Design Roots provides a comprehensive review of culturally significant designs, products and practices which are rooted to particular communities through making tradition and a sense of place. Many rich traditional practices associated with community, tacit knowledge and culture are being rapidly lost due to globalisation and urbanisation. Yet they have much to offer for the future in terms of sustainability, identity, wellbeing and new opportunities in design. This book considers the creative roots, the place-based ecologies, and deep understandings of cultural significance, not only in terms of history and tradition but also in terms of locale, social interactions, innovation, and change for the sustainment of culturally significant material productions. Importantly, these are not locked in time by sentimentality and nostalgia but are evolving, innovative, and adaptive to new technologies and changing circumstances. Contributing authors explore the historical roots of culturally significant designs, products and practices, emerging directions, amateur endeavours, enterprise models, business opportunities and the changing role and contribution of design in the creation of material cultures of significance, meaning and value. An international perspective is provided through case studies and research from North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia, with examples including Aran jumper production in Northern Ireland, weaving in Thailand, Iranian housing design, Brazilian street design and digital crafting in the United Kingdom.

Design Roots provides a comprehensive review of culturally significant designs, products and practices which are rooted to particular communities through making tradition and a sense of place. Many rich traditional practices associated with community, tacit knowledge and culture are being rapidly lost due to globalization and urbanization. Yet they have much to offer for the future in terms of sustainability, identity, wellbeing and new opportunities in design. This book considers the creative roots, the place-based ecologies, and deep understandings of cultural significance, not only in terms of history and tradition but also in terms of locale, social interactions, innovation, and change for the sustainment of culturally significant material productions. Importantly, these are not locked in time by sentimentality and nostalgia but are evolving, innovative, and adaptive to new technologies and changing circumstances. Contributing authors explore the historical roots of culturally significant designs, products and practices, emerging directions, amateur endeavours, enterprise models, business opportunities and the changing role and contribution of design in the creation of material cultures of significance, meaning and value. An international perspective is provided through case studies and research from North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia, with examples including Aran jumper production in Northern Ireland, weaving in Thailand, Iranian housing design, Brazilian street design and digital crafting in the United Kingdom.

For centuries, the fashion industry has struggled to reconcile style with sustainability. In Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, you will be transported back in time to discover the historical dimensions of today's sustainable fashion movement. An array of success stories and cautionary tales provide both inspiration and warnings for the eco-conscious designer, encouraging an innovative approach that builds on predecessors' discoveries to move the practice of fashion forward. The 1st edition, Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future, emerged from the Museum at FIT's groundbreaking exhibition 'Eco-Fashion: Going Green'. This revised edition broadens perspectives even further, incorporating eye-opening examples of designers, brands and activists working for change across the world today. Likewise, a new chapter examines the globalized mainstream fashion system and historical alternatives that provide compelling inspiration for reimagining the status quo. Fascinating and timely, Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion examines progressive fashion through a historical lens, encouraging readers to question the state of the industry and demonstrating the value of historical insights in enabling and inspiring change.

A dynamic resurgence in sewing and knitting is under way, with many people enjoying making and mending their own garments at home. However, stories abound of homemade clothes languishing at the back of the wardrobe. Amy Twigger Holroyd draws on ideas of fashion, culture and craft to explore makers' lived experiences of creating and wearing homemade clothes in a society dominated by shop-bought garments. Using the innovative metaphor of fashion as common land, Folk Fashion investigates the complex relationship between making, well-being and sustainability. Twigger Holroyd combines her own experience as a designer and knitter with first-hand accounts from folk fashion makers to explore this fascinating, yet under-examined, area of contemporary fashion culture. Looking to the future, she also considers how sewers and knitters might maximise the radical potential of their activities.