Pattern Cutting as Societal Manifest: the pioneering case of Contour Cutting

The paper sheds light on an almost unknown pioneer in fashion. The case of Preben Hartmann is the tale of a craftsman who, formed by years of training in traditional tailoring and haute couture during the 1950s and 1960s, opens shop and studio in Copenhagen in 1970 in the midst of the youth revolution. From his work with bespoke designs for costumers Hartmann develops the Contour Cutting system and thinking. A shape making system that is based on values such as user involvement, craft, creativity, body and beauty diversity, citizen resilience and designer autonomy. The purpose of the study is first, to understand if, and possibly in what ways, the Contour Cutting System and the thinking behind it preempted current movements in fashion design practice related to pattern cutting and shape making with emphasis on overlapping issues such as creativity, waste reduction, body mobility, production and aesthetics , and as such preempted topics within the larger discourse on fashion design for sustainability. Second, as the Contour Cutting System is largely unrecognized, to discuss the relevance of the systems' agenda for today's acute challenges in the fashion sector and beyond. In other words, to examine in what ways Hartmann's past thinking, may, or may not, inspire us in the present to reshape the future of fashion design in terms of clothes and cultures of making.