Fashion Design for Living

Book excerpt: Fashion Design for Living explores the positive contribution that the contemporary fashion designer can make within society. The book seeks to reveal new ways of designing and making fashion garments and products that not only enhance and enrich our lives, but also are mindful of social and sustainable issues. This book sets out to question and challenge the dominant, conventional process of fashion design that as a practice has been under-researched. While the fashion designer in industry is primarily concerned with the creation of the new seasonal collection, designed, produced and measured by economically driven factors, society increasingly expects the designer to make a positive contribution to our social, environmental and cultural life. Consequently an emergent set of designers and research-based practitioners are beginning to explore new ways to think about fashion designing. The contributors within this book argue that fashion designing should move beyond developing garments that are just aesthetically pleasing or inexpensive, but also begin to consider and respond to the wearer's experiences, wellbeing, problems, desires and situations, and their engagement with and use of a garment. Fashion Design for Living champions new approaches to fashion practice by uncovering a rich and diverse set of views and reflective experiences which explore the changing role of the fashion designer and inspire fresh, innovative and creative responses to fashion and the world we live in.