​​Co-creating sustainable fashion: a participatory approach for involving users in the design process

Abstract

The fashion industry is dominated by the mass-market sector, characterised by extremely short production times, low manufacturing costs and high volumes of garments driven by short-lived trends. In this process, the profits are prioritised over users’ needs, while the negative effects of overproduction are overlooked. 

Despite raising awareness of fashion production’s detrimental consequences, the design process often remains a mystery and there has been little research on including co-design approaches into it. Can involving users in the design process contribute to a behaviour change towards more sustainable fashion consumption?

This paper adopts a research-through-design approach to bridge the gap between co-design and fashion. Drawing from design for behaviour change, we strive to redefine the concept of prosperity from a profit- and trend-motivated to focusing on the needs of the users through inviting them to participate in the design process.

We propose a five-step framework for a collaboration between fashion professionals and users. The framework elements - brand research, understanding the user, defining function, building identity, and user test - facilitate an exchange of perspectives and encourage participants to become researchers of their relationship with clothing. The findings of this research invite designers and researchers to further explore this emerging field.