Article The Perfect Dress and its Making presented at ICDHS conference in Taipei

The Perfect Dress and its Making: A Comparative Study of the Sartorial Habits of Amsterdam Women (1950s-2010s)

Authors: Irene Maldini and Ragna Luciana Manz

Abstract

The shift from home and custom-made clothing to mass-produced ready-mades in 20th-century Europe has been the subject of studies from multiple disciplines and across various locations. Contributing to this field of studies, and extending the analysis until the present day, a group of female consumers living in Amsterdam in the 1950s and 2010s were interviewed about their sartorial habits. The study identifies a discrepancy between common manufacturing processes and values related to identity as a central cause of this shift. Furthermore it explores how such a discrepancy can be found again today, arguing that this divergence is leading to the re-emergence of customized production.

Keywords
dressmaking, mass production, customization, craftsmanship, identity

This article was presented last October at the 10th ICDHS conference in Taipei and published in the conference proceedings. In this edition, the topic of the conference was Making Trans/National Design Histories. In this context, a variety of articles on fashion history were presented in the conference. The intercultural connections among East Asian countries and between Asia and Europe in relation to dress were central for most of these articles. See article here.

"Attachment, Durability and the Environmental Impact of Digital DIY" finally published!

After a couple of years waiting, this article was published at The Design Journal (Taylor & Francis) last month. This is the main outcome of the Embedded Research project "Object-user relationships in open design dynamics", a collaboration between Waag Society and VU University developed in 2012-2013. The full article can be downloaded for free here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ynW9faES5IzKZ5Fii8Dz/full

Consumer participation in the design and realization stages of production: How self-production shapes consumer evaluations and relationships to products

Atakan, S. S., Bagozzi, R. P., & Yoon, C. (2014). Consumer participation in the design and realization stages of production: How self-production shapes consumer evaluations and relationships to products. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 31, 395–408. See paper here

My notes:

Quantitative study based on experiments, measures how user participation in design and production impacts the evaluation of the product and self-reflection immediately after the experiment.

Paper abstract: 
Psychological responses of consumers to specific stages of self-production activities are investigated in four studies. Findings reveal that consumer participation in the realization stage (physical production) enhances affective commitment to the product. However, physical production without opportunity to express choice or creativity during the production process does not change the symbolic meaning of the product (how self-expressive it is) and, therefore, does not result in identification with the product. Participation during the design stage (input-specification) enhances identification, leading to affective commitment, which in turn enhances evaluation of the self-made product. Finally, engaging consumers in both the realization and design stages of the production process does not create value for consumers over and above the main effects created by a high level of participation in either stage.

FASHION-able. Hacktivism and Engaged Fashion Design

Very inspiring PhD thesis merging theoretical reflection and design practice, a great example of the impact of the participation paradigm in fashion design with a (paradoxical?) focus on the role of the professional designer as an enabler.

Abstract:
This thesis consists of a series of extensive projects which aim to explore a new designer role for fashion. It is a role that experiments with how fashion can be reverse engineered, hacked, tuned and shared among many participants as a form of social activism. This social design practice can be called the hacktivism of fashion. It is an engaged and collective process of enablement, creative resistance and DIY practice, where a community share methods and experiences on how to expand action spaces and develop new forms of craftsmanship. In this practice, the designer engages participants to reform fashion from a phenomenon of dictations and anxiety to a collective experience of empowerment, in other words, to make them become fashion-able.

See the PhD Thesis of Otto von Busch here.

Embedded Research results

Readers interested on digital DIY, attachment and durability can now see a summary of our Embedded Research results at Waag Society's blog.

“Object-user relationships in open design dynamics” was an embedded research of the Faculty of Arts (VU University Amsterdam) in collaboration with Waag Society (Institute of Art, Science and Technology): 15/9/2012 – 15/6/2013. The academic article that resulted from this project is in process of publication at The Design Journal (Bloomsbury). A summary of the outcomes can be found here.

Article "Digital Makers: an Ethnographic Study of the FabLab Amsterdam Users" presented in Milan

Article presented at 5th Sts Italia Conference "A Matter of Design. Making Society through Science and Technology" and published in the conference proceedings (pp.1105-1114).

Abstract

The popularization of digital fabrication tools at a domestic level and through the proliferation of maker labs or spaces is said to put the process of manufacture in the hands of the masses. This phenomenon has had ample repercussion in the media; analysts are announcing that anyone interested can make instead of buying what they need or want, indicating that the boom of participation has arrived to the realm of material objects. 

The future of digital fabrication depends, as in any emergent technology, on both technical developments and the utility found by its users. This ethnographic study of digital makers (users of the FabLab Amsterdam) explores the later, adding a feet-on-the-ground perspective to this discussion. It suggests that these tools are empowering creative people, improving the accuracy and widening the scope of their projects. On the other hand, it also points out that the emergence of an alternative model of consumption based on connected production at a domestic scale described in the media may not be aligned to the current state of affairs.

On the viability of the Open Source Development model for the design of physical objects: Lessons learned from the RepRap project (MSC Thesis).

Thorough study of the RepRap community and their mechanisms of user-innovation.

Author: Erik de Bruijn

Year: 2010

On the viability of the open source development model for the design of physical objects: Lessons learned f...

Value creation by toolkits for user innovation and design: the case of the watch market

Study of the value (measured in WTP) of personalized products created through toolkits. Findings indicate that participating users attribute a high value increment to their own design activities.

Authors: Nikolaus Franke and Frank Piller

Year: 2004

Article

User innovation

Books and papers on the phenomenon of user innovation in various sectors, importance of lead users in user-communities, survey on user innovation in consumer products in the UK (2010).

Author: Eric Von Hippel

More Details:

Democratizing innovation, 2005.

‘Horizontal innovation networks -by and for users’, 2007.

Comparing Business and Household Sector Innovation in Consumer Products: Findings from a Representative Study in the UK, 2010.

Download papers from author's webpage