PAD. Pages on Arts and Design

19-38

Authors: Sonia Seixas

This paper intends to reflect on the relationship between design and academia and its context in a fragile and integrated ecosystem challenges such as the fashion system and its sustainability in a strategy of circular economy and change of social paradigm for the emergency of the future. Design theories and practices are presented as fundamental for the sustainability of the fashion system and for human survival. Different approaches will be confronted in a critical perspective of ideas and possible paths to follow as essential tools for a more conscious and design creative thinking. The methodology will be carried out through a review of literature where it is intended to review fundamental concepts and to proceed to a critical, constructive, and real analysis on the competences of the students. Develop strategies to raise awareness about sustainability concepts and circular economy allowing to understand its importance for its learning and future. The expected result will be to identify large thematic areas indispensable to design and transversal to education which are consistent with the evolution of the textile and clothing industry and with the needs of the consumer. Also, a reflection on the importance of the theme in the current and future economy.

60-85

Authors: Elisabetta Cianfanelli, Debora Giorgi, Margherita Tufarelli, Leonardo Giliberti, Paolo Pupparo, Elena Pucci

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to a sudden halt most of the human social, economic and productive dynamics, causing, on the other hand, a rapid acceleration towards digital transformation in order to overcome the limits of physical presence. In this transformative context is inserted the contribution that aims to describe an experience of applied research to explore new possible models of communication for the fashion system in the digital world. Through the current climate of transformation, the project Metamorphic Fashion Design was born, which intends to reflect on the possible responses of the fashion industry in this new phase. Metamorphic Fashion Design is a new experiential multiverse in which new relationships have been formed between different disciplines such as Character Design, Game Design, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Performance Art and Sound Design. This project experience has opened to new reflections and new critical insights on how the digital properly declined can consolidate, more and more, as a means of new innovative trajectories throughout the fashion system. The project aims to propose a new form of communication for the excellence of fashion with the possibility of extending this experimentation to the made in Italy system.

111-129

Authors: Giulia Scalera

From the French Fashion Pat to the Green in Italy brand, governments set sustainability targets to be achieved in the short term, indicating precise dates as an upper limit for reducing environmental impact in the fashion industry. From the Sustainability Manifesto, drawn up by the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, to that defined by the Fashion Revolution association, there are many programmes and objectives identified for the promotion of a sustainable approach in the fashion system. The main objective is to ensure fair and respectful behaviour that acts on the entire supply chain with zero impact actions and productions. But despite the political actions and the rich literature on the subject, in fact, as K. Fletcher says, there is still a real difficulty and slowness with which sustainability becomes a constant practice, and a working method within the fashion system itself (2018, p. 7). In the light of the many actions already launched by scholars and designers but not yet widely applied in the fashion system, the article underlines the need to raise awareness and guide companies towards the main themes of sustainability. A dissemination imagined through the design of widely diffused communication products able to enhance the best practices and the main sustainable models already present in the literature.

152-173

Authors: Carmela Ilenia Amato

The Textile-Fashion System was investigating its impact on the environment, moving towards sustainable innovation solutions. The Covid-19 gave an acceleration to this reflection, agreeing on sustainable ways but also relying on technology through wearable devices, virtual reality, 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, extending the vision of fashion to a place of research, beauty, and experimentation. Fibers are being selected and modified, new goals are being defined by interpreting research through the creation of textiles made specifically for humans. Progress with textile fibers that have been developed for the fashion industry has been remarkable, it will continue with smart, high-performance textile fibers, conductive inks, and nanometer electronics applied to garments for every need. Fashion companies are collaborating with industries specializing in technology, sustainability, biomedical, healthcare, cosmetics, electronics justifying examples such as fitbits, smartwatches or other devices designed to collect and monitor data on users personal health and physical activity, which help engage with their health, which help fight bacteria and viruses, regulate body temperature, heal skin and which also contribute to a responsible culture that makes textile design a distinctive and exclusive mode of socio-cultural inquiry from which tangible results are obtained. New body relationships therefore will lead to the creation of new homes by promoting healthy lifestyles.

193-212

Authors: Giulia Bolzan de Morais, Karine de Mello Freire

This research explores the theme of social innovation in fashion industry through coworking spaces as focal points to deal with the challenges the fashion industry faces to. Based on a case study, the paper demonstrates that coworkings can act as spaces of convergence, where people who do not know each other can meet and, from there, work together to create new models. The case studied was a fashion coworking space with a focus on sustainable fashion companies called Malha (2017). The results shows that coworkings face practical challenges for their consolidation as focal points, mainly in relation to the construction of a truly collaborative and transparent culture and the financial sustainability of the enterprise itself. The discussion demonstrates that coworkings are more than spaces for sharing resources, they involve values and a culture of their own that, if not reinforced on a daily basis practice, weakens the credibility of the space, making it impossible to act as a focal point. Finally, the article explores the strategic principles for coworking spaces to act as focal points, reducing the ambivalences between the concept and the practice.

234-258

Authors: Juliet Seger

While society is being transformed by information technology, contemporary sewing technology will continue to depend on sewing by human hands. Based on this, the production of clothing – and in particular the sewing process – must be assessed from an ethical perspective. The Matrix of Convivial Technology, which finds its origins in the Degrowth movement, is used as a guide to discuss the ethical features associated with sewing technology. Examining this technology across the spectrum of convivial values results in distinguishing it as a social technology. As such, it holds potential to fulfil basic needs, empower people through the ability to create, and build relationships. Under a commercialised motivation however, the human component shifts its position: Human labour becomes “inferior to the system” (Vetter, 2018, p. 3) and its inherent consumerism. Supported by the theoretical framework of the Social Construction of Technology, it becomes clear that the core question of how to design a more just future fashion industry is not – as initially thought – one of techno-optimism versus techno-pessimism: rather it is a question of social agency versus social passivity.

283-293

Authors: Gianni Montagna, Maria Antonietta Sbordone

MODAPORTUGAL promotes the Portuguese fashion ecosystem. It showcases the several dimensions of the industry and conducts promotional events that highlight its key assets. From design to manufacturing, the initiative presents the traditional along with the most cutting-edge features of Portuguese companies as they embrace the future with a sustainable and planet-friendly approach.