Designer-Maker: exploring an alternative approach to fast fashion

This research project explores alternative approaches to the linear design process that is commonly employed in the creation of contemporary industrial fashion clothing. The work is a response to the effects of mass-production and mass-consumerism on design systems and specifically on the participatory function of the designer; a function that has shifted from the artisan, closely and physically connected to his or her work, to a more impersonal, industrialised model. Menswear design will be utilised as a vehicle for the research to investigate how nonformal design methods, ones that are less systematic or predictable, can affect the ‘aesthetic personality’ of clothes. The work aims to identify methods that reconnect the designer to the design process and connect the consumer to the designer. The research will result in the development of a body of creative work, represented as an experimental menswear collection