Abstract
This paper explores how textile dialogues can be crafted within material‑driven de-sign processes in the context of increasing environmental pressure on textile re-sources and forthcoming regulations such as the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. Through observations of professional practitioners and anal-yses of design students’ thesis work, the study investigates how material‑first ap-proaches influence ideation, prototyping and reflection in apparel and textile de-sign. Practitioners naturally engage in reflection‑in‑action, using craft skills to nego-tiate material behavior and technologies, often leading to unanticipated design di-rections. Students, guided by the material‑driven design model for apparel and tex-tiles, deliberately develop similar dialogues, gaining insights into material potential and limitations while strengthening their awareness of resource scarcity. The find-ings suggest that incorporating material‑driven methods early in the design process enhances designers’ “response‑ability” and supports more environmentally respon-sible decision‑making. The study points toward integrating such models more broadly in both design education and professional practice.
Keywords
Material-driven design for apparel and textiles; crafting textile dialogues; design practice and design methods; response-ability
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2207
Citation
Harsaae, M., and Bang, A.L. (2026) The act of crafting textile dialogues, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2207
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
The act of crafting textile dialogues
This paper explores how textile dialogues can be crafted within material‑driven de-sign processes in the context of increasing environmental pressure on textile re-sources and forthcoming regulations such as the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. Through observations of professional practitioners and anal-yses of design students’ thesis work, the study investigates how material‑first ap-proaches influence ideation, prototyping and reflection in apparel and textile de-sign. Practitioners naturally engage in reflection‑in‑action, using craft skills to nego-tiate material behavior and technologies, often leading to unanticipated design di-rections. Students, guided by the material‑driven design model for apparel and tex-tiles, deliberately develop similar dialogues, gaining insights into material potential and limitations while strengthening their awareness of resource scarcity. The find-ings suggest that incorporating material‑driven methods early in the design process enhances designers’ “response‑ability” and supports more environmentally respon-sible decision‑making. The study points toward integrating such models more broadly in both design education and professional practice.