The idea of this project is to implement insights from Mistra Future Fashion in a real fashion industry context, focusing on speed of use and maximizing fabric value retention in products. For Filippa K this is a key approach; exploring a process enabling them to become circular, and much more sustainable, by 2030. The project is expected to generate meaningful and industry-aligned insights towards a 'systemic change' in the fashion industry.

"We want to be able to enjoy fashion and update our wardrobes in a conscious way. That is what the project – Circular Design Speeds – is about. We will develop circular garments where all environmental impacts and aspects during a full life cycle are taken into account and optimised based on a pre-determined life length," said Elin Larsson, sustainability director Filippa K.

The project – Circular Design Speeds – will be an industry-embedded pilot study, exploring the impact of different speeds of fashion with the aim to generate commercial garments. These will consciously consider and optimise the life of fabric, production processes and business models through a holistic design process. This may be through extending the life of an existing garment by design interventions over time, or through the development of hyper-recyclable short-life products, enabling efficient recovery of virgin fabrics over multiple lifetimes. These commercial garments will be Filippa K’s next Front Runners. In order to benefit the broader industry, the key insights from the project will be continuously shared in unique value to others seminars, which will bridge 'circular design research' to the company context and help create a deeper understanding for others in the industry. There will be three seminars delivered through 2017 and in the spring of 2018.

"As academic researchers we see this industry-focused project – Circular Design Speeds – essential to developing new knowledge and understanding in the area of 'fast' and 'slow' fashion textiles. Clothes we often hope to be slow end up being fast, and even vice versa – yet current materials are all essentially slow; they take time, water, energy, chemicals and valuable resources to make. We want to work with a brand to fully explore whether designing for product recovery and speed can help us make fashion textiles to match our different paces of life," professor Rebecca Earley said.

"Circular Design Speeds is the ultimate project where theory from years of research will be implemented and tested in an industry context, with many of our partners involved. The output will be the legacy of Mistra Future Fashion and all that its partners are trying to achieve," said Sigrid Barnekow, program director, Mistra Future Fashion. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India