Circular Speeds: towards a new understanding of designing for fashion textile rhythms

During the first phase of the Mistra Future Fashion project researchers from the University of the Arts London identified a gap in knowledge. Although ‘lifecycle thinking’ has become a widely adopted and tested approach in academic and industry contexts, the dimension of ‘time’ or ‘speed’ was not fully resolved as a factor within existing guidelines for design. Thus ‘speed of cycle’ became the focus of the research as it moved into phase two. This paper represents the results of an academic review of the literature conducted during 2015-2016 in order to better understand the challenges this may bring to design and to prepare for an action research phase, including workshops held with participants in the UK, Sweden and USA, as well as the development of design research prototypes.