What does it mean to design, produce and use clothing sustainably in the age of the digital economy?

Since the Fall of 2011 our work has been seeking means to revise common assumptions about how we should and can interface with the textile based products around us. In particular, cloTHING(s) as conversation aims to address the challenges connected to contemporary design, wearable technology and the fashion industry’s move toward sustainability.

By actively applying sustainable design methodologies, evaluation criteria and tactics to the development of potential wearable technology outcomes, the project aims to seed an increased awareness of environmental and sustainability issues connected to both regular and computational based clothing across Canadian academic institutions, and the broader fashion industry within North America.

To date a series of explorations into the fabric of exchange that exists between the clothing that we wear and the conversations we have were developed and conducted. Additive manufacturing/3D printing, free open source wearable hardware, and social media have played a role in these explorations as they afford new platforms for shared local solutions and cultural expression. Local and distributed material and form based studies, generative and cultural probe techniques, and in situ exploration have all been used to develop and propose:

+ alternate means of thinking about the role of clothing
+ alternate means of communication
+ alternate means of production and use

Lead Researchers

+ Keith Doyle (ECU)
+ Hélène Day Fraser (ECU)

Collaborators

+ Dr. Sidney Fels (University of British Columbia)
+ Dr. Joanna Berzowska (Concordia University)
+ Dr. Kate Fletcher (London College of Fashion, UAL London)
+ Mark Bechtal (Parsons The New School of Design)

Advisors

+ Louise St Pierre (ECU)
+ Katherine Soucie
+ Philip Robbins

Technical Staff 

Jen Heibert, Bobbi Kozinuk, Heather Mitchell

Graduate RA

Melanie Waddell, Christina White, Maia Rowen, Emily Smith, Aaron Oussoren, Eugenie Cheon, Pilar Guinea Gil, Reyhan Yazdani

Undergraduate RA

Logan Mohr, Natalie Tillen, Pete Fung, Daniel Garrod, Nova Olsen, Stephanie Koenig, Rebecca Nicholls, Shannon Mortimer, Katelyn Richard, Nicolene, McKenzie, Mia Daniels, Robin Stetham, Peter Orlowsky, Neil Manchon, Travers Henry, Karen Byskov, Jason Nicholls, Jason Miller , Steven Enns, Solveig Johannessen, Bob Ross, Melanie Wadell, Lisa Boulton, Jared Korb, Michael Fowler, Rebecca Nicholls, Augusta Lutynski, Ferj David, Andrew Drakeford

Students from Studio 4 Product Design, Parsons the New School for Design Allometry 

Sangjun Yoon, Yu Rong, Zhengwen Zhang, Peter Zweifel / Klix: Samir Nandwani, Tatiana Cantarovich, Russell Kirk, Camila Parra / Kinetic: Jiaying Wu, Saif Latif, Yingying Yang / Thru: Julia Liao, Spencer Lin, Jasmine Yuen