Chapter 1 — full chapter
Chapter 1 — Circular Design Principles
This chapter introduces circular design as a decision-making framework for fashion product development. It explains how circular design differs from linear design logic and why circularity must be considered before production begins, rather than being treated as an end-of-life solution.
Learners are introduced to circular concepts applied along the textile chain — from raw materials and polymers to fibres, yarn, fabric, finishing and end products — as a set of designable interfaces where circular or linear logic can be embedded. The chapter also frames garments as multi-life assets that can move through use, repair, resale, rental, remanufacturing, and recycling pathways.
Source:
Ellen MacArthur Foundation – Fashion and the Circular Economy Deep Dive
Fashion design does more than define how a product looks. It shapes how materials are combined, how a garment is produced and used, how easily it can be maintained or repaired, and what can happen to it when its first period of use ends. Many of the conditions that determine a product’s environmental impact, useful life, and future value are therefore established during the design process.
Circular design responds to this responsibility by moving away from the assumption that garments will follow a single journey from production to disposal. Instead, it considers how products, components and materials can remain in use, circulate through multiple lives, and retain value over time. This requires designers to think not only about the object itself, but also about the systems, services, and business models that support it.
Circularity is not a single aesthetic, material choice, or technical checklist. It is a way of making interconnected decisions while recognising real constraints and trade-offs. To understand why this shift is necessary, the chapter begins by examining how the dominant fast-fashion model embeds linearity, acceleration, and replacement into both product design and business strategy.
In this chapter:
- 1.1 Fast Fashion as a Design and Business Model Problem
- 1.2 The Circular Textile Chain and Urban Textile Mines
- 1.3 Design for Multiple Life Cycles
- 1.4 Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment as Design Tools