Why Waste? : Exploring the potential of waste as a new material and method for fashion design.

Abstract: This research explores the scope of waste as a material and methods for fashion design, drawing together an open mindset and sustainable actions for a menswear collection. Reflective Design Practice is the overlaying methodology used to incorporate a wide variety of textile manipulations and materials. The research approach is to source waste materials, with a focus on virgin yarns for knitwear, exploring and identifying the possibilities for individual elements and analyzing through a photographic lineup, repeating for further development. This emergency, as well as a focus on perfect solutions from the offset, can be a barrier for experimentation. Therefore a change in posture and mindset is necessary. For this thesis, posture, motive, and aesthetic design decisions are embodied in a persona - This persona, delicate, yet rough and in a hurry, as with sustainability, are combined into the Lazy Romantic. Speculatively this research has the potential to open up for landfills as material sourcing for fashion design or landfills being unnecessary as the word waste is no longer defining the material.