Digital Deconstruction Project – exploring the possibilities of re-designing digital designs for more sustainability

Abstract

The fashion industry is in a critical state of overproduction and overconsumption, often disregarding any social or environmental concerns. Pre-consumer waste, including unworn and unsold garments such as leftover stock, represents up to one third of total production and is regularly landfilled or incinerated. This study presents early-stage research whether AI-automated design suggestions can be developed using pre-consumer waste from unworn garments. The Digital Deconstruction Project is a preliminary study conducted at the Hochschule Hannover, University of Applied Sciences and Arts with a team of seven students. It explores the possibility of creating new, appealing designs from existing pattern- such as a classic women’s shirt, which in this study represents overproduced clothing - while minimizing waste using the computer-aided design system Clo3D. The focus is on determining how many of the existing pattern pieces can be re-used, creating as little waste as possible. The starting point of this project was a pattern block from the modular library of Clo3D, which is generally accessible within the software. The finding indicates that it is indeed possible to redesign a CAD file of an existing garment, the developed design results range from wearable-commercial to very fashionable. However, future iterations of this study should aim to reduce material waste even further. It is suggested to start with a simpler pattern block or a zero-waste pattern system to validate the concept of digital deconstruction. Next steps will involve investigating effective methods for connecting multiple designs to a single pattern and solving the first steps in the automating processes.