and connected my research of co-design to my own practice. I have been in full writing up mode as my research is close to completion – therefore this was a great opportunity to present my work to capture some feedback. I am currently reflecting upon my co-design projects to deliver a series of interactive fashion packages that will enable fashion consumers to participate within the design process.

There is a huge shift moving beyond direct consumption towards more experiential fashion services and I am really interested as to how this could offer a new opportunity space for fashion and textile designers. After my presentation we discussed how new business models might emerge and if the role of the professional designer begins to change to that of facilitator / and design becomes more democratised – what’s the added value and how can we generated an income beyond designing stuff and evolving new services?

The session closed with Textile Futures MA graduate Elena Corchero founder/ director of Lost Values (2008 – present). This company combines craft and new technology to inspire future design concepts which are fun and playful with consideration to environmental issues. Elena’s main source of inspiration is near forgotten things – from traditions, cultures, materials and skills.

She brought along some work to showcase and invited the audience to take a photograph of her reflective knitwear. The results lit up similar to her product images above – I loved the interactive element of her presentation. It really engaged everyone and was a fun way to demonstrate the concepts.

A huge thank you to the Makers Guild for inviting me along! I really enjoyed meeting the other speakers and it attracted a lovely mixed crowd. I will definitely be following this community and attending future events. The next lined up is:

2 March: The Economic and Social Value of Making: What is the impact of maker culture on the wider economy? A discussion between policy and funding experts.

Visit their website for future updated and booking can be confirmed via the V&A website.