Editorial

As much of society tries to prepare itself for the possible onslaught and paradigm shifting impact of Artificial Intelligence in its many guises, and applied to many sectors, it may be timely to remember that the basis of fashion practices were (and often are still) traditional manual craft processes. It is also important to consider the physical interactions with materials and tools that constitute such practices, utilising much tacit knowledge. The tools required to craft fashion artefacts can be as simple as a sewing needle and thread, or knitting needles or a crochet hook used to fashion yarns into soft clothing and accessories. The next level of interactions involves basic machines as intermediaries including weaving looms and manual sewing machines. Although highly sophisticated industrial machinery has evolved to create woven, knitted and bonded textiles, the manual sewing machine still remains the mainstay of the labour-intensive fashion industry. This is because the complexity of the entire fashion manufacturing process across an endless array of different styles and variations still evades total automation, unlike the automotive industry for example, or other manufacturing sectors where standardisation can be achieved together with economies of scale.

Accordingly, the articles brought together in this edition of Fashion Practice range in focus from do-it-yourself home sewing of shoes, and making of face masks, to manipulation of a range of new materials to create responsive garments that can change shape, and to fashioning of new outfits from discarded clothing. One article focuses on the implementation of a customisation design process to meet specific consumer needs, and the final piece uses the practice of braiding as a metaphor for developing research ideas with others.

The first article, Soft Studio: Revaluing Post-Consumer Textile Waste through Creative Design Practice by Kathleen Horton and Paige Street is concerned with the process and impacts of working with discarded clothing. Based in Australia, but reflecting global waste practices, one bale of used clothing was diverted from its likely destination in landfill, possibly in Africa, to form the basis of a creative experiment to revalue textile waste via a temporary studio set up in a vacant shop. Clothing experiments were conducted in a semi-public space to engage local communities, and to reflect on the physical and emotional experiences that arose when confronting the intractable problem of waste generated from overproduction and overconsumption of clothing.

The next paper addresses one of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on society and the urgent need to protect both medical staff and ordinary citizens. Melanie Carrico and Haeun Bang in The Power of Sewing: Perceived Benefits of Making and Donating Face Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic investigate the motivations and benefits of volunteer mask-making by interviewing 19 female makers who created cloth masks when demand vastly exceeded supply, and official channels prioritized medical staff needs. The authors pinpoint the participants’ sense of achievement through sewing and donating masks, and contribution to their communities at a crucial time.

Continuing in the vein of do-it-yourself sewing, in DIY Shoe Sewing in a Developed Economy: Behind the Motivation to Sew Shoes at Home, Lucie Sara Zavodna, Jan Zavodny Pospisil and Lucie Trejtnarova discuss the growing phenomenon of people sewing shoes in their domestic environment in the Czech Republic, where there is a thriving footwear manufacturing sector. The research found that personal fulfilment played a key role in motivations together with the perceived lack of suitable “barefoot” shoes for walking in a more therapeutic manner.

The article Design Research on the Demands of Older Adults: A User-Centered Case Study of Shoes by Yi Li, Miao Tian, Jun Li and Yun Su takes a different approach to designing comfortable shoes for older adults in China. Here user needs are established and utilized to develop a concept for a more ergonomic trainer shoe. These needs were identified via two surveys of older adults’ requirements when taking part in different activities such as walking and dancing. Further in-depth interviews confirmed a detailed demand model, from which a design concept for older males was developed to meet key requirements for comfort and fit.

Moving to the African continent, the following article fills a perceived gap in the discourse on sustainable fashion from the African perspective. In Customized Prèt-a-Porter: West Africa’s Answer to the Quest for Sustainable Fashion Adwoa Owusuaa Bobie identifies a system of limited-edition production of fashion termed “customized prèt-a-porter” that bridges bespoke services and read-made garments. The author interviewed fashion designers in major cities in Nigeria and Ghana to understand their approach to both local and international markets, aligning it with the notion of “slow fashion” and including particular laundry practices to preserve the quality and lifetime of the clothes.

Integrating technology into fashion craft practices, the next paper Developing Shape Change Based Fashion Prototyping Strategies: Enhancing Computational Thinking in Fashion Practice and Creativity by Xinyi Huang, Sarah Kettley and Sophia Lycouris takes an exploratory approach through experimental prototyping. Utilizing three different shape-changing mechanisms, these are applied to outfits that demonstrate the potential for innovation in evolving new fashion silhouettes through wearable technology. The importance of collaboration throughout between fashion designers and technologists in the field of human-computer interaction is emphasized.

The final article Braiding As Research Method: Building Relational Understanding for Fashion by Kate Fletcher and Anna Fitzpatrick adopts the textile technique of braiding as a metaphor for an approach to developing research concepts through a particular process of written exchange and dialogue. The authors were inspired to develop this process from the work on literary “métissage” by Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, and Leggo (2009) and apply it specifically in the context of fashion and clothing. Although it can be challenging and time-consuming. the authors posit that greater depth and collective understanding of issues can be achieved working in this manner.

This issue has brought together new accounts and perspectives deeply rooted in a range of fashion craft practices and open to experimentation, evidencing the wide reach of the topic of fashion practice. We hope you enjoy reading the articles.

Professor Sandy Black
Editor-in-Chief, Fashion Practice
Centre for Sustainable Fashion,
London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London
[email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).