Chapter ‘Fashion Ontology: Researching the Possibilities for Knowing through an Expanded Fashion Practice’ in the volume Fashion Knowledge: Theories, Methods, Practices, and Politics. Out now!

Abstract A Fashion Ontology, Researching the possibilities for knowing through an expanded fashion practice 20th-century art was dominated by undefined borders between artistic practices. The need to name and organize art was acted upon not only due to methodological reasoning but also to perpetuate the status quo and its associated hierarchies. Inevitably, the boundaries between Fine Arts and Applied Arts became redefined. It is through the subordination of fashion to a Post-Duchampian understanding of what fashion practices are, that this paper will concentrate on discussions surrounding the definition of fashion. The aim of this study is to voice the concerns of fashion practitioners in the early 21st century, thereby testing the boundaries of the discipline. Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging, this 'paper-as-installation' fills a gap in practice-based research by bridging practice and theory. The research methodology developed within this practice extends the potential of film as a means by which to explore theoretical possibilities for knowing through expanded fashion practice. Within a context of heightened concerns about climate change and environmental issues induced by mass production, fast fashion, and global fashion distribution and consumption, the proposed work challenges the understanding of fashion as the creation of garments, objects and environments. Instead, by deconstructing underlying assumptions and exposing the limitations of current market-driven fashion design processes, this project suggests that fashion production may shift to the formation of new philosophical and theoretical notions via which the discipline may further evolve in socially and environmentally responsible ways.

Learn more

International Upcycling Symposium 2022

State-of-the-Art Upcycling Research and Practice

Proceedings of the International Upcycling Symposium 2020

Screenshot 2021-06-24 at 18.35.36.png — Commoning situated knowledge: co-teaching-and-learning the ‘design-led upcycling’ of waste clothing by
Elaine Igoe, Susan Noble, Lara Torres, and Jennifer Cunningham

This study examines the introduction of a ‘design-led upcycling’ group project into an established design and enterprise curriculum structure with second-year students on BA (Hons) Fashion and Textile Design at the University of Portsmouth, UK. It reflects the common experience and situated knowledges of academic, technical staff and students contextualised within the changing imperatives of design education. Rogowska-Stangret (2018) outlines how Donna Haraway’s situated knowledges work like an apparatus of producing ‘... a more adequate, richer, better account of a world, in order to live in it well and in critical, reflexive relation to our own as well as others' practices of domination and the unequal parts of privilege and oppression that make up all positions’ (Haraway, 1988, p.579). With this as a pedagogic aim, academics and technicians re-evaluated their established teaching and support methods in relation to upcycling in design.

Learn more

Crafting Anatomies

Archives, Dialogues, Fabrications

Editor(s): Katherine Townsend, Rhian Solomon, Amanda Briggs-Goode

Volume Published on 20-02-2020 by Bloomsbury Visual Arts

The human body lies at the centre of our relationship to fashion and textiles. Crafting Anatomies explores how the body has become a catalyst for archival research, creative dialogues and hybrid fabrications in fashion design. Focusing on how our response to the corporeal has shifted over time, the book looks at how it is currently influencing design and socio-material practices. With contributions from a multidisciplinary range of scholars and researchers, Crafting Anatomies examines how new technologies have become integrated with traditional fashion and textiles techniques, bringing together art, science and biomedical approaches. Traversing the cutting-edge of design research, the chapters take us from the forgotten lives of historical garments to the potential of biofabrication to cross the boundaries between skin and textile. Illustrated with 120 images visualising original research, the book reveals how the human body continues to inspire future design, from historical wearables to prosthetic limbs and 3D-printed footwear. In doing so, it provides an inspiring account of how fashion and textile culture now impacts socio-creativity and the formation of contemporary identity. Published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts on 20th February 2020 Table of Contents I. The Archived Body edited by Amanda Briggs-Goode 2. The Archived Lace Body: Contemporary artist designer responses - Amanda Briggs-Goode and Gail Baxter 3. Disarmed: Lasting impressions - Jo Cope and Johannes Reponen 4. Dis-Comforting, Pioneering, and Re-Materializing: Crafting understanding of older men's experiences of ageing through their personal archives - Ania Sadkowska 5. The Electric Corset and Other Future Histories - Katherine Townsend, Sarah Kettley, and Sarah Walker II. The Body in Dialogue edited by Rhian Solomon 6. Fashion and Participation in Hands of X - Andrew Cook and Graham Pullin 7. Tissue Engineered Textiles: Craft's place in the laboratory - Amy Congdon, Lucy Di Silvio, and Carole Collet 8. Mind-Body-Garment-Cloth - Holly McQuillan and Timo Rissanen 9. Empowerment and Self-Care: Designing for the female body - Giulia Tomasello and Teresa Almeida III. The Fabricated Body edited by Katherine Townsend 10. Our Own Skin: The development of 3D printed footwear inspired by human skin - Manolis Papastavrou, Liz Ciokajlo, and Rhian Solomon 11. Material Robotics: Shaping the sensitive Interface - Amy Winters 12. The Genetics Gym - Adam Peacock 13. The Body as Factory: A post-productivist fashion practice through film - Lara Torres Discussion 14. On Fashioning Anatomy - Joanne Entwistle and Katherine Townsend

Edited by Katherine Townsend, Rhian Solomon, and Amanda Briggs-Goode

“This anthology poses a critical, creative, stimulating and timely challenge to textile designers, makers and consumers in the 21st century It is essential reading for students and researchers. Crafting Anatomies provokes, probes and gets inside the tensions that often exist when individuals cross disciplinary boundaries but emerge the richer in all aspects of practice. Crafting methodologies and reflective analysis are celebrated as a form of material intelligence through a series of case studies, archives, exhibition reviews, collaborative science based labs and studios, examining in detail the archived body, the body in dialogue and the fabricated body. Great stuff.” – Janis Jefferies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

“Crafting Anatomies is a welcome addition to the discourse surrounding the relationship between skin, body and fashion. The editors have successfully brought together an interesting variety of different voices in order to form a stimulating and satisfying bridge between the archive and future technologies.” – Lesley Millar, University of the Creative Arts, UK