Design for Circularity

The project is a continuation and further development of the 'Take-Back of Textiles' project running 2019-2020 that explored circular business models within furniture, workwear, carpets and fashion.

Based on the results this project will go further with the exploration of the interlinkage between design development for circularity, and how textiles products perform in the use phase and on the resale market.

The focus of this project will be fashion as this was the area with the largest challenges with regards to circularity with regards to use phase performance - and yet at the same time seem to hold the most promising potential for resale, and the prolonging of use through resale.

The project included artistic development work as well as academic research including pattern construction and print between 2D and 3D through prototyping and testing, observations and qualitative interviews, and design anthropology.

A key finding in the project supported the hypothesis that different brands requires different approaches for strengthening their circular performance.

Also, it displayed how fashion brands seems to miss out on the very early design development leading to consumer dissatisfaction, too many returns, and products that do not sufficiently perform in both use phase and resale market.