Abstract
Recent discussions on sustainability in fashion have highlighted the limitations of approaches centred on material choices, technological innovation, recycling, and circular systems, which often fail to address the underlying issues of overproduction and overconsumption. In response, this paper proposes a shift from product-centred sustainability toward process-oriented approaches that engage with the temporal life of garments. The paper analyses a bachelor-level fashion design project as a case study of designing garments as processes. The project explores garment development through bio-based coatings, compost-induced degradation, cracking, repair, and material renewal. These processes introduce transformation, instability, and variability as intrinsic design conditions rather than as defects or after-use consequences. The garments retain conventional typologies, while their material properties, surfaces, and silhouettes change through coating, staining, perforation, reinforcement, and re-application. Bio-based coatings alter the visual appearance, stiffness, and drape of fabrics, allowing existing or discarded textiles to gain new structural and aesthetic qualities. Exposure to biological agents induces degradation that transforms both the visual expressiveness and structural stability of textiles, requiring reinforcement and repair to enable continued use. The paper reflects on repair, reuse, and prolonged use as practices shaped not only through the lens of sustainability but also by economic conditions and inherited material cultures. The study does not propose a scalable industrial solution, but positions the case as an experimental and critical design approach. It contributes to rethinking sustainability in fashion beyond material optimisation and technological innovation, highlighting temporality, care, and material transformation as central to shaping patterns of use and value.
Keywords
Temporal design; Material transformation; Relational longevity; Garment design
DOI
10.21606/TI-2026.119
Citation
Šebeková, Z.(2026) Designing Garments as Processes: Material Transformation, Temporality, and Care in Contemporary Fashion Practice, in Jane Scott, Sophie Skach, and Rebecca Stewart (eds.), Textile Intersections 2026, 17-18 September 2026, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2026.119
Conference Track
researchpapers
Included in
Designing Garments as Processes: Material Transformation, Temporality, and Care in Contemporary Fashion Practice
Recent discussions on sustainability in fashion have highlighted the limitations of approaches centred on material choices, technological innovation, recycling, and circular systems, which often fail to address the underlying issues of overproduction and overconsumption. In response, this paper proposes a shift from product-centred sustainability toward process-oriented approaches that engage with the temporal life of garments. The paper analyses a bachelor-level fashion design project as a case study of designing garments as processes. The project explores garment development through bio-based coatings, compost-induced degradation, cracking, repair, and material renewal. These processes introduce transformation, instability, and variability as intrinsic design conditions rather than as defects or after-use consequences. The garments retain conventional typologies, while their material properties, surfaces, and silhouettes change through coating, staining, perforation, reinforcement, and re-application. Bio-based coatings alter the visual appearance, stiffness, and drape of fabrics, allowing existing or discarded textiles to gain new structural and aesthetic qualities. Exposure to biological agents induces degradation that transforms both the visual expressiveness and structural stability of textiles, requiring reinforcement and repair to enable continued use. The paper reflects on repair, reuse, and prolonged use as practices shaped not only through the lens of sustainability but also by economic conditions and inherited material cultures. The study does not propose a scalable industrial solution, but positions the case as an experimental and critical design approach. It contributes to rethinking sustainability in fashion beyond material optimisation and technological innovation, highlighting temporality, care, and material transformation as central to shaping patterns of use and value.