The Client Background
Transit Design was set up by Ms. Padmaja Krishnan in 2005 as a textile laboratory in Mumbai. Transit Design creates clothing that is considered 'non-conformative', 'contemporary' as well as 'original'. With a design philosophy that respects the traditional and emphasizes a contemporary outlook on the manner in which waste is treated, this studio creates textiles that are not just aesthetically elegant but also thought provoking; a mix of the present and the future.
The Project Brief
This project involves creating a collection of garments/accessories for the client, Padmaja Krishnan, at Transit Design in Mumbai, using scraps and surplus fabric from her studio using techniques of fabric manipulation in order to create unique, meaningful, witty and enduring surfaces, with an emphasis on the concept of zero-waste.
Background
This project stemmed from my experience of working with waste material and exploring ways to create varying and interesting surfaces by heat-sets, binding, tearing, crushing and folding. The methods and textures that form through surface manipulation can create meaning and can build a platform through which the material can communicate, evoke and stimulate. The project will explore new ways to give textures to cloth that can transform the way they are perceived.
Another area that the project will explore is of creating using material that is considered waste. The waste that is generated at the studio will be approached with an understanding of what up cycling means and how it can be transformed in a fashion context. For instance, William Mc,Donaugh and Michael Braught, in their book, ‘Cradle to Cradle : Remaking The Way We Make Things’, state that there is a need to transform the human industry through ecologically intelligent design. They define the term ‘up-cycle’ as the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.
This project evolved from the need in today’s context to design responsibly, keeping in mind the resources used, energy utilized and the waste generated that is required in creating a product or service. This project aims at redefining ‘waste’ generated from one such studio, Transit Design and to explore the ways in which scrap cloth can be utilized.
Research
I propose to explore this medium of textiles through understanding how cloth can transform and morph once manipulated, into identities that protect, show-off and conceal a person’s character. This concept will explore the interaction that exists between the user and a piece of cloth and how as a result of this interaction it can create, modify, characterize and falsify ones disposition. Narratives that focus on these human conditions can inspire a collection of fabric that surprise, interest and question. This concept will feed off of research done through exploring the client base at Transit Design, to understand the modern need, the customer and the culture. The final collection will have the potential to be transformed into one that resonates with a larger client base.
Research Questions
- How can personas be translated onto cloth so as to resonate with the user?
+ How versatile can cloth appear on the body – merely as aesthetically pleasing or as communicative or both?
+ How much does what we wear have to do with our identity? Is it susceptible to change?
- What are the kinds of narratives that can explain a person?
+ Is it to do with our thinking, our everyday lives or what we want to be perceived as?
- How is the concept of upcycling waste perceived in today’s context?
- What have other textile artists achieved in this area? Examples of their work.
Approach & Process
- Understanding the client base/users through questionnaires, interviews & observations.
- Building narratives and personas through the above method (using photography, writing as other tools.)
- Analyze, study and explore the concept of ‘tucks’ in sewing.
- Explorations and sample creation.
- Applying the final explorations to garments/accessories (designs provided by the client, subject to suggestions/changes from internee)
Materials & Resources
- The Transit Design studio:
Library (for books related to fabric manipulation and already existing samples/ projects of the company)
Studio space (for exploration, creation of products)
Resources (scrap and surplus material sourced from the studio itself)
- Nuno Books , View Magazines
- Blogs (on upcycling, surface texturing, manipulation and the technique of tucking)
Learning Outcomes
- Understanding the concept of zero-waste in the production of textiles.
- Understanding how upcycling could change the way we use resources.
- Learn how to manipulate fabric through various methods of exploration.
- Learn how to texture surfaces according to the concept drawn out.
- Learn how to push the creative boundaries of a client brief to achieve the best outcome.
- Understand what it means as a designer to create within the industry keeping in mind the limitations, the challenges and the personal / client design sensibilities
References
- Books:
McDonough,W. Braungart,M.
‘Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things’
North Point Press (2002)
Nuno Corporation Books
‘Bora Bora’
AT BEAM Ink
- Blogs:
Definitions of Upcycling Term