Abstract:

There is a discussion about the impact of the fashion industry in the environment and how the relevant players can act to mitigate its impacts. Universities can have an important role to prepare future designers and engineers to the Fashion Industry according new principles focused in sustainable design, circular economy, clean production processes and recycling (upcycling and downcycling) of final products before go to landfill. Cradle to Cradle, written by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, discussed many concepts and approaches to deal with this tasks. Also the Ellen MacArthur Foundation wants to inspire a generation to re-think, re-design and build a positive future circular economy. The circular economy of fashion products requires a new consumer, a citizen “Homo Sustentabilis”, that think in all his actions to preserve the maximum as possible the environment to the future generations.

The curricula of the different courses in Fashion Design needs to be upgraded continuously to tackle with this new challenges. Project design methods can be defined to the Curricular Units of bachelor students in fashion degrees, including approaches to sustainability and circular economy as possible outcomes. Upcycling and downcycling are the topics that this paper will discuss and present. The experimental process developed by the authors includes the design process of fashion denim disposed by the consumers at the end-of-life. This textile material (denim) has many possibilities to the designers and can be used as raw material to other industries and fields.

At different levels, this research can incorporate knowledge in recycling process of this material to the textile and clothing industry, can promote the use of this textile products in other fields (new modern urban architecture incorporating denim fabrics and accessories) and can develop other categories of products by moulding polymers with denim fabric inside the polymeric matrix.

The linkage between the project design process and the industry will be highlighted by the future collaboration in the training of new designers in a learning-by-doing process with the university labs and textile factories. Innovation processes in this particular fields can benefit from a close action and cooperation between the main players of the Portuguese textile and clothing cluster. New fashion designers will be ready to face this demanding from the “green consumers” in a better way if they can apply and test their creativity and design process in action.

Keywords:

Project design, upcycling, fashion industry, bachelor degree, circular economy, curricula.