# Circular Open Source Fashion
October 8th, 2019

Zoe Romano

In this class the lecture will outline the systems behind fashion and the textile industry, focusing on alternative systems such as circular fashion, agile fashion, open value chains.

https://class.textile-academy.org/classes/week03/ 

NOTES

fashion marketing is old fashioned, governed by greed and by vision > no innovation because of that
education system very individual > doesn't make sense anymore

fashion system > a few conglomerates 97% of global economic profit
everything that is connected with fashion (vertical: clothes perfume accessoires)
fast fashion companies like inditex and h&m > idea of cutting the costs does help, unprecedented speed possible

fashion one of the first ones to be mechanized, but one of the last ones to be robotized
uniqlo cut 90% of the human staff in the distribution centre? or somewhere else

a t shirt every 22 seconds (chinese company)
is this the innovation we want?

union of concerned researchers (ucrs)

# growth logic is at the root cause of the fashion-sustainability problematic

linda gross
kate fletcher

(most favored)
prevention 
minimization 
reuse 
recycle 
energy 
recovery 
incineration 
disposal 
(least favored)

we need to understand that it's important to lower the level of consumption
>>> makerspaces for on-demand production

easier than ever to turn digital into physical 

openness and collaboration
>>> empowerment (knowledge sharing) and fragmentation (loss of reference points)
- accessibility of knowledge, 
technology and resources; 
transparency of action; 
permeability of organisational structures; 
inclusiveness of participation 
(like hacker ethics)

opposite of closed systems, authority

# 5 rules of open content (david wiley)
Retain 
Reuse
Revise
Remix
Redistribute

if you can't open it, you don't own it
>>> new tools and magazines and spaces (maker movement)
maker's bill of rights by make: and 2018 edition by critical making

## programmed obsolescence >>> planning/designing artificially limited lifetimes
fashion: garment that is unfashionable/old
tech: device no longer functional
strategy for more sales in the future

## intellectual property
not much protection because it's intrinsically utilitarian
fashion companies use trademarks on logos sometimes to protect themselves (and use it on a print so they cannot be copied like that) (check this slide)

fashion does not have a culture of openness, rather it is based on secrecy and authority (born in historical context of medieval urbanism >> guilds not sharing knowledge)

open design is a design artifact project, see the book
www.opendesignnow.org READ ONLINE

# alternative models?

"the next big thing will be a lot of small things"
OpenStructures is an exploration on open modular construction where anyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared grid

interchangeable objects that allow infinite adaption and repair

what type of innovation do I want to see?
What are your values? How can we make society more sustainable?

new tools for new garments, new production >>> 3d printed leather stamps
how robots can be used to knit/weave/etc
##!!!crafting fashion with robots!!!

open source footwear AotherShoe by Sophia Guggenberger and Eugenia Morpugo

DIY (from scratch, software and hardware, freemium)
make-it-yourself approach (selling the kit 1, open software, make in makerspace)
assemble-yourself approach (selling the kit 2, precut materials etc)
just buying end product

opencouture, PostCouture >>> similar to what I want to do

zero waste fashion design (timo rissanen, holly mcquillan)
reach a zero waste pattern > requires different kind of communication within a company, talking together, fashion designer with cutter with tailor with manufacturer etc

Make/use: OS system https://makeuse.nz/make/

move from product to platform/community (agile fashion)

##Questions
how to change desire (what the people want/think they want) in fashion?
>>> new type of desire can be build 
tell the story
how to produce it, the transparency of the production
openness 
different way to approach fashion
open code of design > out of 10 persons that will desire it, maybe 1 or 2 will make it, they're like your ambassadors
making closer knit communities in cities/places

how can slow fashion compete with fast fashion?
not neccessary, it's about changing the narrative and the focus
it is just not possible to compete, it is another option, it is not doing what the big companies do but smaller, the perspective has to completely change
how you can create a different kind of relationship with customers (last slide of presentation)

# Modular fashion
approach to the production using vector graphic design of bidimensional lasercut modules
interlocked to create complex 3d seamless geometries
we will use soft materials
tesselation and geometry > inifite patterns without overlapping or gaps (beehives, escher)

## examples
takeiro ando
nasia burnet
mary ann williams
matjia cop
eunsuk hur (nice documentation as well)
de greta https://degretaparamundo.wordpress.com/category/manualidades/

## assignment
design a module, do a lot of testing, lasercut and create a final piece with this material

start basic and 2D, understand how interlocking works (paper works best)
small changes > see what happens, different approaches > show that you have been exploring
1 boolean operations (- + etc) to draw clean complex irregular shapes
2 laser erodes material
3 thickness of material should be considered
4 play with colors

https://oscircularfashion.com/

YOU CAN DISASSEMBLE IT AND USE THE MODULES FOR ANOTHER PROJECT OR GARMENT!!!!!
or make it larger/smaller etc

communicate the end of the piece: cuffs and hems
spacer: foam with fabric glued on top
scuba knit: no glue it's the way it's knitted