The White Project - Zero Waste Design for Fashion

Traditionally zero waste garments would have been the standard – the first items of clothing worn would have been an animal skin or a piece of woven material, draped, folded or tied to fit the body (for example – a peplos, sari or kilt). Fabric would be cut in squares, rectangles or simple shapes. Garments could be assembled and disassembled, and reused or mended (for example a kimono, a fisherman’s trouser). Resources were scarce and valuable. Very little would be thrown away.

This sense of the value of materials continued into the mid the 20th Century. Things changed dramatically after that, and the fashion industry currently produces staggering amounts of waste. This project aims to address some of these issues.

You will be asked to research the concept of zero waste, considering the following issues currently being debated – sustainability, responsibility, ethics, the environment – and to formulate a personal body of research leading to practice-based explorations to test and consider the 2-D and 3-D options that these important issues offer fashion and textile designers.

White Tyvek will be used by all students to eliminate the distraction of colour or print; and to enable you to explore your ambition and creativity through technique, cut and form. You will be shown a variety of relevant techniques and working methods to add to your own personal investigations. You will need to consider how you can work with your design research as you begin to test and explore your ideas. Your final design outcome must be zero-waste.

Course leader

Delia Crowe

Target group

This course is open to anyone aged 18+

Course aim

• Explore individual approaches to two and three dimensional fashion design
• Enable you to situate and debate your ideas and work within relevant critical contexts
• Test and examine conceptual and practical methodologies for design to support your practice

Credits info

15 EC
This course is equivalent to 15 Southampton credits (7.5 ECTS, 3-4 US Semester Hours), but is not officially credited. All students must speak with their home university if they wish to take this course for credit transfer purposes.

Fee info

GBP 2250: Tuition fee, includes application fee, 3-weeks of tuition, any field trip related to the course, full social programme, Southampton bus pass and a University of Southampton hoodie
GBP 1245: Optional accommodation fee, includes 3-weeks accommodation in University of Southampton Halls of Residence, with breakfast everyday and dinner from Monday - Friday.