Stories and clothes: Exploring textile supply chains for sustainable futures

Abstract

Abstract This article explores a method for engaging students with ethical and sustainable issues within the textile design supply chain through encouraging them to explore the stories embodied within a garment. By putting themselves into the story of their garment, its production is conceptualized as a narrative, with a range of roles, timelines and locations. Exploring stories within their garment illuminates both positive and negative narratives, whereby the impacts of production methods are explored to examine current practice in industry, manufacturing, and investigate innovative models for responsible design. Through a process of reverse engineering the garment from its completed form backward through its creation, back to its base fibres, alternative models of manufacturing, distribution, energy use and design outcomes are explored and suggested. Conceptualizing each stage of the production cycle as a series of stories, from initial fibre selection through to final garment purchase and consumption, is done to encourage empathy and connections between the student designer and the people who produced their garment within the complex global textiles supply chain.