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International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

• Open access
• Published: 28 October 2017

College student perceptions about the incorporation of cultural elements in fashion design

• Hui-Yun Yen 1 &
• Chiu-I Hsu 2  

Fashion and Textiles volume  4 , Article number:  20 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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The cultural and creative industries have received considerable global attention in recent years; in particular, the close relationship between these industries and design has been identified. Because mysterious and attractive East Asian aesthetic are a crucial contemporary style, this study examined a fashion exhibition held in the New York Metropolitan Museum, which entitled “China: Through the Looking Glass” and conducted a literature review, scale design, survey and data analysis, and factor analysis about the incorporation of cultural elements in fashion design. Subsequently, the perceptions of college students with various educational backgrounds on several selected exhibits were identified and analyzed. The results were revealed that: (1) the research scale can be used as a reference for related design teaching and in the appraisal of fashion products in the design industry; (2) cultural connotations are more notable in design than the technical aspects; (3) compared with students of other backgrounds, students with a background in fashion design emphasized more on the technical and professional aspects and expressed a preference for design pieces with experimental qualities, such as those made with stiff materials and having exaggerated styles, and neutral and neat straight lines.

Introduction

The origins of modern design lie in Renaissance art and succeeding eras such as European aestheticism in the nineteenth century; however, modern design was not clearly defined and adequately developed until the Bauhaus school in the twentieth century (Bony 2008 ). After this substantial period of accumulation, “design” is a broad field with a rich diversity of styles. From a domain perspective, fashion design is an essential aspect, and clothing is the first item which most people would associate fashion with. Personal clothing styles directly affect appraisals of fashion (Yen et al. 2015 ). The contemporary concept of “fashion” used to be referred to simply as popular trends of clothing. The fashion dictionary defines fashion as the “clothing styles, colors, or patterns accepted by the majority of people at a particular time and place” (Yen et al. 2014a , b ). One style that has been difficult to ignore in recent years is the “East Asian aesthetic” trend that has spontaneously swept the world, including the eastern cultural elements that convey an aesthetic of mystery, depth, and fantasy. Of all eastern cultures, Chinese culture is one of the most prominent and representative. Contemporary designers using elements of China’s aesthetics draw not only from traditional clothing, but also from Chinese painting, calligraphy, and characters; furthermore, the rich history of Chinese culture and aesthetics that spans over thousands of years has ensured an expansive evolution of clothing. China’s rich historical inheritance, including intangible philosophical thoughts, meanings and forms of Chinese characters, poetry, and ancient cultural artifacts, has become indispensable elements of contemporary design; by incorporating these elements in product design, an emerging industry of aesthetic design based on the integration of culture and aesthetic economy is created (Chiu et al. 2013 ). Thus, this study examined the “China: Through the Looking Glass” fashion exhibition held at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art to explore the incorporation of cultural elements into fashion design. The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation scale for the integration of cultural elements into fashion design, which can be used as a reference for future design instruction, product evaluation, and relevant future studies.

Literature review

Fashion design in cultural and creative industries.

The cultural and creative industries facilitate the production of quality goods by supporting brand creation in the design industry; in which process, culture, fine art, and creativity are incorporated. In short, the cultural and creative industries produce creative design products on the basis of rich cultural heritage and artistic styles, prompting consumers to approve the brands as well as the content of quality products. Therefore, consumers are likely to purchase the goods because of the emotional resonance they experience (Wu 2007 ). The development of fashion is aligned with mainstream social developments, and represents a refined and innovative lifestyle, rather than the simple pursuit of luxury (Lin et al. 2012 ). The use of culture to establish market differentiation is an advantage that traditional industries can adopt; of all traditional industries, fashion industry is the most appropriate one to facilitate the development of fashionable lifestyles to satisfy public need of cultural consumption. For example, Taiwan is a multicultural and multiethnic country suitable for producing innovative and creative products. Effective integration of diversified local cultural characteristics into clothing styles facilitates developing new design elements on the basis of existing cultural inheritance. Chen and Chen ( 2011 ) pointed out, this practice improves design styles through innovation, assists with the development of the fashion industry by finding new opportunities, and increases the added-value of products.

Cultural elements incorporated in design

The most notable difference between cultural products and other products is cultural connotation. Specifically, cultural products draw upon various cultural elements as their creative source and facilitate the interpretation of distinctive meanings or appreciation of the culture. Furthermore, cultural and creative products are mass-produced commodities, rather than luxury goods (Yeh 2006 ). Cultural and creative products that improve lifestyle through product design are products that have cultural meaning; designers infuse cultural, historical, and ethnic elements into their products to increase product value. Furthermore, consumers are able to reacquaint themselves with historical or lifestyle culture through these products, while simultaneously being involved in the passing-down of culture. The emphasis of cultural values and local features has already become a key aspect of the product development process (Gobe 2009 ; Koike 1992 ; Yeh 2006 ; Hsu and Hsieh 2009 ).

When individuals experience positive emotions, both the left and right hemispheres of the brain are activated. Sensory and cognitive studies on psychological and physical sensations, and the subsequent quantification of sensory perceptions, have indicated that product designers must consider psychological and physiological sensations (Berridge 2003 ; Lin 2003 ). Ashby and Johnson ( 2003 ) have also proposed the theory of product personality, which suggests that products possess physiological (e.g., features that meets the primary purposed of the design, functions, and other features) and psychological (e.g., personality and usability) dimensions. Notably, personality includes product aesthetics, associations, and perception conditions, whereas usability concerns consumer interaction. Overall, products possess two layers of meaning: the practical layer manages function and performance, and the other layer manages symbols, identification and emotions. Herein, attractiveness, beauty, and creativity are psychology qualities of products, and delicacy and engineering are physiological qualities of products. If a product possesses both functional (physiological) qualities and emotionally appealing psychological qualities, this product can satisfy consumers in both functional and emotional dimensions; moreover, if a product possesses cultural connotations in addition to the qualities of attractiveness, beauty, creativity, delicacy, and engineering, it can also be referred to as a quality good (Pogrebin and Trebay 2015 ; Yen et al. 2012 , 2014a , b ).

Elements of fashion design

An analysis of fashion design elements is critical in the examination of clothing styles, including ideas and concepts, creativity, material, color, form and construction, techniques, human elements, accessories, elements, and time. The basic presentation elements of clothing are lines, material, and color, of which in-depth understanding and effective usage are required for creating superior designs (Huang 2015 ; Jung 2011 ). In addition to satisfying the material needs of consumers, clothing should also echo their psychological reactions. Furthermore, fashion trends can be viewed as the understanding and acceptance of certain ideas in a group; thus, clothing is not only a reflection of daily ideologies, but also a creative product that demonstrates cultural style. Because the creation of contemporary clothing design aesthetics must integrate function, design content, and technical considerations, a designer should aim to create products that satisfy the demands of functionality in the physiological dimension and the demands of aesthetically appealing shapes in the dimension of psychology, so that the products can not only meet basic demands of usability, but also remonstrate added values such as desire-fulfilling pleasant use experience (Fornell and Larcker 1981 ; Jung 2011 ).

The basic composition of clothing includes material, structure, form, and function. Material is the framework of a clothing system; specifically, it effects change in the structure and form of clothing. Certain materials can even be interacting with consumer senses directly and become a form of the product. Structure refers to the result of interconnection and mutually interaction between elements in the system, or the method of connection between diverse materials. Comprising color, line, and shape, form is the appearance of clothing developed on the basis of the combination of material and structure. Form can be considered a symbol or message. Finally, the function of clothing refers not only to an article’s usage function, but also to the value of interaction between individuals and clothing in social relationships (Verganti 2013 ). Thus, the composition of clothing can be divided into two levels: the formal and technical level, and the cultural connotation level. In design, cultural connotation is a basic element of clothing, whereas form and technique are elements that help convey cultural connotations (Cao 2011 ).

Research framework

This study was based on the results of a literature review, and included the qualia characteristics of cultural and creative products as the six dimensions; namely, the form, technique, and cultural connotation elements of clothing, as well as overall performance. This study used an imagery survey, data analysis, and result inferences to conduct a factor analysis about the incorporation of cultural elements in fashion design.

Sample costumes

A spring exhibition piece that was based on the concept of Chinese influences on western fashion was selected from the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in August ( 2015 ). Entitled “China: Through the Looking Glass,” the exhibition was identified by Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton, as an inauthentic representation of China that was based on fantasy rather than reality (Bai 2005 ; Nagamachi 2010 ). In addition to showcasing traditional artifacts, the exhibition employed contemporary technology to produce a fantastical style similar to the imagery of Alice in Wonderland. For example, it was filled with mirrors, and included various pieces of Chinese-styled clothing, accessories, and couture ranging from the fifteenth century to the present day (Lin 2007 ). Inauthentic and fantasy tendentious of this exhibition cause of many of the works in the exhibition were displayed in different forms. However, for the present study, seven pieces of clothing that were displayed separately were selected because they embodied the incorporation of cultural elements in clothing design. Notably, the designs in each exhibit were inspired by a particular physical antique artifact from Chinese culture, namely Chinese arched shoes, snuff bottles, female figurines, and bronze mirrors, vessels, pots, and bells. Each piece and its corresponding antique are shown in Table  1 .

Research instrument

This study conducted a literature review and data analysis of relevant studies, and used a research framework for the incorporation of cultural elements into fashion design as its basis. The evaluation items were then expanded and compiled by defining the evaluation dimensions and secondary questions; hence, an evaluation scale suitable for measuring creative and cultural fashion products was developed. The dimensions and evaluation questions are outlined in Table  2 .

Experimental design and data collection

This study had two stages of the investigation. Stage 1 were reliability analysis of measuring scales and exploratory analysis of factors. This stage involves a preliminary verification of the measuring scales used in this study. Stage 2 were proposed measurement model by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The authors conducted the confirmatory factor analysis by using SPSS and Amos of the Statistical Data Analysis software.

This study involved the fashion design survey through the cultural elements into fashion design questionnaire. College students in Taiwan with a basic understanding and familiarity with Chinese cultural artifacts and design were recruited for this study, and were recruited to participate in the survey through purposive sampling. This study was conducted during design-related classroom courses. The students were invited to participate as subjects and agreed to follow the experimental procedure. The purpose of the experiment was explained to the subjects and slides showing the 7 sample costumes was juxtaposed with a slide of their corresponding description and evaluation questions. Each subject completed the experiment within 20 min. A total of 194 individuals, comprising 86 students who were enrolled in fashion-related programs and 108 who were enrolled in design-related programs, of which 86% were female. The mean age of the sample was 21 years, completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire employed a 7-point Likert scale and consisted of 38 questions that retrieved basic personal information and students’ opinions regarding various dimensions of each fashion piece. Subsequently, a detailed review of the completed surveys was conducted, through which blank surveys or surveys with an excessive number of unanswered questions were excluded from subsequent analysis. In total, 192 valid surveys were returned.

Results and discussion

Survey reliability and validity analysis.

The scale used in this study comprised six dimensions: attractiveness, beauty, creativity, delicacy, engineering, and overall performance. Cronbach’s α reliability coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire on each of these dimensions. Overall, scale reliability was .98 (p < .001), and the content reliability of each dimension were all greater than .9 (p < .001); this indicated that each dimension and the questionnaire as whole were sufficiently reliable. Additionally, these results are consistent with (The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2015 ) proposal that scales with appropriate reliability should exhibit a reliability coefficient greater than .80 for the overall scale and reliability coefficients greater than .70 for each dimension. The assessment of the content validity of each dimension indicated that the factor loadings of all six dimensions fell between .72 and .97, which is consistent with (Chen and Wang 2011 ) recommendation that the standard values should be greater than .5. Moreover, the variance of each dimension was between 74 and 92%. Thus, the overall results met relevant standards, and demonstrated that this research instrument was feasible. The reliability and validity analysis results are summarized in Table  3 .

Analysis of correlation coefficients of the questionnaire on cultural elements incorporated into fashion design

The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between each dimension and the overall scale. The results indicated that a significant correlation existed between each dimension, and between each dimension and the overall scale. The correlation coefficient analysis results are presented in Table  4 .

Proposed measurement model

In this phase, the authors proposed measurement model of cultural elements into fashion design. The data of this study were subjected to delete the questions’ factor were less than .85 (base on Table  3 ), and to reduce the number of items as a scale to analyze fashion design. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to analyze five latent variables (attractiveness, beauty, creativity, delicacy and engineer) of the “cultural elements into fashion design scale.”

Through the adjustment of various dimensions of the model by the deletion of some questions, this study established 29 measurement variables for the five dimensions. The final model and model verification are shown in Fig.  1 . According to the structure of the tests used by Chen and Wang ( 2011 ) and Jung ( 2011 ), the model fit test results for this study showed that the indicators of this model were almost always at or close to an acceptable level. This indicated that the overall structure of this research as well as its theoretical structure had a good fit with the empirical data.

The model of cultural elements into fashion design

The overall model fit verification results showed that the ratio between the Chi square value and the degrees of freedom was between 1 and 5 (×2/df = 3.392) which was within the acceptable range. Other index values showed that they all complied or were close with the testing standards (RMR = .068 < .08; PGFI = .573 > .5; NFI = .9 = .9; RFI = .9 = .9; IFI = .905 > .9; NNFI (TLI) = .9 = .9; CFI = .905 > .9; PNFI = .798 > .5; PCFI = .829 > .5; RMSEA = .1). Overall, all index values in the model reached or were close to the acceptable levels. This showed that the model had a good fit in terms of the theoretical and empirical data structure.

Effects of different educational backgrounds

This study conducted an independent samples t test on each dimension of the survey for respondents of various educational backgrounds. The analysis of the results revealed that the respondents with fashion design backgrounds exhibited a higher average sample value compared with the respondents who had other design backgrounds. A Levene’s test for equality of variances was subsequently performed and determined no significant difference between the results generated from these two respondent groups in all dimensions (F = .077, .206, .002, .007, .633, .000; p > .05), indicating that there was no significant difference in the discreteness of the two respondent groups. This equal variance t test showed that the test results reached significance only in the engineering dimension. In short, the two respondent groups only exhibited notable diversity in their respective opinions on the engineering dimension; the two groups held consistent opinions towards the attractiveness, beauty, creativity, delicacy, and overall performance of the seven artifacts examined (Table  5 ).

To perform an additional analysis according to the preceding results, this study conducted another independent samples t test on all question of the survey. Results of this equal variance t test indicated that significance was achieved in only seven questions: A4 (attractiveness dimension); C5 and C6 (creativity dimension); E1, E2, and E4 (engineering dimension); and F1 (overall performance dimension). Similar to the previous t test, the engineering dimension exhibited the greatest variance. These results suggested that respondents with a background in fashion design tend to emphasize the technical and professional dimension, as well as different aspects of creativity, compared with those of other design groups. Furthermore, the majority of questions regarding beauty and delicacy exhibited virtually no difference between the two groups, signifying that the perceptions of the aesthetics and concrete structures of the products are consistent between the two groups. Table  6 shows the t test results of the survey questions.

Finally, this study used the average values of the F1, F2, and F3 questions (overall performance dimension) to conduct a third independent samples t test on the educational backgrounds of the participants. The results indicated that each question reached a level of significance for P5 and P6; in both cases, students with fashion design backgrounds indicated higher scores than did those of other design backgrounds, suggesting that these two pieces were more well-received by students with fashion design backgrounds. Further observation of these two pieces revealed a marked difference between them and the other five pieces, namely that they were design pieces that possessed greater experimental qualities and were thus less likely to be worn as actual clothing. The data analysis results for this final t test are as summarized in Table  7 .

This study reached the following results through conducting a questionnaire survey and associated validation analysis. The final conclusions are as presented below:

The reliability, validity, and correlation coefficient analysis results met the test standards, and The model of Confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) had a good fit in terms of the theoretical and empirical data structure. Therefore, the model for the incorporation of cultural elements in fashion design is feasible, and thus it can be used in related design instruction or the industrial appraisal of fashion design. From the overall model, attractiveness and beauty of fashion design of the most significant, and engineering is the followed factor to be considered.

Conclusions related to the comparison of participants with diverse educational backgrounds are described as follows:

The evaluation of factors that influence the incorporation of cultural elements into fashion design indicated that the students with an educational background in fashion design place greater importance on whether a fashion piece evokes memories of daily life, whether a fashion piece fits the needs of different users, and whether a fashion piece is multifunctional, practical, easy to wear, and provides ease of motion than the students with other design backgrounds. Furthermore, the fashion design students typically offered a more favorable opinion for the selected pieces compared with other design students, with the physiological engineering dimension exhibiting the greatest difference. Therefore, it is evident that fashion design students place greater emphasis on the technical and professional aspects of these pieces. Finally, fashion design students emphasized different aspects of creativity than those highlighters by other design students. However, for the aesthetic and delicacy dimensions, no significant difference was identified between the two groups, showing consistency in their opinions on the aesthetic and structural features of these fashion pieces.

According to the answers of the two respondent groups to questions F1, F2, and F3, only those of P5 and P6 exhibited significant between-group differences; specifically, these two pieces were highly regarded by design students. Further observation of P5 and P6 demonstrated that the most substantial difference between these two pieces and the other five was that they were the most unlikely to be worn in real life; as they featured stiff materials, exaggerated styles, and neutral and sharp lines, they had a greater degree of experimental, rather than practical, qualities.

The contemporary fashion scene has been swept by a trend of East Asian aesthetic; because “China: Through the Looking Glass” was presented as the theme of a Met Gala New York fashion event, Asian designers have rapidly emerged on the international stage (Hsu 2004 ). The long and rich history of Chinese culture is the greatest advantage of ethnic Chinese people. Creativity and beauty appeal to the psychological dimension of the consumers and are the key to design products that exhibit the added value of cultural connotations as well as satisfy the physiological needs. The conclusions of this study can be used as a reference for educational organizations and other design-related organizations. Furthermore, this study can be referred to for industry appraisals of fashion designs, which will assist firms in improving their cultural creativity and industry competitiveness.

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Authors’ contributions

Both authors work together in questionnaire distribution, and first author work in conception, implementation, write and apply the proposed methods in this paper then both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Yen, HY., Hsu, CI. College student perceptions about the incorporation of cultural elements in fashion design. Fash Text 4 , 20 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40691-017-0105-1

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Seaweed Fabrics for Fashion Design. A Field Research Experience

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The essay addresses the reasons why fashion design is manifesting an increasing interest in the marine environment as a context where to identify new materials for fashion, focusing on the particular case of seaweed. Through a field research, which involved MA fashion students at Università Iuav di Venezia, it is possible to demonstrate how an object such as seaweed fabric is not only a response to the need for new sustainable materials for fashion, but it is also interpretable through the framework of new materialism in a posthuman perspective. These fabrics, perceived as vibrant, represent a stimulus to redefine fashion design and its relations with environment, territories, people, and bodies. In the experimentation with seaweed, nature becomes raw material for constructing aesthetic and cultural imagery in a multispecies landscape.

• Fashion Design
• Seaweed Fabrics
• New Materialism
• Posthumanism
• Vibrant Matter

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1 introduction.

During the 21st century, the research of new materials for fashion is particularly active and has produced important results, thanks to increasing investments in research and development [ 1 , 80]. Among bio-fabricated textiles, seaweeds are gaining an increasingly prominent place, thanks in part to the development of textile technologies in the 1990s that analysed their properties and benefits for the body [ 2 ]. The paper analyses this phenomenon not only as an example of biotechnological innovation in the field of sustainability, but also as a producer of new imagery and activator of new dynamics in fashion design. Investigation filters are the theories on the new materialism that are spreading in fashion studies, also thanks to the contribution of Anneke Smelik, Professor of Visual Culture at the Radboud University Nijmegen and visiting professor 2022 at Università Iuav di Venezia on the proposal of Alessandra Vaccari. Footnote 1

2 New Materialism Within the Water

Placed in the philosophical horizon of posthumanism, which tries to overcome anthropocentrism and opens up the interconnections between human and non-human [ 3 ], the new materialism responds to the demands of a fashion in which the human is decentralised and related to plants, animals, and digital technologies. What posthumanism and the new materialism share is their effort to overcome dualisms. Consistently, posthuman fashion questions the notion of material agentivity [ 4 ], engaging with the increasingly performative role of the relationship between body and dress in the process of embodiment [ 5 ]. In this perspective, design practices mediate the experience of oneself and one’s surroundings in material and imaginative ways, transforming the interrelationships between individuals, the social environment, imaginaries and ecology. Mediators of this experience are precisely the materials, which become “vibrant” [ 6 ], living and intelligent matter.

One example of this is the recent experiments on the transformation of seaweed into fabrics and materials for fashion, the object of this contribution. It is worth emphasising that, unlike the traditional materials used in fashion whose imagery has over time become linked to fast fashion, intensive production and lack of sustainability, seaweeds are perceived as pristine. They are plants historically associated with an idea of well-being and health due to their extensive use in cosmetics. What is even more relevant is their relationship with water. Seaweed vegetates within (salt) water naturally, without human intervention and without requiring the consumption of fresh water during the plant's growth, thus overcoming one of the main critical issues in the relationship between fashion and this element. According to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in fact, the textile industry for fashion uses approximately 93 billion cubic metres of water each year, accounting for about 4% of global freshwater withdrawal [ 7 , 38]. Since the second half of the 20th century, the relationship between the textile industry and water has been marked by a growing awareness of its no longer sustainable impact on this resource, due to the need for irrigation in the cultivation of fibres, the use in operations to convert them into textiles, and the spillage of chemicals used during manufacturing processes into groundwater [ 8 ].

In recent years fashion design has been considering water not only as a resource to be safeguarded, but also as a natural environment capable of providing new materials, particularly seaweed, to be transformed into yarns and fabrics [ 9 ]. Actually, interest in seaweed was not born in the 21st century, but the first studies on the properties and potential of seaweed in manufacturing, including textiles, appeared in the second half of the 19th century, although they did not subsequently find significant development and application [ 10 ]. Commenting on the words of writer Margaret Gatty, author in 1863 of British Sea-Weeds , ecocriticism researcher Stephen E. Hunt observes that this fusion of sea and nature simultaneously creates a sense of familiarity and estrangement in the midst of other creatures [ 11 , 20 , 21 ]. Hunt's reflection helps to understand the motivations behind the current diffusion of seaweed-based materials in fashion and other design disciplines, which do not seem to be exclusively traceable to the search for innovative and sustainable materials. Indeed, as Chiara Scarpitti writes, the increasing cooperation between design and natural sciences is also due to the rise of independent design practices, which on an international level have translated the utopia of transdisciplinary dialogue into a reality [ 12 , 83].

Aquatic exploration in search of new wearable materials can be interpreted, on the one hand, as a metaphor for the “making kin” advocated by Donna Haraway [ 13 ], in the form of new alliances between biology, technology, design, and environment [ 14 , 15 ]; on the other hand, as an effect of the contamination typical of the multispecies landscape, in which each organism becomes itself only with the assistance of other species [ 16 ]. The body, mostly composed of water, metaphorically becomes the support on which the seaweed-based garments come to life. Seaweed thus becomes the raw material for making objects capable of defining new aesthetic and communicative imagery through tangible experiences.

3 A Workshop with Fashion Design Students

This contribution analyses the outcomes of a field research that involved from October 2021 to February 2022 first-year students of the Master's degree course in Fashion at Università Iuav di Venezia in the development of a project starting from seaweed fabrics.

The fabric was provided by Tabinotabi, partner in the research project and one of the first companies in Italy to introduce seaweed as a material for fashion. In 2018, founder Alessandra Defranza developed the idea of a fashion project in Venice to be made with new-generation fabrics. Her research, conducted in collaboration with a Tuscan textile company, initially explored different possibilities of non-traditional materials and finally the choice converged on seaweeds, also because of the imagery that links them to Venice and its lagoon [ 17 ]. The fabric is produced by Tabinotabi using SeaCell fibre, made by a German company incorporating brown seaweeds harvested in the Icelandic fjords, dehydrated and pulverised, into a natural cellulose fibre. The harvesting of this seaweed is certified as sustainable, as only the part that is able to regenerate is taken from the underwater plant. After harvesting, the seaweed is not processed, thus keeping all beneficial properties intact.

Tabinotabi is one of the brands that have been researching the possibilities of seaweed in fashion in recent years. AlgiKnit, for example, is an American start-up that makes strong yet biodegradable yarns with Kelp seaweed; the alginate from the seaweed is pulverised and turned into a water-based gel to which natural dyes are added and finally extruded into long filaments. Seaweed also plays a leading role in the technical clothing brand Vollebak, which has created a compostable t-shirt to be buried in the garden at the end of its life, where it biodegrades in 8–12 weeks depending on temperature and humidity. It is made of eucalyptus, beech pulp fibres and algae grown in laboratories inside bioreactors, in line with their approach of artificialising nature; the t-shirt is printed with green ink based on spirulina algae, a natural pigment that oxidises and fades with air, inviting one to care for it as if it were a living being. Care is also at the heart of the Biogarmentry non-woven fabric, designed by Roya Aghighi in collaboration with AMPEL Lab and Botany Lab at the University of British Columbia; born from the challenge of providing survival to photosynthetic cells of algal origin on fabrics made of natural fibres based on cellulose and proteins, these “living clothes” are activated by the sun and are an invitation to literally take care of one’s wardrobe.

As reported by Defranza, Footnote 2 the possibility of using seaweed from the Venice lagoon was experimented, trying to favour local resources and encourage a greater relationship with the territory. However, the results were not satisfactory, given the type of local seaweed that required excessive complexity during the production process and a low final quality of the yarn. Despite the fact that seaweed from Venice are currently not usable in the production of new-generation fabrics and it is necessary to use raw material from northern Europe, what is relevant for the purposes of this research is the material’s ability to generate new dynamics within the fashion design process. For this reason, it was decided to develop a field research, involving fashion design students, to observe their approach to seaweed fabrics, the influences on design methodologies and the relationships activated. In this contribution, therefore, seaweed fabrics are analysed not so much for their different sustainability compared to traditional materials, but for new dynamics that modify design and designers. Designers are observed in this investigation for their ability to redirect the present [ 18 ] through a practice that involves new materials.

As part of the Advanced Workshop of Fashion Techniques and Materials, of which I am lecturer, the students were asked to design a collection from seaweed-based fabrics. During the first meeting of the workshop, the 37 students were introduced to the fabric and some samples were shown, without referring to examples of material use in order to avoid any conditioning in the subsequent design activity. The students, who mostly did not know each other as they came from different BA degree courses, were asked to divide into 7 teams, trying to hybridise their different previous training experiences. No project brief was given, the only element was the fabric, with the request to design and realise a capsule collection that would enhance it.

Initially, there was a partial diffidence of the workshop participants, caused by two reasons. The first one is that the request to work in a team, with unknown people, contrasts with the need for the expression of individual creativity and design identity that is almost always found in students; this request, however, stemmed from the desire to encourage a collaborative approach, somehow experiencing the idea of making kin first hand, to cancel design methodologies consolidated in previous experiences, and start again from the material. The second one is related to the fact that seaweed fabric was initially brought back by the students to the category of sustainability, even though this term was not used in the project presentation: the concept of sustainability in fashion, in fact, often remains anchored to an idea of limitation, deprivation, less creative freedom, and lack of aesthetic research.

In spite of these initial criticalities, the teams began the design research phase, questioning themselves on what it entails to deal with a fabric like this, what differences there are – from a conceptual as well as a physical point of view – compared to traditional fabrics, what it means to develop this project in Venice, a city whose imagery has often been associated with seaweed, but which today also represents a critical element from an environmental point of view, invading the canals with alien species. The following are some of the projects developed during the workshop, which provide an insight into how the students related to this material.

4 From Seaweed to Bodies

The project entitled Symbiosis was developed from the symbiotic relationship between seaweed and humans in the field of biological engineering. Also through the analysis of some living textiles case studies, such as those of the designer Paula Ulargui Escalona, the team decided to work on the idea of clothing as a second skin. Considering the beneficial properties of SeaCell fibre, the project was configured as a layering of garments adjacent to the human body, in symbiosis with each other and with the body. A layering of transparencies that covers the body and partially conceals it. In this case, the material stimulated an in-depth reflection on the relationship between dress and body, on the need for fashion to design the boundary between the individual and the space around it. The body returns as the protagonist of the fashion project, it becomes an object of attention and care [ 19 , 113].

The Confini ( Boundaries ) project starts from a reflection by Iosif Brodskij about the relationship between seaweed and rock [ 20 ], in an idea of colonisation, of contrast between visible and invisible, between rigid and organic form. This originates a series of felt garments with increased and defined geometric volumes, apparently bare, aseptic and separated from the body. In reality, inside them they enclose sensorial, soft and living embroideries, made with the waste from the processing of seaweed fabric, enhanced through manual stitching and dyeing. The seaweed fabric is therefore hidden inside, in contact with the body, stimulating an intimate, tactile, and non-visual relationship. In contrast to what is usually done, the focus is on the inside of the garments and not on their outward appearance.

Moving from Gilles Clément’s idea of the “third landscape” as a refuge for diversity [ 21 ], the Residui ( Residues ) project consists of a set of garments capable of accommodating different bodies. Going beyond a hierarchical scheme that places humans at the top in the relationship with plants and animals, the team investigated how to encourage an attitude of care and balance. To this end, students focused on the beneficial properties – antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-ageing – of SeaCell fibre, designing a “second skin” garment to be worn as a first layer in contact with the body, promoting cell regeneration and breathability. Above this, the other garments can be adjusted in length and width through belts, buttons and laces to fit every kind of body. A project, therefore, that goes beyond the idea of size and standard, encouraging a hypothetical more sustainable production system. The result is an idea of inclusive fashion, capable of accommodating different bodies, which can be realised through size-less garments that, with a view to mass production, allow for a reduction in prototypes and waste (Fig.  1 ).

Residuals project. MA students in Fashion and Visual Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia, 2023.

The Algae project intervenes more directly on the sustainability needs of fashion, translating physical experimentation with seaweed fabrics into a conceptual exploration that intersects processes of co-creation, valorisation of the archive, and do it yourself. The output is an editorial project, a magazine that responds to an educational commitment of the designer: not only the capsule collection created is presented, but each reader is given the opportunity to reproduce one of the garments thanks to the paper pattern that is provided using available fabrics and obtaining accessories from second-hand garments. The garments are conceived as decomposable and interchangeable, in a logic of optimising consumption and reducing waste: one and the same garment can be transformed into different garments responding to different needs of wearability and use. In some of the garments made, zero-waste design methods are adopted, which optimise the consumption of seaweed fabric and eliminate manufacturing waste (Fig. 2 ).

Algae project. MA students in Fashion and Visual Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia, 2023.

The latest project is Fisciù. Venetian constellations , significant for shifting the focus of the project from the body to the territory. The seaweed fabric suggested a reinterpretation of Venice, resuming that relationship between imaginaries mentioned earlier. The visual representation of the city, analysed through postcards, photos and archive documents, gave rise to colour maps with which fisciù , neckscarves typical of 17th and 18th century Venetian fashion, were designed. These were made from felt by water-textured manipulation of textile fibres on a fabric and translating the colour maps through manual natural dyeing. The project is completed by the packaging of the fisciù , consisting of a print of a map of Venice on which a possible itinerary for discovering the city is suggested: the fashion object is thus transformed into a device that encourages a relationship with the place (Fig.  3 ).

Fisciù project. MA students in Fashion and Visual Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia, 2023.

These are just a few of the projects developed during the workshop, but they are enough to bring out some important reflections on the investigation carried out. It was observed that seaweed fabrics were not only considered by the participants as a new, more sustainable material to be applied within traditional creative processes, but also stimulated the exploration of new approaches and new relationships between fashion and the human and non-human world. They have been perceived as ‘vibrant’, living materials, evolving over time, important to care for and that activate a caring dynamic with the wearer, in a redefinition of the concepts of fabric and fashion. Unlike traditional natural plant fibres, such as cotton and linen, seaweed is characterised not only by evoking an exotic and still unfamiliar imagery, but also by a low-impact production system: it is abundant in nature; it does not require irrigation; only the part that can regenerate is used; it does not consume arable land or require pesticides or fertilisers; it biodegrades quickly; it is naturally fire-resistant, reducing the need to add toxic flame retardants to clothes; it is processed in plants that are already geared towards energy optimisation [ 22 ]. However, the possible criticalities of this phenomenon should not be overlooked: emissions and costs related to transport, as most of the production is located in Iceland; loss of centrality of territories historically used for the cultivation of traditional fibres; colonisation of new marine areas for the development of intensive seaweed cultivation with possible imbalances in the ecosystem.

5 Conclusions

This research thus demonstrates how an object such as seaweed fabric is not only a response to the need to identify new sustainable materials for fashion, but represents a stimulus to redefine the fashion design itself and its relations with environment, territories, people, and bodies. In the experimentation with seaweed, nature becomes raw material for constructing aesthetic and cultural imagery. The theory of a new materialism in the post-human perspective has thus found confirmation, committed to bringing matter and bodily experience back to the centre of the debate in its weaving interconnections with the world.

Alessandra Vaccari, fashion historian and theorist at Università Iuav di Venezia, is the principal investigator of the ongoing research BioFashion. Weaving the Lagoon Between Ecocriticism and Visual Imagery focusing on the production of value in terms of sustainability within current creative practices in Venice and Italy, including fashion, textiles and clothes produced from seaweed. This contribution represents one of the outcomes of the research work.

The interview was conducted by the author on 8 July 2021 at the Tabinotabi store, located at the foot of Rialto Bridge in Venice.

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Franzo, P. (2024). Seaweed Fabrics for Fashion Design. A Field Research Experience. In: Zanella, F., et al. Multidisciplinary Aspects of Design. Design! OPEN 2022. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49811-4_4

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