Louise Ravnløkke

Design School Kolding · Faculty for Education and Research

This PhD thesis – Design of Knitted Jumpers for Longevity: Knitted Prototypes as a Tool for User Dialogue in the Design Process – examines ways in which the textile designer can contribute to sustainable solutions that can help extend the life of knitted jumpers. The project addresses challenges in the textile and clothing industry related to susta...

To comply with the recently enacted EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation, the fashion sector must orientate towards innovative methodologies to develop circularity and longevity business models, production methods, and value chains to a greater extent. This paper discusses design for longevity and how fashion and textile designers can su...

This article explores how designers in textiles and clothing can use their skills in materials and aesthetics to change perceptions of garments when they show signs of wear. Beyond prolonging clothing lifespan, garment repair can serve as a bottom-up approach to alter clothing culture through innovative creativity. With this article, I substantiate...

Creative engagements with mending may cultivate change in how garments are perceived when breakage, time, and life appear as signs of wearing. Garment mending as a care and maintenance practice does not solely have the potential of extending clothing lifespan. Mending can also be seen as a bottom-up approach to altering a clothing culture through c...

This article contributes to the discussion about how theoretical perspectives on change in the fashion system can be translated into practice. The discussion is raised based on experimental and practice-based research on how designers can engage with users to gain insights on material and aesthetic experiences in about use. The presented research i...

Classic design virtues such as empathy and user centricity are challenged by climate change, ecological fragility, and an increasing focus on the limitations of human-centred design approaches in more-than-human worlds. In a world affected by scarcer resources yet defined by increasing overconsumption that pushes “us” fast towards meeting and cross...

For designers and design researchers, the ecological crisis and the quest for sustainability do not only mean a reorientation in what design provides in terms of products, services, and systems. It also demands a change in how design is done, acknowledging that sustainable design and use have to co-evolve through speculative dialogues addressing a...

This collection of cards introduces a range of methods that fashion designers can use to begin to understand their users which in turn can help them make better circular design choices. The cards have been developed as part of the ReSuit project for fashion designers situated in the industry. However, we hope they will be used and adapted by anybo...

This article introduces the term Aesthetic Surgery as a strategy for the designer to contribute to circular economy. Our aim is to discuss this strategy as a way for designers to employ their core competencies to create and innovate the potential of irrelevant materials (waste) through aesthetic means and a material-driven design process. We argue...

This workshop explores mending practices as a personal and domestic response to the overwhelming problems of fast consumption and waste within the fashion industry. Participants are asked to bring one garment, which has holes, tears, stains, or other kinds of damages, and to co-explore domestic mending in fashion with other attenders and researcher...

In this working paper we discuss the role of Tangible Dialogue Tools (TDT) as mediating objects. We define TDT as a design research approach combining tangible means with semi-structured interviews. As such TDT are not only tools or techniques for design or design research. Rather they imply an action, namely a dialogue, based on a physical object....

This paper is based on a pilot study of six parents’ preferences for baby clothing and their experience of value. We investigate ways in which design aesthetics, material and the senses have an impact on high use frequency aiming to understand longevity as a parameter for sustainability in textiles and clothing. We take as a starting point that lon...

Recent sustainable initiatives in fashion companies are framing design practices that challenge the traditional role of clothing designers. This preliminary study aims to open discussion on challenging traditional clothing design, through an exploration of the shared emotional values between user and designers, when designing for longevity.