Abstracts Education

"Kolmas kierros" : tutkimus kierrätysmateriaalin käytöstä osallistavassa vaatesuunnittelussa: ”The third round” : Participatory design study of apparel design with recycled material

by Saala Lehtisaari-Pousar

The purpose of this user-centered design-based research was to redesign wedding dress, which was made of recycled bedlinen and use leftover linen fabric to redesign upcycled clothes by participatory designing methods. The study approaches the apparel design challenge with Lamb and Kallal (1992) design framework, which was developed to consider the consumer’s needs. The Functional, Expressive, and Aesthetics (FEA) framework was developed to provide an overall conceptual frame for designing any type of apparel. The study explores Niinimäki and Koskinen (2011) article how an emphatic design approach could improve a sustainable design process. Also, sustainable development, slow fashion, and significance of material choices were important aspects of this study. Previous studies have addressed the impact of apparel design with special needs, but not consider redesigning upcycled clothes with recycled material, which has restrictions of fabric quantity. The research questions were ”which are the users wishes, needs and expectations for wedding dress redesign” and “which are user-based design criteria of functional, expressive and aesthetic needs” and also “does the custom made upcycled clothes meet the design criteria by user-centered experience”. User was interviewed three times. Based on the user data collection qualitative content analysis gathered the essential issues. Themes were to identify user profile and user needs for the upcycled clothes. Participatory design process includes Mattelmäki (2006) design probes, user’s picture collages of her favorite clothes, sketches, and prototypes. Conclusion of the study was how much the user appreciates the co-making process and the opportunity to change people’s values and attitudes towards slow fashion. Also, user’s expectations were fulfilled by upcycled clothes. Custom made clothes suite her well and memories were included by satisfaction. User’s idea of layering clothes offered more variety of using the upcycled linen clothes all year round.