Considerate Design for Personalised Knitwear

Considerate Design is a concept and process developed in the project Considerate Design for Personalised Fashion Products, within the AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century scheme, led by Prof Sandy Black at LCF, in collaboration with Dr Claudia Eckert of the Open University and researchers at London College of Fashion (Philip Delamore, Dr Frances Geesin and Dr Penelope Watkins). The project developed three case studies to investigate the Considerate Design concept and model new production processes incorporating advanced technologies. The ‘Knit to Fit’ comparative case study combined the expertise of knitwear design and technology (Sandy Black) and stretch pattern profiling (Penelope Watkins) and utilised body scan data interpreted within an industrial knitting context.

Considerate Design makes new relationships between a) sustainability, b) personalisation of fashion and c) costs of design and production of personalised items. A business model where production is ‘on demand’ rather than speculative, tailored to individual preferences and measurements, has the potential to be more sustainable by reducing overproduction and its consequent waste. Giving greater comfort and satisfaction from a personalised, better fitting garment enhances well-being and has the potential to reduce overall consumption by meeting customer needs more specifically than mass production. The Knit to Fit project investigated how far seamless three-dimensional knitting technology could achieve this model, by designing sweaters customisable to individual measurements and preferences using seamfree production on Stoll ‘Knit and Wear’ technology, and comparing fully fashioned production methods. This paper presents initial findings.