Abstract:

The ongoing transformation of the fashion industry towards more sustainable models is not merely a technical or economic challenge; it is, fundamentally, a cultural challenge, as it requires a shift in perception, values and how designers learn to interpret the world before proposing interventions within it. In this sense, design education carries a specific responsibility: to cultivate not only design skills, but also the ability to observe, interpret and translate complex realities into meaningful and responsible design directions.

Within this framework, the Fashion Retail Experience course at the Design School of the Politecnico di Milano (Master’s Degree in Design for the Fashion System, 2024/2025) has developed a pedagogical approach in which sustainability has been integrated as a generative lens from the earliest stages of the design process, treating it as a dimension that shapes the very act of researching and understanding the contemporary fashion landscape, rather than a mere design constraint.

The first stage of the project invited students to investigate five interconnected dimensions of research (People, Knowledge, Time, Signs and Occasions) through a deliberately multimodal methodology, combining field research, interviews, photography, object collection and theoretical inquiry. The outcomes of this research were not translated into conventional presentations or reports, but into material and sensory boards: physical artefacts in which textures, found objects, images and materials coexist to evoke, rather than simply describe, what had been discovered. A sixth synthesis board then distilled an overall scenario, acting as a bridge between research and design. This approach is rooted in an embodied conception of research, in which the body and the senses are epistemic tools even before they are expressive ones: not means of communicating what is already known, but modes through which new knowledge becomes possible.

The hypothesis underlying this approach is that engaging students through sensory and material modes of knowledge production generates a qualitatively different understanding of complex issues. This is a more embodied, nuanced and, ultimately, more generative form of knowledge for design. The boards did not function as endpoints, but as living, ‘open’ references that directly informed the subsequent phase of developing concepts for sustainable retail services.

Starting from the role that material practice plays in design education, this paper reflects on the outcomes and implications of this experience, discussing how the shift from analytical to sensory research methods has influenced students’ design thinking and their ability to engage with sustainability as a cultural and experiential dimension of the project. This leads to broader reflections on the role of embodied knowledge in the training of the contemporary designer, who is called upon to tackle systemic challenges requiring new tools for reading and interpreting reality.

Keywords:

Embodied research, design education, fashion retail, sustainability, research-through-making, higher education.