Transforming Quilts into Garments: Designers' Experiences with Upcycling

Abstract

The purpose of this hermeneutic qualitative phenomenological study was to describe designers’ experiences when upcycling quilt materials into fashion garments. As calls for sustainable production methods have increased, there has been a greater emphasis on reusing and upcycling society’s material culture. Designers play a critical role in the reinterpretation of material culture as they initiate the transformation of these objects. However, researchers have yet to examine designers’ experiences when upcycling quilt materials. This study illuminated the designer’s role in deconstructing and transforming quilt materials into new fashion garments. A review of literature provided an overview of reuse and repurposing practices in textiles and apparel and historical examples of quilt materials repurposed into garments. It examined factors that led to the rise of the 21st century phenomenon of upcycling quilt materials and the controversy surrounding this phenomenon. In addition, previous research on upcycling and slow fashion and the meaning and value of upcycled objects was discussed. Lastly, research on apparel design models and experiences of designers when upcycling was explored. This research entailed a three-pronged approach to phenomenology, including interviews with 17 designers representing 16 businesses actively involved in upcycling quilt materials into fashion garments, photo elicitation, and content analysis. Data analysis was emergent in nature, following the concept of the hermeneutic circle, aimed at conveying a common essence of the designers’ experiences. This approach expanded on methods used to examine quiltmaking by investigating the social and cultural contexts where quiltmaking, fashion, and sustainability intersected. This research found that the designers shared common foundational elements of experiences related to second-hand shopping and the fashion industry, which were the primary influences for their interests in sustainability and preserving material culture. These common elements motivated designers to give quilt materials new life by transforming them into garments. Their experiences revealed a distinct apparel design process based on their relationships with quilt materials. This design process aligned with material culture methodologies of examining objects rather than traditional iterative apparel design processes. Designers’ experienced strong emotional and aesthetic responses to the quilt materials during the design process. Their emotional responses were specifically due to the handmade nature and living history aspect of quilt materials. Due to their intersecting and conflicting aesthetic and emotional responses, designers experienced a series of tensions throughout their design processes. They became re-interpreters of material culture and actively contributed to and passed along the quilt material’s story to customers. By integrating their emotions throughout the design process, designers hoped to encourage customers to value upcycled quilt material garments. The findings of this study contributed to the knowledge of designers and design processes within sustainability spaces. The distinct design process based on material culture methodologies responded to slow fashion’s calls for new approaches in apparel design to address sustainability issues. The research showed how integrating upcycled material culture into slow fashion paradigms was a way we can begin to address society’s current overproduction and overconsumption problems. It enriched the knowledge of the design process and the relationship between designers and objects within slow fashion, upcycling, and sustainability.