As argued in earlier chapters the fashion designer often struggles to engage with the principles of sustainable design. While LCA tools, such as those discussed above, are important these have typically remained outside of the fashion design studio. However, a number of reference guides and checklists have been created in an attempt to assist the designer in the development of new products and garments. Typically these reference guides focus on communicating complex information in a way that enables the designer to quickly and easily engage with methods of best practice. Critically, these guides aim to provide information to help in the development and redesign of a product, however, it is apparent that these guides may be difficult to locate or they may be expensive - factors which can discourage a designer to consider life cycle thinking as an approach to design practice.
Furthermore, these guides may be biased towards one set of strategies and solutions, which may not be relevant to the fashion discipline.
One early coherent resource that does specifically cater for the fashion industry is the Danish Guidelines: A Handbook on the Environment for the Textile and Fashion Industry (Breds,
Hjort and Krüger 2002). This guide assists the designer in a number of ways by providing a brief checklist of materials and their respective environmental criteria, and sets of lists of fundamental questions to ask when dealing with suppliers. At the time the guide represented a groundbreaking approach to fashion design and sustainability. In particular it assists with the choices to be made during sourcing. However the text promotes a cradle-to-grave approach, which has since been superseded by a cradle-to-cradle model. Unfortunately in this guide no attention is placed on the opportunity for a closed loop system of production.
This example demonstrates that a reliance on texts and guides is only useful if the information is current. It has become apparent during the execution and duration of the research that sustainability texts and guides can date extremely quickly. For the sustainably minded designer this is obviously a problem if he/she is to remain engaged in the debate, since continuous research and the updating of personal knowledge is required, to capitalize on new information as it appears.
Rather than becoming reliant on texts, guides and tools for assistance another approach would be to focus on revisiting the way that the designer engages in the design process. This moves the notion of sustainable design away from a controlled, scientific perspective towards a philosophical viewpoint that suggests that a rethinking of the framework under which designing takes place, needs to occur. This meta-level, conceptual approach can be witnessed in the non-discipline specific guide produced by Edwin Datschefski (2001) in the publication, The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products.
Diagram removed for copyright purposes
Figure 10: Datschefski’s Cyclic/Solar/Safe model, which visually presents the signs and symbols of the 5 design principles. Datschefski, E (2001). Cyclic/Solar/Safe [Diagram]. In:
Datschefski, E. (2001). The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products. Rotovision: Crans-Pres-Celigny, p29.
Datschefski’s model was created to aid designers in the development of products that were
“…100 per cent cyclic, solar and safe.” (2001, p154) The framework is based on the employment of five basic principals in the design and manufacture process: these are called cyclic, solar, efficient, safe, and social. Developed so that a designer could quickly assess a product for it’s environmental and social performance, the redesign of a product would address the five principals to help effectively improve a product’s ‘sustainable’ performance.
While acknowledging the framework is only a guide and not as a replacement for a thorough life cycle assessment, Datschefski’s model has one crucial advantage over other examples: it is a simple, visual tool that designers can refer to and apply with some ease. While it was not
designed to replace other more complex assessment tools, as a directional guide it offers a methodology that can be applied to a broad range of design disciplines. Furthermore, Datschefski’s model simplifies the assessment process that may typically be conducted through an LCA, and in doing so attempts to engage a broad spectrum of designers in moving towards sustainable design practices. Through a familiar design vernacular Datschefski’s (2001) book offers a large selection of case studies of best practice, exhibiting a range of products created by designers across the globe. These case studies explore innovative improvements that can for instance, be made in material use, or in the use of particular production processes that can reduce energy use. However sustainable design strategies are not directly explored or explained in great detail and because of its bias towards industrial and product design it can be difficult to relate this approach to a discipline such as fashion, or textiles. Moreover, within Datschefski’s model there is still a reliance on employing quantitative methods, which require the collection of accurate data from suppliers and a calculation of statistics. However, once mastered, Datschefski’s model can provide the designer with a practical approach to the redesign of a product. As a reference tool, it exemplifies how sustainability information can be communicated in a manner that is both useful and accessible to the design practitioner in an everyday working environment. Here, it is argued, is the crux of the problem; the overriding difficulty for any designer is the adaptation of theory to practice in the studio environment.
Diagram removed for copyright purposes
Figure 11: A case study of best practice, demonstrating the use of Datschefski’s model.
Patagonia (n.d.) Patagonia Fleece [Image]. In: Datschefski, E. (2001). The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products. Rotovision: Crans-Pres-Celigny, p90.
Other ways of engaging with sustainable design principles and strategies: design scenarios
Alongside models for designing that are dependent upon LCAs or data collection, or texts and guides that offer advice and checklists for quick decision making, a number of other researchers have explored the notion of the design scenario, as a means to engage the theoretical and principles of sustainable design with design practice (Bras-Klapwijk and Knot 2000; Manzini and Jégou 2003; Fry 2009). The design scenario allows the designer to explore a specific current issue or problem, or propose a future prototype, by developing a response to a defined narrative or hypothesis. According to Thorpe (2007), this provides the designer with the opportunity to think beyond the present situation and “…avoid the trap of short termism” (2007, p166). For instance within fashion design this extended ‘design
thinking’ (moving beyond the focus of designing a single item or look), could allow the designer to develop a response to a narrative that may, for example, be based on a wearer in a particular context or environment. However these extended design scenarios should still have a clear motivation or goal, and a defined method of implementation. Once defined these scenarios can be used by a single designer or by a small group, which might provide a range of different outcomes from the same set of criteria.
Manzini and Jégou advocate a design orientating scenario (DOS) to “…support choices in terms of projects at the level of a group of stakeholders and address, from the start, clearly identified actors (the precise group of companies or institutions who wonders about their future)” (2000, p6). Moreover, they argue that a DOS is centred on the changes in a product system, rather than on policy or political intervention. For example, within the fashion industry a DOS can provide the opportunity to explore the development of a new concept of production that considers both the creation of garments with appropriate product-service systems. The advantage of conducting a DOS is that the designer is propelled out of the comfort zone of a conventional fashion design process and is instead required to view the (design) situation, problem or future from a different perspective. Rather than simply designing a new spring/summer fashion collection for a target market, through the use of a DOS strategy the fashion designer can begin to explore design solutions that may address a specific problem or context, for example, in developing garments that require a reduction in the need of laundering.
However, some critics see the design scenario as a form of ‘idealized fiction’ (Fry 2009).
While there are advantages to conducting a DOS, it does not easily guide the fashion designer towards an alternate model of fashion practice, nor does it act as a tool to be referenced in an industry context. It relies on developing a response to a situation, rather than changing the fashion design process itself. Fry argues instead for the scenario of design, which aims to explore how design practice itself can change rather than focusing on the
‘…desired destination…’ (Fry 2009, p154). Nevertheless, the use of a scenario concept to designing provides the designer with the means to reflect on the current conventional model of fashion designing, and in this context can be useful in allowing the designer to see new ways of engaging in sustainable design strategies. This will be explored further in the conceptual model detailed in Chapter 5.