Package+Body

Abstract: To explore the potential of packaging design structures in menswear. While packaging design and fashion design are two distinctively different fields,their methodologies are distinctively similar.To compare packaging and garment design is therefore to compare their development process and purpose in terms of structure, material, color and print, as well as aspects concerning production and marketing. Both fields aim to create designs that are functional as well as aesthetically pleasing within their particular context; the fundamental contextual difference being that packaging is conceived for a product and garments conceived for a body. Focusing on structure, both packaging and fashion design may use product templates to facilitate mass production. In fashion design these templates are called construction patterns; in packaging design templates are called packaging nets or development nets. Both construction patterns and packaging nets are 2-d structures that gain a three dimensional form according to a construction system, e.g. constructing a box from a flat element using folding techniques. For this bachelor degree work the aim is to explore the potential of packaging design structures in menswear. The result is a lineup of outfits generated by the adoption of packaging nets as construction patterns for garments. Since the outfits are created using packaging design principles and methods, they challenge the contextual distinction both between garment and packaging, and between body and product. By considering garments as packaging for the body, the collection blurs the line between fashion design and packaging design. I believe that the intersection of these two branches of design allows us not only to discover new forms of expression and construction, but also to gain a new perspective on fashion design practice. In addition to structural properties, by also considering the graphic aspect of packaging design, this collection highlights the importance of product differentiation and thus serves as a starting point for future fashion experiments with product branding.