Holes under your arms and clothes in the printer

What can the past teach us? What are your visions for sustainable fashion and textile design? And how can designers create sustainability here and now?

At the exhibition Design for Change at Textilforum in Herning, 35 Danish and international students from Design School Kolding try to answer these questions and many more.

Holes under your arms to prevent sweaty clothes or a clothing printer of sorts that transforms old clothes into new customized items – these are a few of the designers’ suggestions for the wardrobe of the future.

- Designers can help create a sustainable future that still allows fashion to play a major role also in terms of socioeconomics, says Vibeke Riisberg, Associate Professor at Design School Kolding.

The exhibition also sheds light on the business models, ideals, values and new types of consumer patterns that we might expect to see in future. The students have explored the roles of users, traditions, craftsmanship, new materials and technologies in relation to a sustainable transition. Their focus has been to prolong the life of clothes since consumer patterns is a major factor in terms of negative environmental impact.

- Each group of students have decided on their own their definition of ‘the future’. It might be a near future where their solutions helps ensure the transition to a new and sustainable fashion system, or more speculative suggestions that build on e.g. new technologies, says Vibeke Riisberg.

The exhibition Design for Change – suggestions for sustainable clothes of the future opens on 29 October at 3 PM and closes at Christmas. Rector of Design School Kolding Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen will give the opening speech.