Welcome to the sixth issue!
This issue is dedicated to fashion activism, social justice, and innovation in fashion research and practices. The articles and reviews in this issue range from activists’ accounts of reforming and transforming fashion, to researchers’ investigations of innovating fashion studies and fashion research, including critique of academic work that perpetuates the continued existence of Eurocentric, traditional, and colonial fashion research paradigms that we work to decolonize.
This issue was also inspired by the work of the ground-breaking researcher-activist Sandra Niessen, who has mobilized her research on decoloniality, anthropology, and decentering fashion to become a full-time climate justice activist in her retirement. Her creativity, justice-focused fieldwork, and paradigm-shifting research and writing has inspired all of us to be better researchers, thinkers, makers, and citizens.
The Critical Pulse will continue to look at themes concerning the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We will continue to address sustainability and social justice, as well as ethics, inclusivity, diversity, intersectional feminism, and decoloniality because we want to see a transformation in the fashion system and fashion education.
We welcome contributions, such as reviews of books, films, current events, and other relevant topics. Through studying the discourse of design, fashion, and economics, we want to empower and amplify marginalized voices of creatives and young professionals. We only publish well-researched, and well-analyzed information. We hope that our different views give you an objective and critical perspective of the fashion industry, creating a desire to push views, traditions, and conditions forward.
We hope you enjoy this issue and that you join us in disrupting the current fashion practices.
Sincerely, the editorial team of The Critical Pulse
Robin Chantree, Johnathan Clancy, Tenna Johanning Hjelm Mette Kirk, Jess Montgomery, Caroline Serafina Muscato, Mia Petersen, Sandra Rosenkranz Jäger, Emilie Thomsen, Bridgit Trott, Bjørn Utoft Sørensen
Contributions by Sandra Niessen, Sara Arnold, Jasmine Chavez Helm, Jess Montgomery, Tenna Johanning Hjelm, Caroline Serafina Muscato, Alexandre Prince, Natálie Vencovská, Sabrina Saberhagen, and Sandra Jäger.
Mentored and inspired by Dr. Kat Sark
I am a third year student at ESMOD International Oslo, graduating in 2023. I am Filipino-Norwegian but grew up in Manchester UK. I decided to return home to study in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. For my second-year exam, I created a creative magazine titled “Welcome To the Dollhouse” featuring my fashion designs. We had four weeks to research magazine layouts and fashion photography in order to design a collection and put together a magazine-style portfolio. My concept for “Welcome To the Dollhouse” takes inspiration from the plasticity of dolls and plays with the idea of freeing yourself from being forced to maintain a certain image/beauty standard in order to be accepted.
The collection was inspired by the song “DOLLHOUSE” by Melanie Martinez, and especially the line: “Places, places, get in your places. Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces!” The song can be interpreted as the idea of being forced into masking a reality so that others cannot see what's behind closed doors. It can also be seen as the little girl (the doll) wanting to live a different reality than the one her family is giving her.
“Welcome To the Dollhouse” is a juxtaposition of the messages behind the song. It explores the idea of revisiting your childhood with freedom. You are in control of your own naked truth. Although this feeling is liberating, it is new and therefore you are still feeling delicate. However, you are no longer cursed with the discomfort of dressing up as unrecognizable characters. The Dollhouse has become a safe space for you to explore your own identity, and the excitement leaves you in a playful mood.
magazine
Creative Magazine Front Page: this did not have to center its focus around the garment itself, but rather show different ways we can use fashion as a way to communicate with an audience.
Model: Birgitte Hanssen
Moodboard:
I used this to summarize the concept and colour palette with images and keywords.
Design Method:
In order to find interesting volumes and silhouettes I used a technique called photo styling. I draped different garments with contrasting materials on a mannequin before editing the images in different ways on top of a figurine in photoshop.
Using the collages, I sketched and developed 3D samples until I came up with the final garment designs for the collection. Above you can see an extract of the line-up on figurines.
We had to sew one outfit from the collection. I chose to sew dungarees and a cropped shirt. These dungarees are made out of a mix of 100% cotton and scrap materials that I had left over from a previous project. Cotton is a natural material and can therefore also be dyed using natural pigments such as spinach and avocado.
Model: Alexandra Langsø
We had to make one outer garment. This was the most important piece in the collection and it had to show a lot of technical elements such as the pleats in the sleeves and a classic suit collar. I also used some of the fabric scraps to make a matching bucket hat in order to reduce some of the waste produced. The remaining scraps have been kept for use in future projects.
ESMOD is extremely technical and this was the first project that allowed us to fully use all of the knowledge that we had gotten from the first two years with a lot of freedom. The most challenging aspect was finding high quality fabrics at a student-friendly price. Fashion students have to self-fund a lot of materials and more often than not, what is available to us is made from plastic. My collection was heavily based around using natural and biodegradable materials, so I designed the jacket with the intention of using 100% silk. However, I ended up having to substitute this for a polyester blend due to lack of budget and limited time.
The fashion industry is known to be extremely polluting, and I believe that finding more sustainable options is important to think about as students of the industry. I learned a lot from this experience that I will take with me when I am designing my graduate collection. After graduation, I plan on applying for a masters degree in order to deepen my skills, as well as find a way to establish a fashion brand with a greater understanding of sustainability within the industry.
Instagram: @sabrina.saberhagen
Graduating Collection: @houseofsaberhagen
By: Sara Arnold
Activist group Fashion Act Now (FAN) wants to dismantle the globalised growth-based fashion system and nurture non-capitalist clothing systems. In the summer of 2022, FAN launched The Common Market, an online marketplace to celebrate alternative systems and the extraordinary hidden world of clothing cultures that are uncorrupted by profit. This is no ordinary marketplace - nothing is for sale. Here you can find community fashion projects to get stuck into - for participation not purchase. Inspired by David Bollier, expert on the commons, FAN chose to feature projects led by communities, addressing their needs, nurturing their cultural identity, and sharing their collective wealth.
This may seem abstract, but when you think about, these projects exist all around us: sewing, knitting, and upcycling circles; communities growing fibers and dyes; Indigenous people upholding their clothing systems and traditions; clothing swaps; open innovation and other forms of sharing with much more yet to discover. These projects aren’t growth based, and so largely don’t advertise in traditional ways. Consequently they lack visibility. The Common Market seeks to make these projects accessible to fashion consumers around the world, showing them that clothing culture is so much more than consumerism.
In the following interview, Sara Arnold spoke to one of the project owners, Sharron Davis, founder of the Free Your Wardrobe community, which finds good new homes for clothes, where they are appreciated and saved from waste, preventing the urge to shop for new. She started the initiative by accident when she photographed a bunch of her clothes and put them on Facebook with the title “I’m setting my wardrobe free.” In this interview, Sara found a “system” where “considered gifting” and care for well-being are brought together through the revival of old clothes. This independent, simple, localised, and very personal model can be seen as part of a wider movement of free shops, swap shops, clothing libraries, and online networks such as Freecycle, all challenging the capitalist fashion system through gifting.
Free your wardrobe Photo by Sara Arnold
We are really interested in converting typical fashion consumers to new ways of interacting with clothing. You’ve been on quite a journey of change. It’s really interesting that you were a fast fashion addict before you were doing this.
I'm 52 and I've been a real victim of the change in pricing for fashion. In the nineties, I used to make all my own clothes and shop second-hand because it wasn't affordable for me to buy new ones. And I'm not sure how that dropped away, but it did. The other thing about it is, I also had an eating disorder. I don't think we talk enough about the addiction side of buying fashion and the reasoning behind it. I was bulimic for about seven years. I've been well for 25 years now, since 1997. I think what happened was that clothes prices dropped and that became my new drug. I've always been a sales shopper, so it's always been that thrill of a chase. I wouldn't really buy things at full price, even the fast fashion. And actually, I mean, fast fashion is a term that's used in multiple ways and I think it's about buying clothes that you don't need and you don't wear, or don't wear enough. That's the big thing.
I basically put my hand up at the end of the Greenpeace talk and said, “I'm a fast fashion addict.” It was the strangest thing. It was the first time I'd actually really thought of it as an addiction. They had a project called After the Binge, The Hangover. It just spoke to me. I’m not proud of it. I already knew about what it was doing to the planet, I already knew about the terrible things that it was doing to the people, the poor women who
make it. And it did bother me, but somehow I put it where most people put it. I think there is a lot of ignorance but there's also a lot of people who choose to push it to one side, and that was definitely me, although I was watching those things and engaging with it and I did care. And then this penny dropped. I was like, “Oh my God, I'm damaging all these people and I'm damaging myself.” Then I stopped buying anything. Now I only buy second-hand. It will be five years in November. No new clothes at all. Which makes it interesting.
Do you have a message for others who are trying to stop?
My big message is be honest with yourself. It's about accepting where you are. You don't have to feel guilty about it, but really understand what you're doing. It’s important to be honest about what you have in your wardrobe and what you actually wear and start to explore what that looks like. The more you wear clothes that you feel comfortable in, the more you feel comfortable in yourself, the less likely you are to binge-shop.
I'm curious about the community aspect to Free Your Wardrobe. When people receive items, what kind of relationships are created in that process?
Before lockdown, people used to come to my house and they'd try stuff on and I'd take the pictures when they were there, and then I'd link in the people that donated the clothes. And it's beautiful. People love to see their clothes having a new life. It does really create a relationship. I've got 1900 members. People are a bit shy about sharing photos, but it absolutely does create a connection. It's not transactional. It's not a swap.
It's a gift really, isn't it?
It's a gift. I went to a lot of swaps and they can be really grabby. It took me a while to do a proper pop up because I thought people would come in and grab all the best stuff but people are very respectful. There is an energy with it. We sometimes have passers by and they're like, “what? can I just have this?” I think giving things away can give them more value, not less.
What I find interesting about gift economies is, if you have a market in which everything is 99 cents, you'd probably feel like you need to grab everything while it lasts. But when everything is a gift, you're actually more inclined to just take what you need rather than in excess.
I think that's very true. That's the flipside of it not being a swap. If you bring five things, you think, I need to take five things. My events that I run, I never charge people. I think people are more likely to think, “I need to get my money's worth.”
What do you get from it if you're not charging anyone?
It's not about what I get, weirdly. I work in IT. I just love clothes and I love being around clothes and I feel that I am very privileged. You know, I run my own business. I'm a consultant. I don't work all the time. I’m very aware of my privilege. It's a way for me to pay my privilege back to the community. Also in some ways it's penance. I bought probably enough clothes for ten lifetimes. It is also putting the message out there that second-hand is amazing. People's behaviours do change and they will confess to me, “oh, I bought this new, but I've worn it a lot,” and I'm always like, “you know I have no judgement.” It's nice that I’m able to reach people in that way. I’m doing something that makes a difference.
I've written about 20,000 words of a book called Free Your Wardrobe And The Rest Will Follow. It covers my journey and my experience, but also the people I've met. There's a lot of feminism and body acceptance. It's not a simple topic. I don't think we've scratched the surface really about what it really means. We all have to wear clothes. You might as well wear something that you feel good in and that makes you feel good for all the right reasons.
Is Free Your Wardrobe just operating in Brighton, UK? What do you think of it spreading wider?
We are just in Brighton at the moment. Actually, it could exist elsewhere and it probably does in different forms. However, the main thing is you need to have stock. And a big reason for that is size. But I strongly believe that size is not a number. People get hooked on sizes. If I have a garment that I think isn't sized well, I will cut the sizes out. Or I will cut out the sizes because I think they won't like it because it's a bigger size than they think they are. I just think that whole thing is ridiculous. We're all different shapes and sizes. So, I've got three bags: bottoms, tops, dresses - and I do it by five sizes - extra small, small, medium, large and extra large. But it's not based on what's on the label. When I run an event, I know that I've got clothes across all the sizes. Often people who are larger sizes find nothing. That's really disheartening. And I find that there are a lot of people hanging onto clothes that don't actually fit them or people hanging on to clothes just because they fit. I'm trying to promote starting where you are with your body - letting go of stuff because someone else would enjoy it and hopefully finding something that does fit you and that you feel great in rather than just thinking, “Oh well, maybe one day.” Don’t keep stuff for a person you're not. Be really clear about who you are.
I encourage people to measure themselves. I think it's really important that people measure themselves and know how big they are. It's physics - you can't put your body into something that's smaller than your body. We have a load of shame around that, which I think is put upon us by the patriarchy. I feel this is a way of pushing against it.I had a lady referred to me who wasn't going to have a new outfit for her 50th birthday. I ended up extending the back of this jumpsuit. She'd never worn a jumpsuit and always wanted to wear one so I made it fit. I gave a couple of people
whole new wardrobes because they lost stuff in fires. Especially with the larger sizes, I help people just find something that they would never have considered wearing. It’s not charity. With charity, you get what you’re given and you’re meant to be grateful. This is different - it’s a genuine gift.
At Fashion Act Now, we are fans of small projects learning from and emulating each other. I imagine there might be somebody on the other side of the world who will read this interview and think I could do that too, in my local area. I wonder what you think of that. What would you say to somebody who might want to start a similar initiative on the other side of the world?
I would say, “absolutely! go for it!” I would say that you absolutely need to love clothes. I would say make it as simple as possible. We have rules for those wanting to receive an item of clothing. People need to answer this: Do you love me? Do I fit you? Where will you wear me? If you can answer those three questions, then you can have anything. People ask, “Are you going to limit the number of things that people bring or do you want a certain quality?” It's called Free Your Wardrobe - so it's about people getting the things out of their wardrobe, so that their wardrobe only contains things that they will wear. Any limitations don't really fit with that ethos. Absolutely, think about what your goals are when you start setting rules and set as few rules as possible.
• Join the mailing list at TheCommon.Market
• Become a member at FashionActNow.org to help build the The Cowwmmon Market
• Join Free Your Wardrobe - https://www.facebook.com/ groups/398923144160000/
Bio:
Sara Arnold co-founded degrowth activist group Fashion Act Now (FAN) in 2020, which coined the term defashion to describe the urgent downscaling of resource and energy use that is required in the fashion industry. Together with Fashion Act Now members, she is powering The Common Market, an online marketplace for community led fashion projects. She is also an associate lecturer at University of the Arts London. Sara previously founded fashion rental platform, Higher Studio, to incentivise a circular economy and is a former activist in Extinction Rebellion London, where she coordinated protests at London Fashion Week.
The growing recognition of design practices and designerly ways of thinking has permeated the realm of business in recent years, as “design thinking” has been adapted into methods and tactics for complex problem-solving. This corporate embracement of humanistic and creative fields of study has also led to a growing recognition and appreciation for the potential of fashion studies and its theoretical and methodological concepts. “Fashion thinking” is a theoretical concept that provides an actionable methodology in which the capabilities of fashion professionals are utilised to add meaning and value to products, services, or processes, and is thus a valuable addition to design thinking, bringing new perspectives to the innovation process.
“Fashion thinking” broadly defined is thinking through and about fashion. It is an analytical option that emerged out of fashion studies, through which researchers can investigate social and cultural processes (Petersen et al. 2016:2). The concept of fashion thinking is a relatively novel one, however there is compelling research on the topic. One of the seminal texts on fashion thinking is the 2012 article “Fashion Thinking: Towards an Actionable Methodology” by Natalie W. Nixon & Johanna Blakley, in which they define the term as “a paradigm of critical thought and creative agency utilizing technology, story, experimentation, and open-sourcing in order to add meaning and value to the functional and experiential spheres of products and services” (Nixon & Blakley 2012:157).
“Fashion thinking” broadly defined is thinking through and about fashion. It is an analytical option that emerged out of fashion studies, through which researchers can investigate social and cultural processes (Petersen et al. 2016:2).
Fashion thinking becomes an actionable methodology through its five dimensions:
1. its engagement with temporal dimensions
2. spatial dimensions
3. socially discursive dimensions
4. the priority it places on the articulation of taste
5. balancing commercial goals with artistic innovations (Nixon & Blakley 2012:154).
These dimensions when considered and applied to the innovation process ensure meaningful and value design outcomes. Fashion thinking is, by this definition, a methodological tool that can inform innovation of products, services, and processes.
Fashion thinking has been observed in practice in companies that have made dramatic organisational changes by incorporating fashion professionals into their management in order to make their products or services more meaningful and emotionally durable. Examples include the W Hotel, which managed to move beyond simply delivering a night-stop to a meaningful experience by creating the position of Global Fashion Director in 2010 (Nixon & Blakley 2012:167). Amanda Ross, a stylist by trade, was hired by the chain to transform their operations by developing the hotel’s global fashion perspective. This included selecting new wait-staff uniforms to better merchandise the hotel and tell its “story,” and designing a new scenography, a technique used regularly by fashion retailers, to set the “stage” for guests and enforce the milieu of the W hotels. The goal of designing and styling these stories are for them to provide experiential services and meet the emotional needs of guests. The incorporation of fashion thinking into the management of the chain strengthened their brand by making their
guests more emotionally connected to the hotels. Fashion thinking thereby allow for innovative ways of cultivating a focus on new details helping companies become more responsive and competitive and, ultimately, more successful (Nixon & Blakley 2012:168).The concept thus offers a valuable addition to design thinking in processes of innovation and transformation.
Design thinking has provided a user-centred, cognitive style for reasoning and problem-solving originally perfected by designers. The concept has flourished in business literature and practice since the mid-2000s, when design methods were adapted into tactics for complex problem-solving in a wide range of disciplines and fields (Petersen et al. 2016:3). Design thinking represents an expansion of the traditional realm of designers in creating physical, designed products to the employment of design methods in process, service, and solutions design. The iterative process awarded by design thinking is today considered highly relevant to the process of innovation (Petersen et al. 2016:3). Fashion thinking largely shares these properties; however, its five characteristic dimensions set it aside from design thinking, and it thus offers the process of innovation and transformation and new perspectives.
Design thinking has provided a user-centred, cognitive style for reasoning and problem-solving originally perfected by designers
In regard to sustainability, ranging from deeper knowledge of material composition to richer understandings of social behaviour, new capabilities are necessary to designing a sustainable future (De los Rios & Charnley 2016:109). The capabilities embedded in fashion thinking have in the literature been praised for holding a new potential to aid businesses to develop more sustainable practices. In an increasingly innovation-focused economy, dimensions of identity and emotion matter when designing. Embedded in the profession of fashion design are the capabilities of forward-thinking and developing innovative practices (Nixon & Blakley 2012:156-157).
In regard to sustainability, ranging from deeper knowledge of material composition to richer understandings of social behaviour, new capabilities are necessary to designing a sustainable future (De los Rios & Charnley
2016:109).
Design thinking is the source of inspiration for fashion thinking; however, fashion thinking is a process through which brands can attain value, and this process of value creation can be applied in other contexts and industries. A common feature of fashion thinking and design thinking is thus its applicability outside its own realm e.g., in the production and marketing of food, automobiles, technology, hospitality, and services (Petersen et al. 2016:4). The purpose of fashion thinking is not to replace design thinking, but rather the discourse around design thinking has enabled a new understanding of the outcome and application of fashion capabilities (Nixon & Blakley 2012:156). Fashion thinking offers a particular focus on taste-making and meaningfulness for the consumer, whereas design thinking traditionally is more concerned with functionality and usability (Nixon & Blakley 2012:155–156). Unique to fashion thinking is its masterful employment of the past, present, and future when designing attractive consumer products.
The purpose of fashion thinking is not to replace design thinking, but rather that the discourse around design thinking has enabled a new understanding of the outcome and application of fashion capabilities (Nixon & Blakley 2012:156).
Whereas the principles of design thinking were inspired by the work and process of designers, the actionable dimensions of fashion thinking come from fashion apparel business practices (Nixon & Blakley 2012:154). These include, of course, designers of fashion but also other fashion professionals in a broader sense such as textile designers, stylists, and marketers. The principles of fashion thinking are therefore inspired by a multitude of actors within the industry and their particular expertise and capabilities.
Awareness of fashion thinking has been raised following a 2014-conference dedicated to the topic held by the University of Southern Denmark, Design School Kolding, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and Design Museum Denmark (Designskolen, n.d.). The increasing popularisation of fashion thinking can be attributed to an increasing acknowledgement and rise of fashion studies generally. Fashion has in recent years been established and recognised as an important and culturally relevant
field of research due to increased recognition of the potential of fashion and design studies to a wider range of fields and industries. The emerging interest in fashion thinking can be viewed as a natural extension of this growing recognition, which has emerged as a result of an increasing demand for consumption studies (Entwistle 2016:16). However, this increased recognition comes after years of fashion studies being underappreciated in academia – a legacy the field continues to battle. Fashion studies has historically been disregarded as a “serious” field of research compared to its fellow design disciplines.
There are three main reasons driving this bias against the relevance of fashion (Nixon & Blakley 2012:158). Firstly, implicit gender bias has led to a notion of fashion as “unserious” due to its strong association with the work of women and queer people. The bias against these demographics has deemed this work ancillary, superfluous, and of inferior status to traditional fields, which influenced the cultural perception of fashion and the study of hereof. Secondly, a societal inconsistency towards fashion has resulted in a simultaneous cultural infatuation alongside a refusal to ascribe the weight and relevance to it necessary for fashion to be considered serious. Finally, the broader field of design is known to have an implicit hierarchy between its disciplines with architecture at the top, followed by industrial design, graphic design, digital design,
and fashion at the very bottom. The low ranking of fashion as a research field in this implicit hierarchy has resulted in an internal disregard for fashion in the realm of design.
But this perception of fashion has been changing, and fashion studies is currently experiencing a shift in status. Fashion’s alignment with economic forces has further heightened its status and legitimacy in academia and among policy makers (Entwistle 2016:17). Fashion has entered the economic discourse, as ideas of “cultural” and “creative” work have become a major driver of developed economies, and scholarly work on fashion has therefore both increased and gained more recognition (Entwistle 2016:16). The commercial art of fashion offers a unique merging of aesthetics, engineering, and business strategy, and fashion thinking facilitates problem-solving in uncertain and complex environments (Nixon & Blakley 2012:158). The field of fashion studies has matured enough to contribute to other academic disciplines (Petersen et al. 2016:5), and the expert knowledge of fashion thinking can thus be highly relevant and useful to a variety of fields.
Fashion has entered the economic discourse, as ideas of “cultural” and “creative” work have become a major driver of developed economies, and scholarly work on fashion has therefore both increased and gained more recognition (Entwistle 2016:16)
Bibliography:
• De los Rios, I. C., & Charnley, F. J. S. (2017). Skills and Capabilities for a Sustainable and Circular Economy: The Changing Role of Design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 160, 109- 122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.130
• Designskolen. (n.d.). Conference – Fashion Thinking. Retrieved August 1st, 2022, from https://www.designskolenkolding.dk/en/calendar/fashion-thinking
• Entwistle, J. (2016). The Fashioned Body 15 Years On: Contemporary Fashion Thinking. Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry, 8(1), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2016.1147693
• Nixon, N. W., & Blakley, J. (2012). Fashion Thinking: Towards an Actionable Methodology. Fashion Practice, 4(2), 153-175. https://doi.or g/10.2752/175693812X13403765252262
• Petersen, T. B.; Mackinney-Valentin, M., & Melchior, M. R. (2016). Fashion Thinking. Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process & the Fashion Industry, 8(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/17569370.2016.1147699
Bio:
Caroline Serafina Muscato is a Danish design manager who has specialised in fashion as a design discipline, sustainable innovation, and transformational processes. Her master’s thesis Fashion Thinking for Sustainability Transformation: A Qualitative Case Study of Fashion Thinking in the Danish Sustainability Consulting Industry explored the theoretical concept of ‘fashion thinking’ and its potential for sustainable business transformation in regard to strategy consulting. She holds an MA in Design Management from the University of Southern Denmark and a BA in Art History from Aarhus University.
In the center of Kolding, Denmark, at the Sustainability House, is the Swap Spot - a volunteer-run clothes swapping community, created by a former SDU student Svetlana Petrova and run by Natálie Vencovská, a recent graduate of the Kolding Design School. The concept is that you can bring your no-longer-worn clothes and exchange them for preloved items from other local users. The more quality pieces you bring, the more quality pieces you can take. For each visit, you can bring up to 10 pieces of clothing or accessories that will be rewarded with points based on a “quality check” that works with factors like heaviness, material composition, or the originality of the piece. Afterward, points are assigned to the user’s account and stay there until they are spent.
Swap Spot has around 300 visits from users every month and has over 700 users in total. Along with following the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offering an alternative to fashion purchases, Swap Spot is also a community place for diverse people to meet. Most of the volunteers are students from local universities who come to this city from all corners around the world. They are a group of slow-fashion lovers, who enjoy sharing what they no longer need and thereby prolonging the life-cycles of clothing as much as possible.
Swap Spots provides an important service by ensuring users not buy new clothes - this is a key alternative to the capitalist fashion system known, as Sara Arnold noted, as a freecycle. The freecycle starts when you want to be a part of this community. You get an account set up for free, since to use Swap Spot doesn’t require any money. It simply requires you to gift your preloved clothing and then pick any you may like in return. They also started a new concept at Swap Spot, where you can get clothing that needs a new home but also a repair, for free. This community service teaches us to take better care of our clothing and helps us see it having a longer life than we normally would because of the throw-away-culture.
As one of the volunteers, our editorial team member, Mia Petersen, has volunteered her time and used Swap Spot and loved it. She agrees that the concept is working well - you really feel that you are getting something out of your old preloved clothes, but it is also fun to go around and see your old preloved clothing hanging and then maybe next time you come they are gone. Then you know that they have gotten a new home, giving them a longer life.
Another aspect that Mia enjoyed was the thought process behind swapping, allowing her to focus on curating her own style rather than following trends, pre-determined by shop buyers and trend-forecasters only for a very short season in order to sell more. When the focus is shifted away from trending, selling too much, and prolonging the life-cycles of clothing, finding a new favourite piece will have an even more lasting effect and positive affect for the long term of one’s wardrobe and self-esteem. Mia noted that she learned a lot from Swap Spot about looking at clothing as a value action of making and enhancing personal style, rather than just following trends and generating more waste.
Swap Spot can also teach us the importance of taking care of our clothing, no matter if
we are keeping it or not. Loved or preloved clothes have a long lifespan, and when you are part of a swapping community, you take better care of, and responsibility for, your clothes, long after they have served their use in your wardrobe and become a favourite in someone else’s wardrobe.
Swap Spot on instagram: @swap.spot
Address: Bæredygtighedshuset / Sustainability House, Jernbanegade 3
6000 Kolding
Denmark
Bios:
Natálie Vencovská is a graduate of the Design for Sustainability master's program at the Design School Kolding, with a previous fashion design background. Natalie's perspective on design lies in critical and speculative approaches applied to holistic and circular models that in practice help her to create a safe and open space for more inclusive designs. She has been running Swap Spot in Kolding for over two years.
Mia Petersen graduated from SDU with a BA in Design Culture and Economics, with a focus on fashion, and will be attending MA in Art History and Museum Curating at University of Sussex next year. She has been part of The Critical Pulse editorial Team for over two years. Mia's interest lies in communicating about sustainability and body positivity through different mediums, with a critical view to the fashion industry and its way of communicating itself.
These are some of my finds at Swap Spot. Headbands, sunglasses, Sweater and a pair of pants. All for just 12 waist coins. Preloved clothing that will be loved and used by me now.
These were swapped at the same time as the pieces in 1.0. A pair for shorts, headband, and a top. Beautiful finds.
2.0
Swapping pieces
A mix of earlier swapping. Again a good mixture of colors and preloved clothing.
Natálie is a graduate of the Design for Sustainability master's program at the Design School Kolding, with a previous fashion design background. Natalie's perspective on design lies in critical and speculative approaches applied to holistic and circular models that in practice help her to create a safe and open space for more inclusive designs. Currently, she is in charge of a Denmark-based NGO called Swap Spot, which aims to minimize fashion waste by offering volunteer-run service for swapping of no-longer worn garments for other preloved items. This collective wardrobe is educating its users about clothing quality by analyzing each donated item, which is assigned points based on the quality and condition of the garment.
youKnit project:
The boundaries between work and home are becoming increasingly blurred. We spend more and more time in our "home offices" performing our job tasks. That requires clothing that is comfortable, functional, and adjustable. Now, imagine if you could have just a single silhouette of clothing that would serve you for all purposes. One item that you could wear at home with your friends but also when going out. One item with a predefined form, yet adaptable to your personal aesthetics. One item that would fit anyone regardless of age, gender, or social status. Natalie Vencovská’s graduate fashion project dives into the possibilities of zero-waste garment production and offers futuristic imaginaries of more sustainable futures.
youKnit
is a project that offers universal and inclusive ways of dressing up in the future. One dress that fits all, created by special technology called "Fiber to garment" or "3D knit."
Detailed view of 3D knitted dress made of brewed protein fiber.
The main outcome of this project is a series of 3D visuals as the main tool to imagine speculative futures.
The main dress used for this proposal is universal, here worn by three different body sizes:
This illustration shows the two different possible ways of knit garment production. Cut and Sew process contains way more in-between steps, costs more money and also creates a lot of waste.
@jmenomejenatalie
Episode 40 – Answering Your Questions – Part 2
Episode 39 – Answering Your Questions – Part 1
Episode 38 – Moussa Mchangama from In Futurum
Episode 37 – Tansy Hoskins
https://anchor.fm/chic-podcast
