Textile Craft, Textile and Fashion Design, Textile Technology, Textile Management & Fashion Communication

Special Edition: Fashion Communication

2 The Editors

4 A consumer perspective on fashion communication

Karin M Ekström

14 Languaging fashion and sustainability – towards synergistic modes of

thinking, wording, visualising and doing fashion and sustainability
Mathilda Tham

24 Integrity
Clemens Thornquist

30 Sustainable fashion – a driver for new business models

Lisbeth Svengren Holm, Olof Holm

40 Hommage á Ulla Eson Bodin – the versatile

Annie Andréasson

58 Towards a fashion diagnosis

Linda Rampell

66 Transition times
Trade and textile dressing over
three industrial revolutions in
Sjuhäradsbygden
Lars G. Strömberg

84 Research and education at

The Swedish School of Textiles
Smart Textiles, Fashion Function Futures

88 Fashion Function Futures

Outlining a research project
Björn Brorström, Johan Sundee

98 The Research Group at the Swedish School of Textiles

102 The Textile Research Centre, CTF

108 The Textile Research Board at Swerea IVF,

Textiles and Plastics Department

110 The Editorial Board, The Nordic Textile Journal

112 New book, CTF Publishing

114 Contributors
 Fashion
communication
Fashion communication is a multi-faceted subject. It Creating excellence in fashion design is continuously
refers to the way fashion is presented and marketed, developing and balancing the artistic expression, craft,
by fashion shows and catwalk performances, advertise- design methodology and function to a dynamic environ-
ments, photos and editorial material on paper, web or ment characterized by openness and respect for different
walls, blogs and other ‘social media’, displays in stores cultures and skills. The driving force is to create and
and windows, or icons and models on television and shape the future by training and again training fashion
movies. It also includes how fashion communicates a designers and by carrying out frontier-crossing research
personality or lifestyle. With the abundance of brands and artistic development in this field.
and designs, fashion communication is essential to
develop a distinct identity and make it visible. In fashion business and management, multi-disciplinary
knowledge is applied to the various stages of the value
Fashion communication is a challenging subject for chain of fashion: from design, product, marketing and
research efforts. It is truly multi-disciplinary and trans- consumer behaviour to resource recovery and sustainability.
disciplinary, as the socio-economical and socio-cultural Excellence is achieved by an environment also characterized
The Editors

context is crucial, but to create and spread the message, by an interaction between theoretical knowledge and
it involves the sciences of media, management, logistics applied experience in the field.
and technology. Fashion communication is also a function
of time. Timely communication is necessary in the rapidly The manifold of ways and perspectives in fashion com-
changing, short life-span fashion world. Society and con- munication is reflected in this issue of the Nordic Textile
sumer behaviour also change over time, and the means Journal. As usual we present a journal with a balanced
and methods of communication reflect that. There will be composition of contributions having design, technology
new ways of communication tomorrow, as today’s media or management, the three cornerstones of the Swedish
expressions, like blogs and twitters, are already on their School of Textiles, as the basis for the approach. Several
way into retirement. illustrations help support the discussion on fashion com-
munication, be it from an artistic, societal, historic or
Fashion Function Futures – F3 – is the title of the research scientific point of view. This issue is also a milestone for
focus of the Swedish School of Textiles, addressing the the journal, as now the contributions have consistently
textile and fashion value chain and the interaction between been peer reviewed, to ensure scientific and artistic
design and management that is instrumental for success quality and value. The efforts of the Nordic Textile
and sustainability. Creating excellence in and between Journal’s new international editorial board in this respect,
fashion design and fashion business and management is as well as the valuable contributions of the knowledgeable
the challenge we have adopted and will develop in the and professional authors are gratefully acknowledged.
F3 field. Fashion communication is one core subject for
research, development and education, and it is also a Erik Bresky and Håkan Torstensson
tool for achievements in the whole F3 area.

 Textile Journal Textile Journal 

 A consumer perspective on
fashion communication
Karin M. Ekström is Professor in Karin M Ekström
Marketing at University of Borås, University of Borås
Sweden. Her research area in karinm.ekstrom@hb.se
marketing is consumer behavior,
specifically focusing on consumer Introduction
culture. Her research concerns
family consumption, consumer Fashion advertisements often include overly slimmed models looking nonchalant
socialization, collecting, design or pretending to look bored or unhappy. Their walk on the catwalk appears
and the meaning(s) of consump- artificial. Is it the clothes, the model or other aspects that consumers pay
tion. A new research project attention to? Is this type of advertisements appealing to consumers in gen-
deals with recycling of clothes. eral or only to a very exclusive group? Are the creators of the ads thinking of
appealing to consumers interested in buying fashionable clothes or should
the ads be seen merely as pieces of art? There are most certainly a number
of different motives behind fashion advertisements, but it seems as if they
are challenged primarily in connection to discredited advertisements involving
violence and sex. There appears to be a lack of critical reflection concerning
ordinary fashion advertisements. In this article, it is argued that fashion com-
munication needs a more critical stance, involving also a stronger consumer
orientation. The understanding of fashion and how fashion is communicated
needs to be understood from a consumer’s perspective. In order to better
understand the meanings(s) of fashion, it is necessary to understand both the
consumer and the consumption process in a socio-cultural context.

Understanding fashion

Consumers are confronted with fashion from young age by observing people,
visiting shops, using traditional as well as new social media. Consumers are
continuously learning whether something is fashionable or not. Statement such
as: you cannot wear that, it is out of date, or wow, you look fashionable, reinforce
the understanding and interpretation of fashion or results in the reversal, a total
disobedience to fashion. Everyone participates in the catwalk of consumption (Hjort
and Ekström 2006) and this involves also consumers objecting to consumption in
that resistance reveals preferences (Ekström 2007a). Our identities as consumers
are constructed in consumer culture in relation to ourselves as well as in relation
to others. It is through consumption we show who we are or who we want to
Design Petra Högström, be regardless of our disposition to fashion and how fashion is communicated.
The Swedish School of Textiles, 2009
Photo Henrik L. Bengtsson

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Consumption occurs in a socio-cultural context and the values existing in society at specific periods of time. Forty A long time ago, Simmel (1904) wrote about fashion and perception as well as for development of the self.
devotion or objection to fashion must therefore be (1992) writes that design is used by societies to express the dynamics of adherence versus distinction in social Furthermore, visual culture can contribute to a more
understood in a socio-cultural context. Consumer sociali- values. Also, Woodham (1997) stresses aesthetic, social, groups. Conformity and distinction appear to exist at the in-depth understanding of consumption and communication
zation is a concept that aims to understand the context in economical, political, and technological forces behind the same time (e.g. Ekström 2007a). The context determines of fashion. Visual culture focuses on the ability to
which consumers live (Ekström 2006a). The most common development of design over time. Fashion is interpreted whether something is interpreted as conformity or absorb and interpret visual information (Mirzoeff 1999).
definition of consumer socialization is Ward’s (1974, different at different time periods. A grandmother talking distinction. A jacket may in one socio-cultural context Schroeder (2002) emphasizes the importance of studying
p.2): “the process by which young people acquire skills, about fashion in her childhood can make us reflect upon symbolize conformity and distinction in another. The the visual aspects of consumption from an interpretive
knowledge and attitudes relevant to their functioning as how fashion changes over time as well as how society degree of distinction needed to differentiate and what perspective. Which images of fashion are communicated
consumers in the marketplace”. Fashion is, however, not changes. Featherstone (1991, p. 74) writes: “The intensified is considered socially acceptable is also related to the in advertising? How do consumers interpret images of
only learned during childhood, but continuously through- pace of fashion increases our time-consciousness, and socio-cultural context. Communicating fashion requires fashion? There is a need for more research concerning
out life. Consumer socialization is a life-long process our simultaneous pleasure into newness and oldness an understanding of the context in which fashion is images of fashion advertisements in magazines, newspapers,
(e.g., Ekström 2006a). Berger and Luckmann (1967) gives us a strong sense of presentness”. interpreted. Again, this requires an understanding of TV, mail order catalogues, on the Internet etc. How do
distinguish between primary and secondary socialisation. the consumer and consumption process. the consumer’s interpretations differ from the producers?
The first takes place during childhood while the later Fashion is related to time and fashion cycles occur with
takes place subsequently integrating different bodies of different regularity. A current example is the shoulder A multidisciplinary outlook on consumption of fashion Consumers may interpret fashion in a different way than
knowledge often building on learning sequences (Berger pads that are back in fashion from the 1980s. A faster was intended originally by the designer. Creolization is
and Luckmann 1967). For example, in order to knit a changing society results also in faster changing fashion Consumption is today studied in many different disciplines, a concept used in anthropology dealing with blending
complex pattern, it is necessary to understand the basics cycles. The aesthetic component of fashion (Campbell for example, anthropology, ethnology, marketing, psycho- of traditions into new ones. For example, by adopting
of knitting. Also, in order to understand the complexity 2007) is naturally affected by the time in which we live. logy and sociology. Each of them represents many different fashion from another country, but using it in a new local
of certain types of fashion, it may be beneficial to under- What is considered good taste at different time periods? perspectives, theories and methods. The understanding way. Overall, there is a need for more research on how
stand the processes behind. Fostering of “good” taste has been advocated during of fashion can benefit from an interdisciplinary outlook consumers interpret fashion. Czarniawska and Sevón
different periods of time in Sweden (e.g. Key 1996/1918, and the different perspectives represented in several (1996) discuss that translation as per Latour (1986) has
Socialization is a concept used in many different disciplines. Paulsson 1995/1919, Larsson 1957), but not without disciplines (e.g., Crane 2007). This is also crucial for replaced diffusion. Czarniawska (2001, p. 126) writes:
In marketing, the focus is on the marketplace, as discussed opposition. How are conceptions about good or bad understanding consumption and communication of fashion. “The translation model answers the question about the
by Ward above. In sociology, the focus is on culture taste in fashion established and by whom? How does it energy needed if ideas or objects are to move around. It
and society as described by Bilton et al. (1988, p. 12): vary in different socio-cultural contexts? How are concep- Material culture can also contribute to a more in-depth is people, whether regarded as users or as creators, who
“the process by which we acquire the culture of the tions about good or bad taste communicated? understanding of consumption and communication energize an idea every time they translate it for their own
society into which we are born – the process by which of fashion. Material culture focuses on the relations or somebody else’s use”. On-going interpretations are
we acquire our social characteristics and learn the ways Fashion and dynamics between objects and people in a cultural context (e.g., emphasized. It is therefore not about reception, rejection,
of thought and behaviour considered appropriate in Miller 1985, 1987). The interdependency between indi- resistance or acceptance (Czarniawska 2001). Again, this
our society”. Fashion is socially constructed and we A major attraction of fashion is novelty (Campell 2007). viduals and artefacts are discussed by Hård af Segerstad applies to interpretation of fashion communication that is
are socialized to think about fashion in different ways The novelty contributes to making people feel unique (1957, p.15): “people without things are helpless, but continuously translated by, for example, photographers,
depending on the socio-cultural context we exist in. from the rest of the crowd. Even though fashion involves things without people are meaningless”. Relations to advertising agencies, media, retailers and consumers.
uniqueness this can easily be lost after some time and objects often develop over a period of time. Miller (1997)
Fashion and time be transformed into conformity. Internet has contributed calls a gradual transformation process “to appropriate” An individual and a social venture
to fashion being communicated more rapidly and in dif- when discussing a study on council-flat kitchens where
A consumer perspective on fashion requires an under- ferent manners from before. Hence, the extraordinary he found how people had tried to make a home. Belk Interpretation of fashion communication is an individual
standing of the socio-cultural context in which the aspect associated with novelty in fashion can rapidly be (1988) discusses how an object becomes part of the self venture. Consumers not only interpret fashion communi-
consumer exists. It implies also an understanding of transformed into an ordinary aspect. There is a need for when an individual appropriates the object. He argues cated by media and other individuals. They also construct
society at a specific time period since the meanings of more research studying how and why fashion after a that possessions are not only part of the self, but can be meaning by being a co-producer of the meaning(s) of
fashion change over time. In order to understand fashion, while becomes mundane or even obsolete. When and seen as instrumental for development of the self. This fashion. The individual endeavour communicates freedom,
it is therefore necessary to understand the prevalent how is the original distinction lost to conformity? applies also to fashion that can be crucial for self- but there is not always freedom to choose even though

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 Design Petra Hagström
The Swedish School of Textiles, 2009
Photo Henrik L Bengtsson

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this is proposed in literature on post-modern consumption. “keeping up with the children” (Ekström 2007b). Multi-sited ethnography Conclusion
Consumers are sometimes restricted from free choice due Influence is then determined by visibility, family norms
to factors such as income, time, knowledge etc. Freedom and social pressure. In 34 of the 36 families, parents had It has been discussed that in order to better understand In this article, it has been argued the meanings of fashion
of choice does not always exist (e.g. Lodziak 2002). been influenced regarding their clothes purchases. Most communication of fashion, we need to consider the must be understood from the consumer’s perspective.
parents referred to direct influence, i.e., when children consumer’s perspective. It can also be valuable to include This involves understanding consumption in a socio-cultural
The meaning(s) of fashion differ not only between expressed their opinions or parents asked for their chil- other perspectives and locations such as the photographer, context encompassing communication and influence
individuals, but is also highly dependent on the socio- dren’s advice in the store or at home. Indirect influence the photo-model, the clothes producer, the retailer, the between as well as within social groups. Communication
cultural context in which individuals exist. Social class, also happened. For example, by having the children’s advertising agency and media. A multi-sited ethnography involves advertisements, but also direct and indirect
occupation, global and local culture all have an impact on opinion in mind when shopping. The results also showed (Ekström 2006b; Marcus 1998) can be beneficial. There influence between individuals and social groups.
how fashion is interpreted. Fashion is a social phenomenon. that mothers and children sometimes shopped together exist different techniques for conducting multi-sited There is a need for more research on the consumer’s
It is in interaction with other people and through media, for clothes to the father. Parents and children also ethnography such as following the people, things, interpretation of fashion communication. This involves
we notice fashion and how it diffuses. Social groups borrowed clothes from each other. Research dealing with metaphor, plot, story, allegory, life, biography or conflict an understanding of the entire consumption process.
often influence the meanings of fashion. Duesenberry fashion communication in families needs to consider (Marcus 1998). Multi-sited research allows consumers A multidisciplinary approach is also expected to benefit
(1949) referred to social comparison as “the demonstra- different types of influence. and markets to be seen as interdependent rather than the understanding of consumption and communication
tion principle”. binary opposites (Ekström 2006b). This is beneficial when by using different perspectives, theories and methods.
Diffusion of fashion across other social groups is also studying consumption of fashion in that it enhances a It should also be recognized that the consumer exists on
There is a need for more research studying how fashion important to consider. Studies of Harley-Davidson bikers greater understanding of how cultural meanings are a market including the photographer, the photo-model,
spread across social groups also including families. In (Schouten and McAlexander 1995) and Star Trek fans constructed and co-created by different actors such as the clothes producer and the retailer. A multi-sited
a previous study (Ekström 1995), I found that children (Kozinets 2001) emphasize the creation of meaning marketers and consumers. Also, circulation and transfor- ethnography is therefore recommended in future research
influenced the parent’s fashion awareness in 34 of 36 among these subcultures. How fashion is communicated mation of fashion communication can be understood by in order to better understand different interpretations
families interviewed. A father said: “I think we would in in different subcultures deserves more attention in conducting multi-sited ethnography. of fashion communication, but also how fashion
some way have a more narrow life if our children were research. New media allow diffusion to take different communication is circulated and transformed in a
not around, if we did not have this reciprocal exchange. paths. The trickle-down theory for understanding fashion continuously changing society.
I still think that they make us feel a little younger and presented by Simmel (1904) implies that fashion is diffused
that we are forced to keep up with development and from higher to lower social classes. This is referred to as
trends, even if our children in no way are extreme the theory of emulation by Douglas (1996) implying that
regarding trends. They probably tell us about things that as lower classes copy upper-class styles striving to move
are trendy among youth even if they do not follow it up, the upper class try to distinguish themselves keeping
themselves and it makes us more aware of it”. Another others down. However, it also happens that fashion
father indicated that he was sometimes told by his spreads from lower to upper social classes, for example
children not to wear old clothes, but to dress fashionably. jeans that traditionally was used merely for working are
Both he and his wife said they were aware of fashion today high fashion. Consumption of tattoo that also
because their children dressed fashionably. Influence can represents fashion is today a mass phenomenon rather
be direct in that children express their opinion and provide than a subcultural marginal activity (Kjeldgaard and
advice about fashion to their parents. Influence can also Bengtsson 2005). Also, new media (Internet, SMS, MMS)
be indirect in that parents get influenced about fashion has made fashion codes accessible to a large number
without being told so, for example by observation. In of consumers. For example, fashion blogs have allowed
the same study, it was found that parents in a few of people who never before have had the opportunity
the families had been influenced to purchase fashionable to express their ideas on fashion to do so and to
jeans brands when accompanying their children to influence others.
purchase jeans. The fact that children play a role in
diffusion of innovations to parents have been called

10 Textile Journal Textile Journal 11

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12 Textile Journal Textile Journal 13

 Languaging fashion and
sustainability
– towards synergistic modes of
thinking, wording, visualising and
doing fashion and sustainability
Dr Mathilda Tham’s work sits in Mathilda Tham
the space between fashion, Beckmans College of Design, Stockholm
sustainability and futures studies. mathilda.tham@beckmans.se
Using participatory methods and
systemic approaches, her research Abstract
explores how fashion can achieve
more sustainable thinking, This paper explores the ‘brands’ of sustainability and fashion respectively and
practices and processes. Her work their emerging shared identity and ‘brand’. It argues that the realisation of a
proposes some challenges to our fashion industry that fundamentally respects humans beings and our planet
relationship with fashion – from is dependent on an integration process that takes place at a deeper cultural
consuming to participating, from level, as well as the – hitherto prioritised – product and organisational levels.
ownership to access and from
designing for an industry to While fashion has in recent years made significant environmental improve-
designing for the world. ments in its processes, benefits are easily eaten up by the astounding speed
Dr Mathilda Tham is a Visiting and scale of mass-market fashion. A next generation of approaches, holistic
Professor in Fashion at Beckmans and systemic, are required to achieve joined up infrastructures, to include a
College of Design, Stockholm, and wealth of stakeholders, and to target the deeper motivations behind both
an associate of the Sustainable production and consumption.
Fashion Academy, also Stockholm.
She is a lecturer and researcher The paper points to the emerging area of metadesign as a promising
in Design and Sustainability at approach to the auspicious integration of – seemingly paradoxical – systems,
Goldsmiths, University of London. and the significance of the role of languaging in bringing fashion and
sustainability together.

Drawing upon a recent empirical study, Lucky People Forecast (2008), into how
sustainability can be communicated to fashion industry stakeholders in proactive
ways, the paper proposes that using experiential and design-led approaches
can help unveil sustainability within fashion’s qualities and capabilities.

Keywords: fashion, sustainability, paradigm change, metadesign, languaging,

14 Textile Journal Textile Journal 15

Introduction Similarly, while the communications of fashion and The increasing standardisation of CSR (Corporate Social et al. 2006, DEFRA 2010; Fletcher 2008, and general see
sustainability respectively and together take place Responsibility) work and Code of Conduct documents e.g. Stern 2006; Rockström et al. 2009) It is therefore
This paper explores the ‘brands’ of sustainability and through many stakeholders and on a continuum from the since their first inception just over a decade ago, has clear that fashion needs to make yet another leap to
fashion respectively and their emerging shared identity formal and explicit to the informal and implicit, here the driven or coincided with an increasingly formalised flow a new generation of strategies and practices, and that
and ‘brand’. It argues that the realisation of a fashion organically forming, collectively emerging and often tacit of information inside the fashion industry, in pursuit of these need to address the very system of fashion.
industry that fundamentally respects humans beings and ‘bottom up’ communication is prioritised. Of particular transparency throughout the supply chain, and manifesting
our planet, is dependent on the latter’s auspicious outcome. importance is the notion of communication as a process a shift from the ‘policing’ of factories through audits to The fashion system and sustainability
which shapes or designs understandings, perceptions and the emphasis on long-term relations and stakeholder
The auspicious positioning of ‘fashion and sustainability’ in actions, and in turn is shaped by them. This interdependent dialogue. From the user perspective, while communica- In this instance the fashion system can be described as
turn requires a profound search and integration process and circular process will be introduced as languaging tions in shops may still be experienced as ambiguous and the complex and interdependent web of all fashion’s
– beyond design as usual, beyond processes and organi- further into the text. confusing, labelling is developing1 and numerous NGOs stakeholders, a range of parameters – technological,
sations, to deeply embedded normative and cultural (see e.g. Naturskyddsföreningen – Swedish Society for political, financial, socio-cultural – at both micro and
conditions. The role of communication here is, of course, The researcher’s stance is that of a fashion designer Nature Conservation and the Clean Clothes Campaign) macro scales, and the deeper motivations of both those
crucial. It is crucial in the education of fashion students – in the realm of which inspiration is valued as highly as provide information for those curious to learn more. who create, produce and promote, and those who
and professionals on sustainability. It is crucial in the information, and where experiential, emotive and visual Events, such as the RE:Fashion Awards, and new magazines, acquire, use, and eventually dispose of fashion.
formal mediation of ‘fashion and sustainability’ outwards language forms an intrinsic part of process, product such as Swedish Camino also contribute in conveying the
and in communication’s intrinsic role in, often tacit, and communications. message to a wider audience.2 In simplified terms the systemic response to a challenge
internal processes. It is crucial in the theoretical and should address both underlying causes and symptoms,
colloquial writing of fashion’s past, and constant stock- Fashion and sustainability – However, while the adoption of sustainable thought and whereas the product level response would focus prima-
taking of its present, and – perhaps most importantly the need for systemic approaches action in the fashion industry, and the knowledge level of rily on symptoms, by for example, replacing a material
– in the prospective activities, creating and spreading its stakeholders have progressed significantly, the or process with a less harmful alternative. Anticipated
new imagery and legends. The ultimate context of this paper is the sustainability discourse and practices have yet to adopt systemic, holistic systemic approaches challenge fashion’s current being,
imperative, and – the now –formally and globally recog- approaches. For example, the promise of niche fashion thinking and doing. For example, at present the infra-
The paper draws upon a substantive empirical study into nised need for fashion to shift its thinking, attitudes and practitioners, and cutting edge researchers working with structure and technology for reclamation, reuse, and
how sustainability can be communicated in proactive ways practices to such ways that are environmentally, ethically, lifecycle approaches (see e.g. Fletcher 2008; McDonough recycling of fashion and textiles does not afford a real
to the fashion industry’s many stakeholders. The study as well as financially sound. (See e.g. DEFRA 2010) and Braungart 2002), and of product service systems closing of the loop (or cradle-to-cradle). (See Oakdene
formed part of the PhD Lucky People Forecast being piloted in other design fields (see e.g. Manzini and Hollins 2009; McDonough & Braungart 2002) A potential
– a systemic futures perspective on fashion and sustain- In recent years a momentous shift has taken place, as Vezzoli 2003), has yet to be fulfilled in the mass-market shift from ownership to access, and from products to
ability (Tham, 2008, Goldsmiths, University of London). evidenced in the upsurge of organic cotton – in the segment of the fashion industry. Particularly the vast services challenges not only current business models at
The paper further draws upon the researcher’s theoretical main driven by the mass-market segment, the many new potential of design led environmental improvement at company level, but also global trade structures and incen-
and empirical work on the Benchmarking Synergy Levels companies starting out from the principles of sustainability, both product and systems levels (see e.g. Fletcher 2008; tives. Alternative means of accessing clothing, such as
within Metadesign project (an AHRC project hosted by and the significant media coverage. (See e.g. DEFRA Thackara 2005) is still mainly untapped. renting, additionally requires significant changes in user
Goldsmiths, University of London, completed in 2009). 2010) Communication has of course played a significant attitudes and behaviour. The balancing of environmental,
role in this development. From the initial, very small body While all the emerging environmental strategies in fashion ethical, economic aspects at local, regional and global
Some notes on the scope of the paper and the stance of academic texts on the environmental and social problems must be viewed as highly positive developments, they do levels is associated with very complex tradeoffs. (For a
of researcher: associated with the fashion industry, largely inaccessible not constitute the systemic approach needed to reverse further discussion of such strategies and their environ-
While the author acknowledges the intrinsic interplay to a lay audience, there is now an upsurge of both the alarming effects of a consumerist and producerist mental viability see Fletcher and Tham 2004; Allwood et
between environmental, ethical and financial aspects in academic and popular texts that are solutions orientated, society. Moderate environmental improvements are easily al. 2006; Tham 2008)
sustainability, it is here, in the main, exemplified by the and spread through numerous information channels. eaten up by the astounding scale and speed of fashion.
environmental dimension. (For pioneering texts see e.g. Heeley 1997; Fletcher 1999; (For further analysis specific to fashion see e.g. Allwood
Uitdenbogerd et al.1998 and recent texts see e.g. Black
2008; Fletcher 2008) 1
See e.g. GOTS which aims to be a global standard for organic textiles, across the supply chain, and including social criteria. (www.global-standard.org)
2
www.naturskyddsforeningen.se, www.cleanclothes.org, www.refashionawards.org, www.caminomagasin.se.

16 Textile Journal Textile Journal 17

Yet, what this paper seeks to illuminate is not the tech- presented as constraints (along such other constraints as emerging legend of fashion and sustainability. Indeed, 5. Information flows – restoring feedback loops
nological, organisational, financial or even behavioural budgets and timelines). Public and general sustainability the deeply rooted tradition in Western thought to
and attitudinal challenges ahead, but instead some communications still predominantly use a quantitative construct dichotomies (see e.g. Merchant 1982; Pepper 4. The rules of the system (incentives, punishment,
conflicts situated in the very conceptualisation and and reduction focused language, asking us to lower 1997), points to a tendency in using them as a form constraints)
culture of ‘fashion and sustainability’ and the potential emissions or use less water. Despite an accumulating of coping mechanism when we encounter the new. It
role of communication in resolving them. body of insights into sustainability communications appears more natural for us to hone down onto difference 3. The power of self-organization
(see e.g. Futerra 2007), seldom is the emphasis on and dissonance than to look for the similar, the compatible
Fashion and sustainability dichotomies the qualitative aspects of a larger goal, the tactile, or the complimentary. A different but adjacent tendency 2. The goals of the system
the experiential, the vision. towards the staging of dichotomies can be found in the
The focus here is not the obvious stereotypes; the eco-look media coverage of fashion companies’ engagement with 1. The mindset or paradigm out of which the goals,
of the eco-wave of the late eighties and early nineties: This brief outlook on ‘fashion and sustainability’ speaks sustainability, with reports oscillating between screaming rules, feedback structure arise (Meadows 1997)4
‘knit-your-own-muesli’, ‘brown tents’, even ‘brown teeth of dichotomies or polarisations at several levels, for ‘scandal’ and ‘saint’, shunning the nuanced ground
look’. (See e.g. Arnold 2001; Black 2008) While these example: in between. Whether because of fear, or in pursuit of The strategies to date to facilitate the fashion industry’s
stereotypes did create a form of stigma and have certainly drama, or simply to arrive at palatably distinct categories journey towards sustainability, reveal much hard work
served a handy excuse not to engage with environmental Two types of staff – the scientist and the artist (and here leaving aside a rich discourse on, for example, – but mainly work located in the, according to Meadows,
improvement, they are relatively easy to refute. What is, power and gender, see e.g. Merchant 1982), the tendency less effective realms of a system. Much effort has been
instead, referred to here are the more deeply rooted Two types of working modes – restriction and to polarise sub-properties of fashion and sustainability is placed on implementing the environmental agenda at
conflicts, underlying assumptions that rarely get their abundance arguably an indication of an immature integration process. product and process level, predominantly using quantitative
serious place at the table, the issues so large that they instruments and evaluative frameworks and, literary
escape our attention, the elephants in the room. We can effortlessly continue listing ways in which Levels of intervention in the fashion system reductionist approaches. Transparency across the supply
fashion and sustainability form, or are perceived to chain, and stakeholder dialogue, is currently prioritised,
Below examples of such conflicts are drawn out, some form, opposites: In a short but seminal text the environmental pioneer and but as yet the organisation – specialised – and the language
more or less intrinsic or even peculiar to the fashion systems thinker Donella Meadows argued that the most – again predominantly quantitative – do not optimise an
system, others much more widely manifested.3 The Fast versus slow auspicious place to intervene in a system often appears auspicious information flow across all the stakeholders.
fashion industry at mass-market level is highly specialised. counterintuitive to a mind looking at problems conventio- Finally, it is clear that sustainability in the formal sense,
Although environmental staff are gradually put in place, Risky, sexy versus safe, boring nally. (Meadows 1997) Her upside-down list therefore starts and as evidenced by, for example, the messages on
until very recently they had little or no contact at all with with those intervention points where logical reason often corporate websites and by CSR staff occupying places on
designers, and it is still rare that they form an intrinsic Egotistic versus altruistic tells us to go (least effective), and ends with places that are, the management team, has been ‘promoted’ from the
part of the design team. Interviews with a wide range according to her, potentially most conducive to change. strictly operational, to the highly strategic. (See e.g. H&M
of staff evidence a shared experience of a strict divide Creative versus reactive 2010) However, while it can be anticipated that a deeper
between ‘creative designers’ and ‘constraining’ environ- 9. Numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards) – “Diddling cultural shift is also underway, at present it is probably
mental staff. Lucrative versus costly with details, arranging the deck chairs on safe to say that the “goals of the [fashion] system” and
the Titanic.” its mindset still reside in ‘business or design (almost) as
When environmental issues first entered fashion organi- (For a further discussion of such dichotomies see usual’ and that efforts have not been dedicated to a shift
sations – usually assigned to or championed by quality Tham 2008) 8. Material stocks and flows – buffers at the paradigmatic level. This is, as the end of the quote
control staff and sometimes buyers – they carried with below points out, of course unsurprising, yet directing
them the heritage of a scientific and quantitative language, Versions of this paradox theme (also the title of Sandy 7. Regulating negative feedback loops our attention to the paradigm appears both promising
and were typically regulated through tick-box-lists. Both Black’s book from 2008) are rehearsed so often, and and necessary.
implicitly and explicitly environmental parameters were so pervasively that they have become intrinsic to the 6. Driving positive feedback loops

3
These themes derive from a study completed in 2008, with fashion stakeholders in Sweden and the UK (Tham, 2008), and have since been updated
through continuous dialogue with Swedish industry representatives, through the Sustainable Fashion Academy, of which the researcher is an associate 4
Negative and positive feedback loops serve to regulate a system, the former going against the direction of a development in the system (the less the
and course leader. more, or the more the less), and the latter with it (the more the more, the less the less). (See e.g. Meadows 2008)

18 Textile Journal Textile Journal 19

 “People who manage to intervene in systems at the the polarisation (which is perhaps in aid of a certain sense fantastic (such as the generic – and comfortable On the Benchmarking Synergy Levels within Metadesign
level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally making) that the concepts lose their nuances. Fashion – pyjamas as the constant interface to a myriad of digit- project, tools to spur synergies in collaborative and inter-
transforms systems. You could say paradigms are becomes the extreme and almost perfectly decadent pole ally transmitted fashions). The scenarios, celebrating the disciplinary processes, with the aim to further sustainability,
harder to change than anything else about a system... to sustainability’s wholesome proposition. symbolic and experiential dimensions of fashion – staying were developed and piloted. (See e.g. Wood 2007;
But there’s nothing physical or expensive or even slow Yet, only very few of fashion’s facets or qualities really close to the very nerve of fashion, evidenced the level Tham & Jones 2008) For the purposes of this paper one
about paradigm change. In a single individual it can hold as opposites to sustainability. The Lucky People of imagination and engagement that an opportunity of the principles of metadesign that we developed is of
happen in a millisecond. All it takes is a click in the Forecast study brought together a range of fashion stake- focused, qualitative and design-led approach to the particular relevance.
mind, a new way of seeing. Of course individuals and holders in a series of participatory workshops.5 In an initial exploration of ‘fashion and sustainability’ can engender.
societies do resist challenges to their paradigm harder stage of each workshop the participants were asked Perhaps most importantly the open and allowing format “Metadesign can intervene creatively at
than they resist any other kind of change.” to describe key characteristics or qualities of fashion. allowed participants to start claiming ‘fashion and the level of languaging.” (Wood 2007)
(Meadows 1997) These included ‘creativity, story-telling, visuality, tactility, sustainability’ and therefore shaping it, and to create
zeitgeist-intuneness, emotion and vision’. None of the new and fresh legends, firmly resident in their collective Languaging, first conceptualised by biologists Maturana
Finding sustainability in fashion properties appear opposite to the official definition of and individual experiences and knowledge, but free of and Varela (1980) refers to the continuous and co-dependent
sustainable development6 (WCED 1987), nor to the constraints. (Tham 2008) process of understanding through saying and defining,
How can we then direct our attention to ‘fashion and qualities of ‘sustainability’ that the fashion stakeholders and by saying and defining in turn shaping our world. It
sustainability’ at paradigmatic level, and address the articulated.7 Even the ‘pursuit of the new’ (also a frequent- Metadesign – an integrator of systems can be argued, for example, that the behaviour of the
legends of a paradox? Perhaps a starting point is a ly mentioned feature of fashion), and the notion of ‘fast consumer is informed by its sinister origins9, and that it
nuanced understanding of both realms, and above all an fashion’ do not in themselves appear irreconcilable with This paper has sought to explore how barriers to fashion continues to self-reinforce itself in a positive feedback
outlook that is opportunity and synergy seeking instead sustainability – if we can envisage dematerialised ways of fully embracing sustainability – or vice versa – while loop. Attempts to change its intrinsic culture exemplified
of problem orientated. offering fashion, and a culture of sharing. It is primarily overtly existing at the levels of organisation and resources in the terms ‘ethical or conscious consumers’, should fail
in the notions of ‘shopping’ and of ‘a consumer’ that management, may also exist in the cultural dimension of because they are intrinsic oxymorons, closed to real
Fashion’s ‘brand’ or identity is very much in the making. perhaps the real conflict arises. However, it important to the emerging identity of ‘fashion and sustainability.’ The imagination. However, were we to taste the words
While fashion is increasingly theorising itself from within, note that although ‘shopping’ and ‘consumption’ appear paper has argued that the latter may be crucial to unveil, ‘nurturer, caretaker, steward or participant’, they also
and celebrating its more tacit processes, (see e.g. the closely coupled or intrinsic to a pervasive popular acknowledge and challenge. intrinsically imply new relationships with our material
journals Fashion Practice, published by Berg, and The representation or mediation of fashion, neither were world, and are not closed to emerging practices.
Nordic Textile Journal, published by University College of even present in the fashion stakeholders’ definitions Emerging at a convergence between science and the arts,
Borås. The Swedish School of Textiles) it is also increasingly of fashion. (Tham 2008) informed and facilitated by new information technologies, The definition, identity or ‘brand’ of fashion is spacious
being claimed and publicised from the outside through, metadesign is simultaneously described as a higher order and in many ways open, and emerging theory and
for example, blogs. The interpretations of fashion, even After defining fashion and sustainability respectively of design and a bottom-up approach to design and practices, and new information technologies, are stretching
at a superficial level are many: trade, theory, technology, the participants of the Lucky People Forecast study were change. Metadesign can also be an integrator of systems. fashion in its capacity for immaterial manifestations, for
artistic activity to name but a few. Again, the diversity in invited to create scenarios for a future for fashion from (Giaccardi 2005; Wood 2007) empathy, and participation. (See e.g. von Busch 2009)
the conceptualisations of sustainability and of its advocates, within a paradigm of sustainability. If our approach is gentle and creative, we might find
practices and perspectives is enormous, from anti-growth “Metadesign can be described as a comprehensive sustainability latent within the capabilities and qualities
to business opportunity: from global set of guidelines to The scenarios that come out ranged from the realistic design process that includes the design of itself. of fashion, there for us to unveil, instead of with force
personal convictions and much more. (See e.g. Pepper (for example in-shop restyling service and the use of The benefits of this approach is that it transcends seeking to attach or insert it. There is energy and hope
1996; Walker 2006) It is in the juxtapositioning and in overtly local fibres in a lyocell like8 process) to the the limitations of individual design specialities and when we work with instead of against. There is scope to
works systematically by integrating social, political, re-attune our fashion identities and our fashion abilities,
economical and emotional levels.” (Wood 2007) but to do so we must feel we have license and that
5
The stakeholders included designers, buyers, project leaders, CSR staff, fashion journalists, fashion PR staff, educators, students and users. The we can take ownership. Communicating, imaging,
research was conducted in Stockholm and London. (Tham 2008)
legending, languaging offer powerful leverage.
6
“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (WCED 1987)
7
A wide array, ranging from the generic ‘care’, and ethics’ to the more specific ‘organic materials’. 9
1. the act of consuming or process of being consumed. 2. an amount being consumed. 3. The buying of good and services to satisfy immediate
8
Based on cellulose from woodpulp, lyocell is a fibre developed through a chemical closed-loop process, which makes it environmentally advanta- needs. 4. a wasting disease, esp tuberculosis of the lungs. Latin consumere to devour, destroy, from CON- + sumere to take up, take. (The New
geous to e.g. viscose. (See e.g. Fletcher 2008) Penguin English Dictionary 2000)

20 Textile Journal Textile Journal 21

References Allen. R., ed. 2001. The New Penguin Dictionary. London. Merchant, C. (1982). The Death of Nature: women, von Busch, O. (2009). Fashion-able: Hacktivism and
Penguin Books. ecology and the scientific revolution. London. Engaged Fashion Design. Gothenburg. Camino Press.
Wildwood House. Wood, J. (2007). Design for Micro-utopias: Making the
Arnold, R. (2001). Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image Unthinkable Possible. London. Ashgate.
and morality in the 20th century. London. I.B. Tauris. Oakdene Hollins. (2009) Maximising Reuse and Recycling
Black, S. (2008). Eco-chic: The fashion paradox. London. of UK Clothing and Textiles EV0421. London. DEFRA.
Black Dog Publishing.
Pepper, D. (1996). Modern Environmentalism.
DEFRA (2010). Sustainable Clothing Update Plan (update London. Routledge.
Feb 2010). London. Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs. Available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/ Rockström J., W. Steffen, et al. (2009). Planetary
environment/business/products/roadmaps/clothing/action- Boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for
plan.htm [Accessed 14 March 2010] humanity. Nature. Vol 461:24, pp. 472-475.

Fletcher, K. (1999). Environmental Improvement by Shove, E, and A Warde. (2002). Inconspicuous

Design: an investigation of the UK textile industry. Consumption: The Sociology of Consumption, Lifestyles,
Ph. D. London. Chelsea College of Art & Design. and the Environment. In: Dunlap, R. E. (ed.) Sociological
Theory and the Environment. Boston. Ronman and
Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Littlefield, pp. 230-251.
Design Journeys. London. Earthscan.
Stern, N. (2006). Stern Review Report on the Economics
Futerra. (2007). Words that Sell. London. Futerra. of Climate Change. Cambridge. Cabinet Office,
Giaccardi, E. (2005). Metadesign as an Emergent Design HM Treasury.
Culture. Leonardo. Vol. 38:4, pp. 342-349.
Thackara, J. (2005). In the Bubble: Designing in a
Heeley, J. (1997). Environmental Conscious Design complex world. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press.
and Manufacture in the UK Textile Industry. Ph. D.
Manchester. Manchester Metropolitan University. Tham, M. (2008). Lucky People Forecast – A systemic
H&M. (2010). Företagsansvar. [Online] Available at: futures perspective on fashion and sustainability.
http://www.hm.com/se/fretagsansvar__responsibility. Ph.D. London. Goldsmiths, University of London.
nhtml [Accessed 25 March 2010]
Tham, M., and H. Jones. (2008). Metadesign Tools:
Manzini, E., and C. Vezzoli. (2003). Product-service designing the seeds for shared processes of change. In
Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for sustainable Changing the change. Design Visions, Proposals and
solutions. Paris. United Nations Environment Programme. Tools. Turin. 10-12 July 2008. University of Turin
Walker, S. (2006). Sustainable by Design: Explorations in
Meadows, D. H. (1997). Places to Intervene in a System. Theory and Practice. Londom. Earthscan.
Whole Earth Review. Winter 1997, pp. 78-84.
McDonough, W., and M. Braungart. (2002). Cradle to WCED. (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford and New
Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. New York. York. Oxford University Press.
North Point Press.

22 Textile Journal Textile Journal 23

 Integrity
Clemens Thornquist is Associate Clemens Thornquist
Professor in Fashion Design at The Swedish School of Textile
the Swedish School of Textiles. University of Borås
His research focuses on the clemens.thornquist@hb.se
intersection of art, philosophy
and organisation. Introduction

Identity. Few other aspects in the study of contemporary social life have
gained such a long list of missionaries. Even if it is true that the concept’s
dominating role in cultural studies – regardless if approached from a socio-
logical, psychological, economical or didactic perspective – has started to give
way for a more nuanced discourse on social life, the notion of a symbolically
constructed identity still has a widespread undermining impact when it comes
to the of understanding of face, body and dress in fashion.

Thus, instead of understanding identity as e.g. a »never-ending, always

incomplete, unfinished and open-ended activity in which we all, by neces-
sity or by choice, are engaged« – as Zygmunt Bauman suggests in The
Individualized Society – the concept’s other characteristics of ambiguity and
dynamism has been replaced with a certain systematic finite game. Hence,
instead of people’s torment of today being how to grow and sustain integrity
and how to have it recognized in the social body, it is which identity [symbol]
to choose, and how to keep vigilant enough to another choice when the
previously chosen symbol [identity] is withdrawn from the market or stripped
from its seductive powers, as Bauman accurately suggests.

In fashion studies the identity discourse may be seen as one of the dominant
theoretical perspectives alongside gender, class or queer theory. As such it
posts somewhat of a widespread problem in the understanding of the rela-
tionship between face, body and dress. Because, what at first organically
was [when conspicuous consumption gradually was noted by sociologist and
economists], has not only turned into something that mechanically is [as the
‘theories’ found became schools of thought] but moreover into a widespread
proclamation of what aught to be [as advertising – propaganda – utilised
these idea]. Together, this means that the understanding of identity as a social
reality in clothing and fashion based on the notion of one thing’s affinity
with another – I – may not be so much a possible social actuality as a cynical
expressionistic canon. And apparently, this proclaimed canon have reached
such a levels that when Marilyn Barton at Fashion Institute of Technology in
Photos by Clemens Thornquist

24 Textile Journal Textile Journal 25

New York kindly printed a very early version of this work,
she replied spontaneously: »In your spare time you might
want to consider a Lacanian analysis of overburdened
housewives who choose their clothing from the laundry
basket (the less stinky the better). With any luck, the
wrinkles in the fabric will be perceived as an intentional
affront to the current capitalist patriarchal society instead
of what they really are, a reflection of a lazy housewife. «

Nevertheless, the question scrutinised here is not so

much the potential exaggerations in the interpretation
of representation and meaning in dress encouraged by
various discourses in cultural studies. Instead, the focus
is rather integrity, based on the relationship between
face and dress from a concrete humanistic perspective.
Is there still a face amongst all the clothes in fashion one
may ask? Or perhaps better put: is a face still a face?

[This photographic article is a part of a larger and more

comprehensive work, Integrity, ISBN: 978-91-85659-60-
9, published 2010 by The Textile Research Centre, Borås,
Sweden. As such this article may serve as an elaborate
introduction and abstract of the original work.]

26 Textile Journal Textile Journal 27

28 Textile Journal Textile Journal 29
 Sustainable fashion –
Lisbeth Svengren Holm, PhD, pro-
fessor in fashion management at
the Swedish School of Textiles.
Her field of research is design and
fashion management. She has
a driver for new business
participated in several international
research projects on design, inno-
vation, strategic development,
models
and communication. She is also a Lisbeth Svengren Holm
guest researcher at Lund University The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås
Department of Design Sciences. lisbeth.svengren.holm@hb.se
Prior to this she was at Stockholm
University School of Business, and Olof Holm
responsible for research and edu- The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås
cation at Swedish Industrial Design olof.holm@hb.se
Foundation. She has published
several articles within the field of Introduction
design management and a recent
book about the interface between There is a large interest in sustainable issues in media, among politicians,
design, technology and economy different organizations, and also among consumers, although the latter is the
“Möten kring design” together most ambiguous group. Many people are interested and try hard to act in an
with Ulla Johansson.
ecologically responsible way (Creyer & Ross, 1997, Kaufmann, 1999, Carrigan
& de Pelsmacker, 2009). Many studies show however that although the attitude
Olof Holm, PhD, professor in
towards buying ecological products is very positive, the actual behavior is
management and communication at
not in line with the attitude (Joergens, 2006; Phau & Ong, 2007; Carrigan
the Swedish School of Textiles. His
& Attalla, 2001; Alknert et al, 2009). Studies also show that a sustainable
field of research is communication,
marketing strategy and manage-
behavior differs among different product categories. For instance, consumers
ment. He has as researcher and find it easier to buy ecological food products compared to fashion products
naval reserve officer participated (Aspers, 2008). Consumers find that the amount of ecological food products
in research project with focus on is larger than that of ecological fashion products and thus easier accessible.
communication strategy in co-
operation with the Swedish Navy. It is assumed that consumers have the power to force companies to act in
Prior to this he was at Stockholm a more sustainable way. However, it seems that consumers’ use of power is
University School of Business. Olof rather short-lived as reactions to sudden media stories. Consumers respond
Holm has published several books on to the media stories for a short while. Then, when the story causes no more
communication and management headlines, consumers’ interest fades away and questions are no longer asked.
and research articles in scientific Maybe everybody believes that the companies have changed their behavior.
journals. One of his latest articles Maybe this belief is correct. Companies do know that media is digging for
“Integrated marketing communi- new stories and many have CSR policies that they follow. Some companies do
cation: from tactics to strategy” use or change to the use of ecological materials that support sustainable con-
was awarded Outstanding paper sumption if they perceive that this is what consumers want. Last year Hemtex,
by Emerald Literati Network a Swedish home textile retailer, launched towels with organic cotton at a
awards for Excellence in 2007. price 150-200 SEK above the non-organic cotton towels. The organic cotton

30 Textile Journal Textile Journal 31

did not sell well and Hemtex withdraw them. In the The second-hand cases these they wanted to make them available to the market The result
end companies will deliver the value the consumers again. The used clothes have been a little bit modified
are willing to pay for. In July 2008 Filippa K opened a second-hand store in and washed to look like new; some clothes stem from Based on a literature review of research on consumer
Stockholm in collaboration with Judits Second Hand, old collections, some from test collections or those who culture theory and sustainable consumption the focus
The pressure from organizations and the stream of a well-known second-hand store with a good quality did not go into full production and hence were not sold. group had some major themes that guided the discussions.
reports, not only single stories, about ecological and profile. The Filippa K Second-Hand store is a non-profit These were now displayed in Acne Archive, a store that Sustainable clothes face four major issues that influence
social problems that especially fashion consumption store. The idea is that consumers can submit used Filippa should be like an archive with book shelves. the consumer behavior and the possibility of a new
causes should have had an impact on consumer behavior; K clothes and these are then sold on commission. Also second-hand business model: 1) attitude and behavior
either a decreased purchase or a demand for more eco- unsold collections from Filippa K are offered together Consumers’ relation to second-hand concepts towards sustainability; 2) price level; 3) design and
logical fashion. But statistics from fast fashion companies with vintage accessories. brands; and 4) accessibility and convenience.
show no decrease in the purchase. According to Connolly The empirical data is derived from a master thesis project
and Prothero (2003) most studies on sustainability focus The Boomerang Effect was introduced parallel to the conducted by Emilie Chawala and Eleonor Hjorth1. The Sustainability – attitude and behavior
on the purchase and production of ecological and ethical launch of a junior collection in 2009. Consumers submit method used for the research was focus group discussions.
products and do not recognize the actual problem of over- used junior clothes to the store and receive a 10 percent The argument for this method was to facilitate discus- Despite a high awareness of the problems related to
consumption. There is a debate about over-consumption, discount when buying a new product. This concept sions and reflections upon attitudes and behavior in sustainability consumer behavior is not particularly
but it is probably one of the most difficult and complex expanded to the whole Boomerang collection when the relation to each other, as this is what we do as consumers. influenced. The respondents see themselves as rather
issues in a globalized and fast moving economy based on new Home collection was introduced. The second-hand Consumption is a social process that is influenced by conscious when it comes to sustainable behavior at
volumes, efficiency and expected growth where consumers clothes of their own brand are sold in a special part of friends and others. home, i.e. sorting papers, bottles, etc, and also aware
are encouraged to consume to keep the economic the flagship store in Stockholm together with the new that they probably should and could do more. When it
wheels moving. Home collection. The second-hand clothes are sold with Six focus groups were conducted during the autumn comes to fashion, sustainability is a low priority. There are
the Swedish certificate “Good Environmental Choice” 2009. The aim was to find participants in line with the other consumption patterns they would rather change.
One possibility to reduce the waste of resources within (“Bra miljöval). target groups of the case companies, which means age
fashion is by increasing second-hand business. Second- groups 20 to 35 years old living in the Stockholm region. The respondents regarded it as preposterous to think
hand stores are often run as small independent stores Polarn O. Pyret, a brand for children clothing, ran dur- 25 persons in total participated, 14 men and 11 women. about sustainability first of all and not aesthetics when
or by welfare organizations with a large number of ing October 2009 a campaign called “sending forward” Each focus group consisted of 4 to 5 participants. Two buying clothes. The motive for buying a garment is that
second-hand stores, in Sweden for instance Myrorna where consumers could submit used clothes and receive thirds of the participants were students and the others it will make you look good. Ecological fashion is associ-
and Stadsmissionen. Recently, however, we have also 10 percent on a new product. The second-hand products worked full or part time. The focus group discussions ated with dull colors and forms. In general the focus
seen fashion brand companies like the Swedish Filippa K, were then sold in all Polarn O. Pyret stores with the label lasted for about one and half hour each. To stimulate the groups admitted that they were not so knowledgeable
and try second-hand as a new business model for their “sending forward”. All profit from this campaign was discussions pictures from the stores described above were about ecological clothing and its consequences. When
brands, with sustainability and reduction of waste as given to the children’s organization Plan. The campaign shown as well as pictures from the stores of Myrorna for instance the label on a garment said 30 percent
driving forces according to their own statements. Polarn also took place on one day in November 2009. Polarn and Stadsmissionen, two well-known Swedish non-profit organic cotton they felt frustrated about how to interpret
O Pyret, and Boomerang have developed a different O. Pyret also have a regular service for “buy and sell” based second-hand stores with a full range of second- this, whether this was good enough. Also the knowledge
second-hand concepts for the same purpose. The purpose on their web to facilitate the second-hand consumption hand products. The focus group discussions have been about the fashion companies’ second-hand stores and
of this article is to discuss how consumers related to between consumers. transcribed and made accessible to us. Hence, we base their motives were rather low and they expressed rather
sustainable fashion, second-hand concepts and discuss the analysis on both the authors’ analysis and our own a lot of skepticism that the motives were only driven by
this model as a way to develop new business models in Acne opened the store Acne Archive in Stockholm in analysis of the transcribed discussions. sustainability and not a way to sell old collections. The
the fashion industry. We will present the company cases, February 2009. On the web you can read that Acne discussion thus focused on attitudes towards sustainabili-
the empirical research and discuss the findings from a wants to contribute to a better environment through ty and second-hand concepts rather than actual behavior.
theoretical perspective and end with some reflections increased re-use of clothes. Besides this, says the managing
about the future fashion market and the role of the director on their web, Acne receives many questions
second-hand concept. about older collections and as they do have a store of
1
Chawala, Emilie and Hjorth, Eleonor. 2009. Second Hand – Det nya Gröna? Ett konsumentperspektiv (Second Hand – the New Green? A consumer
perspective). Master thesis at Stockholm University School of Business. Svengren Holm was a supervisor of the thesis.

32 Textile Journal Textile Journal 33

The attitude towards second-hand differs among the Design and brands almost per definition, lacks the quality for a longer use or Discussion – consumer
aware of the problems related tovalue
fashion,and dissonance
over-consump-
respondents and depends on the store as such, the re-use. By contrast, most children clothes are appropriate tion, ecological and ethical problems in the production
quality of the clothes and experience of buying second- Whether you buy a garment or not depend on its design for second-hand as they rarely are worn out but grown out. process. They
Consumers arebehave according
hedonistic to what driven
individuals they value, i.e
by emotions, i
hand. A first reaction was that second-hand smells musty, in the first place and secondly the price. The group what makes sense and is perceived as the best value
Östberg, 2006). Fashion consumer behavior is symbolic and and
it is not fresh; the clothes are thrown in heaps and you discussions agreed upon that in second-hand it is not Accessibility and Convenience answer to the question “what’s in it for me?” In this
have to poke to find something. Second-hand is not important if the clothes look old or new as long as they
influences the willingness to buy or not. Sustainability is no
sense consumers are rational. The reason why consumers
seen as an alternative to sustainable fashion. Some of have a style that is sought for and is unique. However, Accessibility and comfort are important for both submit- fashion, rather personal
do not reward sustainabledesires
fashionare. Sustainable
could be discussedfashion con
the respondents do like to buy second-hand and find second-hand stores are sometimes associated with a ting clothes and buying second-hand. Myrorna, a second- most
from the value formula (Kotler, 2000; Holm, 2002), theto fashio
consumers are aware of the problems related
re-use of clothes a good idea but only if the garments special smell of musty, old clothes. hand chain with several stores in Stockholm, both in the and ethical problems
dissonance in the production
theory (Festinger, 1957; Holm,process. They behav
2002), and
look good. Low price and uniqueness are the most city centre and in the suburbs, was considered an easy basicmakes
what theories of marketing.
sense and is perceived as the best value and ans
important arguments for buying second-hand. The fact The expectations of second-hand stores from familiar alternative. To submit to other stores required more effort for me?” In this sense consumers are rational. The reason w
that it is beneficial from a sustainability point of view is well-known fashion brands were different though. The and energy. If the store was regarded as far away it was The Value formula
sustainable fashion could be discussed from the value formu
a bonus, but not a significant motive for buying. branded second-hand clothes are expected to look new not worth the effort; it was easier to sell the clothes on
and are seen as a thrifty substitute to the brand’s new the Internet, submit it to Myrorna, give it away to friends
theory (Festinger, 1957; Holm, 2002), and basic theories of
We can assume that companies’ primary mission is to
The importance of price clothes, not as a second-hand in the first place. The or just throw it away. But not only the physical distance create and deliver values to its customers. Value is a
second-hand stores by Filippa K and Acne are designed in made the submission of clothes a matter of reflection. The Value
function (f) formula
of a ratio between Benefits (B) and the total
The dominate reason for not buying eco-fashion is a line with the brands and are associated with quality and Some felt that the clothes were not judged as having We can(C).
Costs assume thatarecompanies’
Benefits primary
the consumer’s mission
perceived valueisofto creat
perceived high price and for buying second-hand the exclusivity. But it was also considered important to com- the quality that they could last for much longer, or if functional (fu)
customers. andisemotional
Value a function(em)
(f)factors. The between
of a ratio total cost Benefit
low price. Especially in non-profit stores like Myrorna and municate what the store is about. Filippa K Second-Hand the clothes had been expensive they wanted to keep it is the bundle
Benefits are theof factors including
consumer’s price (p), value
perceived time (t),
ofenergy
functional (f
Stadsmissionen the low price is the major argument. The was quite obvious, while not Acne Archive. One of the longer themselves. (e), psychic effort (pe) and loss of alternative benefits
The total cost is the bundle of factors including price (p), tim
respondents were generally positive towards the second- group members had bought a garment at Acne without (ab). We can formulate the relationship as follows:
hand concepts of designer branded clothes, like for realizing that it was from an old collection. No consumer To buy second hand was a matter of attitude towards (pe) and loss of alternative benefits (ab). We can formulate
instance Filippa K and Acne. These brands are attractive wants to be fooled or get the feeling of not being sure shopping also from a convenience perspective. As second- B(fu+em)
and a second-hand will reduce the price. The price level what they just bought. hand by definition does not have each dress or jacket in B(fu+em)
could be higher than at stores like Myrorna, but it had to different sizes it is always a risk that items available in the V=f C (p+t+e+pe+ab)
be at least 50 per cent lower than in the ordinary stores. The brand is an important part of fashion shopping present supply will not fit. The unpredictability of finding V=f C (p+t+e+pe+ab)
and the consumers are willing to pay more for designer something worthwhile caused a great hesitation towards Values can be absolute and uncompromising but also relativ
The focus groups were less interested in the concept of clothes and brands. There is in general also a belief that second-hand. If you are looking for something specific, Values can be absolute and uncompromising but also
returning clothes and getting a discount; unless it con- the high price correlates with high quality. But the group time and travel costs are unavoidable. You are lucky if
perspectives, experiences, views and emotions. Functional b
relative and defined by consumers’ perspectives, experi-
cerned children clothes. A discount of 10 percent was discussion showed that this is not always the case. One you find something that you do like and that fits. This value
ences,inviews
fashion.
and It is the emotional
emotions. Functionalvalues
benefitsthat
are count
by as ben
considered too low and the fact that they had to buy a consequence of this, according to the discussion in the unpredictability is attractive for some, frustrating and the garment, to imagine how you look when wearing
definition of low value in fashion. It is the emotional it, how
new garment to get the discount felt like an undesired focus groups, is that they are willing to buy the brand just a waste of time and money for others. are crucial to how these benefits are valued. But
values that count as benefits. The aesthetic experience only if thes
pressure. We all understand the need to reduce our just because of the symbolic value. of the
than thegarment, to imagine
total costs how
will there beyou look when wearing
a purchase.
consumption and this concept was not supportive. Discussion – consumer value and dissonance theory it, how it feels and fits your personality are crucial to how
The concept of Polarn O. Pyret was judged as more The high price has other consequences. Having paid a these benefits are valued. But only if these emotional
attractive compared to the Boomerang’s as the income high price for the garments the consumer wants to use it Consumers are hedonistic individuals driven by emotions, benefits are higher than the total costs will there
was sent forward to children organizations. The commis- longer and hence, the garment will be worn out and not impulses and vanity (Bengtsson & Östberg, 2006). be a purchase.
sion offered by for instance Filippa K was also no trigger. attractive enough to submit. On the other hand one can Fashion consumer behavior is symbolic and the aesthetic
The whole issue of submitting one’s clothes was more of see this as a sustainable consumption as the clothes are experience influences the willingness to buy or not. The costs are related to three gaps that the company
a sensitive matter and hardly a matter of making a profit worn longer. Still, the respondents argued that it is Sustainability is no driver for consumer behavior in needs to overcome: physical, mental and economical. Fast
for oneself. probably only brands like Filippa K and Acne that do have fashion, rather personal desires are. Sustainable fashion fashion companies such as H&M, Zara and Ginatricot, are
a quality that is suitable for second-hand. Fast fashion, consumption is not a priority even if most consumers are good at overcoming all these gaps. The prices of all items

34 Textile Journal Textile Journal 35

 the global
actions. Theclimate differently.
individual can actIfinwe buy cheapwith
accordance clothes we might worsen
her awareness. But shethe canliving
also conditions
make a
for children in Bangladesh. Individuals can be more or less aware
rational decision to ignore facts. The concept of rational ignorance needs an explanation. of the consequences of here
are relatively low; the stores are in the city centre and according to the value formula seems more rational. The individual canactions.
actions. act inTheaccordance
individual can with
act in accordance with her But she
her awareness. In thiscan
situation
alsothe consumer
make a is conscious about social
the large chains have several locations in larger cities. But that is only if the costs for environment are not awareness. But she can also make a rational decision to consequences and wants to consume even when the
The range in the stores is large and varied, with both taking into the formula and the value of rational
findingwelldecision
The informed to and
ignore facts.facts.
responsible
ignore Theconsumer
concept
The concept ofof
makesrational
rational ignorance
aignorance
quite needs anneeds
different an explanation.
analysis,
consumption considers the effects. The dissonance
will cause negative
breadth and depth in colours and sizes. Besides this, the something unique are perceived as high. explanation. is a reality. The consumer can either ignore the social
collections changes frequently so it pays off to visit the
consequence of her own consumption on an international, political, economic level. We can
consequences or abstain from consuming. In either case
store often. Thus, the total cost to buy a garment is low; The well
illustrate
Alternative benefits, in this case if we consider informed and responsible
different situations
the benefits Thewith consumer
triangular
well informed makes a
models consumer
and responsible quite
(figure makesdifferent
1): a analysis,
consonanceconsiders theHer decision will depend on
will be restored.
the low price, low expenditures of time, energy and psychic consequence
of contributing to a more sustainable consumption, are of her own consumption on anconsiders
quite different analysis, international, political,
the consequence of her economic
the strength level.
of her We candesire or of her social aware-
personal
effort, and the loss of alternative benefits are all very low. these on the plus side for second-hand? Not actually, as own consumption on an international, political, economic ness and responsibility.
illustrate different situations
most people do not buy second-hand for that reason,
with triangular models (figure 1):
level. We can illustrate different situations with triangular
If we compare this with second-hand consumption the even if the awareness of ecological and ethical problems models (figure 1): If we assume that the line of least resistance will
equation looks different. Fashion is like all life style con- is high. To understand the lack of response we can dominate the consumer’s behaviour we can develop the
sumption about emotional benefits. Second-hand and discuss the dissonance theory. following pattern of analysis. The consumer argues that
especially vintage stores can provide emotional benefits her decision in the long run means very little or nothing
as they offer unique garments that support the creation The Dissonance theory and the rational consumer notable to the environment and also that the social
of our identity. Vintage, a concept that has become consequences of that particular consumption in general
popular has aesthetically high quality and supports our Consumption is a societal process where individuals and have been exaggerated. By following the small-step-line
emotional experience of having a high value. Those who groups seek to obtain what they need and want. the consumer gradually restores the more comfortable
find something unique can value the emotional benefits Let us assume that the individual’s consumption includes consonant state of mind at least for the moment.
of being lucky, or being smart. The benefits of buying considering a number of alternatives. These alternatives This means that also according to the dissonance theory
vintage could thus be higher than buying fast fashion as can be beneficial for the individual as well as for the consumers behave rationally. What then, are the possibilities
it contributes to our emotional experience and also to the society as a whole. But they can also be beneficial for to achieve more sustainable consumer behaviour in fashion
creation of our unique identity. the individual and at the same time disadvantageous to consumption? Are second-hand and vintage concepts
FigureIf 1:
the society, to the environment, to the climate. The Dissonant Theory with positive relations, i.e. no dissonance.
that that can have a wider application?
If we then look at the costs, it is obvious that even if the situation becomes obvious and the individual customer Figure 1: The Dissonant Theory with positive relations, i.e. no
dissonance.
price is low, or at least lower than the ordinary store becomes aware of this perspective a dissonant situation Reflections
collections, the total cost, the sum of price, time, psychic will occur. Figure
In this case the consumer iswith
1: The Dissonant Theory positive relations,
conscious about social i.e. noconsequences,
dissonance. she wants to consume and
In this case the consumer is conscious about social
effort, energy and loss of alternative benefits could be high. her choice has no negativeconsequences,
consequences for the
she wants environment.
to consume and her choice
The market is changing and the condition for fashion
Leon Festinger developed the Theory of Cognitive companies in the future will probably change. Fashion
There are many second-hand stores in a city like
In this
Dissonance 1957. The basic idea is that the values,
case the consumer is
has conscious
no negative about social
consequences for consequences,
the environment. she wants to consume and
and clothes are symbols for the creation of identity,
Stockholm but few in comparison to the number of fast herorganized
relations and behaviors of the individual are choice has no negative consequences for the environment. personality and meaning. In that sense fashion products
fashion stores. They are often located in areas of the city so that they are subjectively consistent. Information are part of the value creation that consumers seek in
with lower rents and therefore not always easily accessible. inconsistent with the consonant pattern brings about fashion consumption supporting the individualization that
It takes time, money and energy to get to the stores dissonance. Research (Sandell 1969) has shown that characterize the present society. The individualization of
which are extra costs as fashion consumption most of individuals tend to avoid dissonant situations and in society has maybe not led to less of herd mentality; the
the time is an impulse act. Especially when you risk not doing so prefer the line of least resistance rather then group pressure is still very high. But the expansion of the
finding anything that fits, the loss of alternatives also will radical changes. fashion industry has made fashion more accessible in the
increase as well as the psychic efforts. first place and secondly made more people engaged in
Production and consumption affect the environment. If fashion. On the other hand, the fact that there are many
According to the value formula the costs for buying we travel by car, train or fly we affect the global climate different life styles still creates a variety and many choices.
second-hand clothes are rather high and often combined differently. If we buy cheap clothes we might worsen the The Internet has allowed consumers to start their own
with the risk that you will find nothing that fits. Fast living conditions for children in Bangladesh. Individuals Figure 2: The Dissonant theory with negative relation between social
communities. Even if people are not experts on material
fashion in the city centre is therefore an alternative which can be more or less aware of the consequences of here consequences and consumption decision. qualities, production qualities, they become more aware
Figure 2: The Dissonant theory with negative relation between social consequences and consumption decision.
36 Textile Journal Textile Journal 37
Figure
In this2:situation
The Dissonant theory with is
the consumer negative relation
conscious between
about social
social consequences and
consequences and consumption decision.
wants to consume
of what is new on the market, what trends are, how consumers as co-producers is an opportunity for second- References
to find unique items. This is one opportunity for new hand stores in general, but also for established fashion
brands to emerge, even if they start on a small scale. companies. Sustainability might not be the driving force Alknert, T; Ek, C, and Lindman, L. 2009. När Mode Creyer, E., and Ross, W. 1997. The Influence of Firm
The Internet makes it possible to reach more consumers. but a bonus result when the market and consumer möter etik (When Fashion meets Ethics). Master thesis at Behavior on purchase intention: do consumers really care
The role of the consumer has changed to support these behavior change. Stockholm University School of Business about business ethics? Journal of Consumer Marketing,
developments as well as the role of consumers in the vol 14, no 6, pp 421-433.
production phase. Anderson, H. and Brodin, M.H. 2005. The Consumer’s
Changing Role: The Case of Recycling. Management of Festinger, Leon. 1957. Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.
In a world of re-cycle, second-hand and vintage the Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol 16, Stanford University Press.
consumers are no longer end-consumers (Anderson no 1, pp 77-86.
& Brodin, 2005). In second-hand and vintage product Holm, Olof. 2002. Strategisk marknadskommunikation –
moves either without intermediaries directly between Aspers, P. 2008. Labelling fashion markets. International teorier och metoder (Strategic Marketing Communication
consumers or via second-hand and vintage stores until Journal of Consumer Studies, vol 32, issue 6 (november), – Theories and Methods). Malmö, Liber AB.
they are either worn out and disposed of or potentially pp 633-638.
enter a re-use or recycle stream. In this sense the con- Joergens, Catrin. 2006. Ethical Fashion: Myth of Future
sumer is an active part of a production and consumption Bengtsson, A., and Östberg, J. 2006. Märken och Trend? Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,
process, i.e the consumer becomes a co-producer also människor. Om marknadssymboler som kulturella resurser vol 10, no 3, pp 360-371.
in the fashion industry. The view of the consumer as (Brands and People. About market symbols as cultural
co-producer from a value creation perspective has long resurces). Lund, Studentlitteratur AB. Kaufman, L. 1999. Selling Green: What Managers
been recognized within service industries (Normann & and Marketers Need to Know About Consumer
Ramirez, 1998; Normann, 2001). The consumption Carrigan, M., andAttalla, A. 2001. The Myth of Environmental Attitudes. Environmental Quality
process is a central part of creating the value that the the Ethical Consumer. Do Ethics Matter in Purchase Management, vol 8, no 4, pp 11-21.
producers of goods or services provide. The producers Behaviour? Journal of Consumer Marketing,
have a supporting role in the form of customer services vol 18, no 7, pp 560-577. Kotler, P. 2000. Marketing Management. The Millennium
and support systems to maintain the relation to edition. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.
the consumers. Carrigan, M., and de Pelsmacker, P. 2009. Will Ethical
Consumers Sustain Their Values in the Global Credit Normann, R., and Ramirez, R. 1998. Designing Interactive
Fashion companies provide values through design, quality Crunch? International Marketing Review, Strategy, from value chain to value constellation.
of the garments, status of the brands and the stores. vol 26, no 6, pp674-687. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
Traditionally the fashion companies have been very much
in control of the value creation process, in symbiosis with Chawala, Emilie and Hjorth, Eleonor. 2009. Second Hand Normann, R. 2001. Refraiming Business. When the Map
media. The phenomenon of blogs on the Internet has – Det nya Gröna? Ett konsumentperspektiv (Second Hand Changes the Landscape. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
changed this power relationship to one in which individual – the New Green? A consumer perspective). Phau, Ian and Ong, Denise. 2007. An Investigation
consumers have created blogs that have become very Master thesis at Stockholm University School of Business. of Environmental claims in Promotional Messages for
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status and not. The market situation for fashion is changing Connolly, J., and Prothero, A. 2003. Sustainable 25, no 7, pp 772-788.
and those fashion companies who have delivered clothes, Consumption: Consumption, Consumers and the
worked on their brand image, and used the stores to Commodity Discourse. Consumption, Markets and Sandell, R-G. 1969. Att förstå konsumenten (To
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second-hand market. The new market situation with

38 Textile Journal Textile Journal 39

 Hommage à Ulla Eson Bodin
– the versatile

Exhibitions Review
Ulla Eson Bodin (1935-2009) was 11 mars – 18 april 2010 Borås Museum of Arts, Sweden.
a professor at the Swedish School Curator Wanja Djanaieff
of Textiles, University of Borås.
She was a versatile designer who Text: Annie Andréasson
worked with textile design, fashion University of Borås
and costume art for the opera annie.andreasson@hb.se
and the theatre. During her early
career, she was a freelance tex- Exhibition footage: Jan Berg
tile designer and head designer Museum of Textiles, Borås, Sweden
at Almedahls for 35 years. Her
patterns from the 1970’s are still Her final performance. This is one way of describing the memorial
of current interest. Ulla Eson exhibition in honour of the design profile Ulla Eson Bodin, held by
Bodin graduated from the Textile the Museum of Art, Borås. The exhibition marks the end of a long,
Institute, Borås, in the 1950’s as a productive and versatile career. It may also serve as an inspiration to
pattern designer and dessinateur. young artists.
She also attended the school of
the Swedish Society of Crafts and This is probably how Ulla Eson Bodin herself would have liked it to be viewed.
Design, today known in Sweden What characterized Ulla Eson Bodin in her work with students and researchers
as HDK, in the late 1950’s. During at the Swedish School of Textiles, was that she was never afraid of trying out
her years as professor, Ulla Eson new methods or expanding boundaries. She was always heading for new
Bodin made a place for the goals with an enthusiasm that caught the people around her, leaving no one
Swedish School of Textiles on the unaffected. By rights she was much more than just a textile designer and she
international map. The concept always worked with so many other things.
of smart textiles was firmly The versatile is also the subtitle of the exhibition, put together by her close
established. She was involved in friend and colleague professor Wanja Djanaieff. They met at the City Square
developing the sound absorbent in Borås fifty years ago and have worked together ever since.
Cullus, an innovation that won - I noticed her from a distance. We were both out walking with baby carriages
the VINN NU award in 2008. and I went up to her because she had such a handsome lime green leather
hat, Wanja Djanaieff reminisces. That same lime green colour recurred in the
creations of Ulla Eson Bodin – in patterns, apparel, sketches, costumes, hats
Photos by Christer Månsson

and sound absorbents.

- Although I have known her for such a long time, I had no idea she had
done so much. I think many of her colleagues and students will feel the same
way when they visit the exhibition, says Wanja Djanaieff.

40 Textile Journal Textile Journal 41

Ulla Eson Bodin was 74 years old
when she passed away and was a
professor at The Swedish School
of Textiles, University of Borås. She
entered academia in the mid 1990’s.
This was the first time she had a
permanent position and an oppor-
tunity to share her experence and
knowledge with others. She had a
long career as a free-lance textile
designer behind her. Her ability to
create such vast amounts of things
in various fields is recurring theme in
the exhibition. She was so productive
that the sheer amount of things she
dared take on is baffling. The habit
of throwing herself into new projects
with great eagerness is one thing
many remember her by.

42 Textile Journal Textile Journal 43

- Ulla never saw any limitations and challenged us to
think outside the box. Working with Ulla was inspiring,
challenging and sometimes a bit hysterical, says lecturer
Gunnel Larsson who met her at the Swedish School of
Textiles. They worked on several exciting projects together,
e.g. exhibitions on Siri Derkert and Sonia Delaunay.
The latter project stands out as one of the projects that
related most closely to Ulla Eson Bodin as a person.
It was a collaborative project together with the Museum
of Sketches, Lund in 2007. Sonia Delaunay’s idiom and
range of colours appealed to Ulla Eson Bodin.
She reconstructed innumerable fashion sketches to have
the creations convey as fair an impression as possible.
Finding the right shape was important, as was choosing
fabrics of the right quality. The result was innovative
apparel made from the artist’s own images. The well-
known circular patterns in rainbow colours can be found
here. Naturally, the creations were displayed by professional
dancers. Here, if ever, she proved that textiles are not
merely flat materials, but may be combined with other
art forms to reach new heights. One reviewer wrote
lyrically: “In an exultant delirium of rhythmical colour
chords, decorative fabrics, wild stage costumes and
irrepressible public projects, all boundaries of art seem
to dissolve.” Mixing various art forms was characteristic
of Ulla Eson Bodin. Music, dance, motion, video, photo-
graphy, choreography and textiles. Need it be said that
the costumes were praised in an international digital
print competition?

44 Textile Journal Textile Journal 45

Hundreds of patterns

The exhibition in Borås begins with

Ulla Eson Bodin’s textile patterns from
the 1960’s, because at that time she
began her career as a textile designer.
Some of the favourites she kept
herself are displayed at the exhibition.
Familiar patterns, seen in homes and
public environments in the 1970’s
on duvet covers, curtains and table
cloths, are sure to bring out smiles of
recognition. For 35 years Ulla Eson
Bodin worked as head designer at
Almedahls. Often the patterns tell a
story to amuse the consumers, Ulla
Eson Bodin mentioned in an interview.
“We wanted to create something
unique to Swedish textiles”. And
they were popular, for sure – people
loved the prints and they sold well all
over the world.

At the center of the exhibition, Ulla

Eson Bodin’s studio is displayed with
her desk and easel. Sketches, pads,
paints and materials. It is all displayed
just as it stood in her home,
Månsagården. Despite the fact that
Ulla Eson Bodin made a place on the
world map for the Swedish School
of Textiles with several exhibitions
on smart textiles that attracted inter-
national attention, she was a down-
to-earth kind of person. The horse
farm outside Nitta was a base for her
and her children and grandchildren.
A home to which she often invited
friends and colleagues.

46 Textile Journal Textile Journal 47

 Knitting and patented sound absorbents

When Ulla Eson Bodin first came to The Swedish School

of Textiles, it was obvious to all who met her that she
liked to work with young designers in the making.
She was enthusiastic and involved herself with gusto in
every project. Early on she understood the importance
of collaboration. The Knitting Academy was one of
her contributions to make production and new talents
come together, a kind of experimental workshop for
design students from all over the country, but also for
established designers, where they could develop ideas
and work with the knitting companies in the region.
Naturally, all innovations were to be exhibited and prop-
erly at that. The opportunities available to Swedish tricot
with new design and technology were to be promoted.
In 2003, the first installation was held in Stockholm in
a rough machine room at the KTH Royal Institute of
Technology. I remember Ulla Eson Bodin saying: “I would
never have had the courage to organize this installation if
I didn’t have so many talented and professional designers
and others to rely on”.

Some of the talented people Ulla Eson Bodin often

returned to were her colleagues in the laboratories at
The Swedish School of Textiles. She liked to perform
experiments together with them. In one such experiment
the sound absorbent Cullus saw the light of day.
Together with Folke Sandvik she wanted to create three-
dimensional effects in stage costumes when they
discovered that the surface of thermoplastic yarns
becomes hard after heating. The egg carton-like material
proved to function beyond all expectations. Patents were
applied for and today the sound absorbing textiles are
sold by the company Abinitio. Some of the stage costumes
and a prototype of the sound absorbent are found at the
exhibition. Also found there are some of the pieces of
metal furniture Ulla Eson Bodin created in collaboration
with a local blacksmith. Often the point of departure was
to create a stand to hold creations and details for the
exhibitions and in the end more came out than was
intended in the first place.

48 Textile
Textile Journal
Journal Textile Journal 49
 Costumes enter the stage

When others went on vacation,

Ulla Eson Bodin went on to teach
summer courses at Vadstena
Academy. There, both she and the
students were free to use their
creative inspiration and had the
opportunity to examine materials
and techniques. The creations were
fantastic. Ulla Eson Bodin loved
their collaborations. In a sequence
of her private footage included in
the movie about her she is heard
giggling in the background at some
funny experiment from one of the
workshops.
On commission for the Jönköping
County Museum, Ulla Eson Bodin
created playful costumes for a
production of John Bauer’s The
Mountain King. Quick sketches show
her intentions and beside them the
completed costumes hang. It is old-
fashioned magic, yet in a modern
version. One quite unusual aspect
of this project was that it was Ulla
Eson Bodin’s costumes which acted
as the point of departure, inspiring
the choreography. It was the costumes
that made the dancers move.

50 Textile Journal Textile Journal 51

The celebration of Karin Larsson

The opening at Sundborn in the

summer of 2009, was Ulla Eson
Bodin’s last collaboration together
with Wanja Djanaieff. In connection to
bringing out the woman behind the
Swedish national artist Carl Larsson,
showing her as the talented textile
designer and interior decorator she
was, the students of the Swedish
School of Textiles were given an
opportunity to exhibit their inter-
pretations of what she would have
created if she had been living today.
It was more than a mere summer
exhibition. At the opening, a per-
formance was given at the Sundborn
dance pavilion. It was quite some
finale and this fall the students’ work
will be exhibited at the Museum of
Textiles, Borås.

52 Textile Journal Textile Journal 53

 Body & Space

Abroad, Ulla Eson Bodin paved

the way for The Swedish School of
Textiles’ research on smart textiles.
She was the driving force behind
several of the renowned exhibitions.
In 2008 the exhibition “Body &
Space” came to Riga. By then it had
travelled all over Europe for two
years and developed along the way
to include new findings. I was given
the opportunity to document the
exhibition and Ulla Eson Bodin was
truly in her element. She was every-
where to make sure everything was
in place and functioning perfectly,
from early morning to late night.
It was an exhibition for all senses:
hearing, sight, feeling and smell.
Success was a fact and journalists
came in throngs to see the extra-
ordinary fabrics which react to
sound, light and heat. Even the
music played was written especially
for the exhibition by Paulina Sundin.

54 Textile Journal Textile Journal 55

56 Textile Journal Textile Journal 57
 Towards a fashion diagnosis
Linda Rampell (Ph.D) authors Linda Rampell
books and articles on inter- linda@rampell.se
disciplinary design theory
elucidated from critical angles. Dear Reader,
We have passed the year 2050, but my mind is set on another time. I cannot
explain why, but I am driven by the motivation to make a diagnosis of fashion
society at the beginning of our century. O dear, poetry of a past redeemed to
a fiction of the future? On the contrary, I assure you: we will dwell upon the
prose of an historical everydayness, a Blanchotian grotesque; the maddening
of the day when fashion had already occurred, and hence dwindled into
boredom, and begun its slow design-death.

A case study

In 0.26 seconds I get 2,410,000,000 hits on the word “fashion” at Google,

the dominant shopwindow against the world in 2010. In our library, I know it
can be quite tiresome to walk along the kilometres of shelf “F” of literature
bearing the antediluvian title “fashion”, as generic in content as it is massive
in occurrence. I have no inclination to repeat for you what even then was
re-told. Instead, I have made a case study, to propose this diagnosis consisting
of a set of symptoms, which I will now share with you.

Fashion – What was it?

Once upon a time, it was thought that “fashion” was a way to create an
“identity”. But neither the word “fashion”, nor the word “identity” was put
into question, save for a very few exceptions – Jack-in-the-box sentences
randomly popping up in books reproducing what was already reproduced;
dwelling on who-made-what, with a vocabulary peppered with adjectives such
as “sexy”, “cool” or “chic”, not to mention “fashion” itself. Dichotomies
overtaken from Hegel – “in/out” – formed the base, and ruled what even a
schoolmasterish Hegelian as Roland Barthes in the 1960s would have called
a “conventional and regulated style” (Barthes 1967). It only worsened when
a fashion reproducer uncritically cut out quotes from Barthes to scatter as
ready-made conceptual confetti over the literalism. Furthermore, oxymorons
such as “sustainable fashion” bear witness to the 2010 meltdown: its myth-
making, its inability to scrutinize its state of affairs – namely, that fashion is a
consumer condition, and fashion writing – in media and academia, an
on-going act for which I find every reason to call story-selling, then referred

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to as “story-telling”, another euphemism typical of those value consisting of a style, trying hard to hedgefund goods comprised a lifestyle, in which the meaning of life Therefore, it comes as no surprise that fashion writing
days. Before the 2020s, when consumerism became a trustworthiness by selling it as a desirable name, from was for sale and Homo Fashionismus, an avatar of Homo was unaware of what could deconstruct its own impossi-
treatable disease, and fashion rapidly became what it Armani to Versace. These brands did not sell new Capitalismus, consumed life. Nothing was developed, bility of creating an identity, and consequently neglected
always had been – unfashionable, the referred to mate- clothes, handbags or shoes per se, as much as they sold evolution was not the question, fashion was a consumer that Jacques Derrida had found the notion of “identity”
rial that the reproducer took for fashion consisted of themselves, over and over again, in a merry-go-round condition, and hence human’s was “limited to the free- obsolete, instead suggesting “identity disturbance” as
media images, almost without exception, through which of profit-making. Perfume bottled and labelled, not the dom to buy (but not to create)” (Barthes 1962). That a more relevant term. Attitudes of doubt within fashion
fashion businesses wanted to sell their goods. Albeit used clothing, stood, in general, for the turnover. That implies was, of course, not freedom at all. writing, however, were most profound taken as the
as campaign material, in fashion writing, academics that if fashion was the second largest business after food ambivalence that rested on Plato’s somnambulistic
scarcely, if ever, treated them as what they really were: in 2010, which today seems quite incredible, it was the Fashion brands competed to worm themselves into distinction of hyle and eidos (matter and form), the
advertising. Instead, images for sale were referred to as smell of the brand that made the term BIG BUSINESS the systems of craving, to make profit out of people’s outside treated as separate from the inside; therefore,
“fashion”, though it was mostly the clothes and an understatement. desire to appear desirable, competitive enough to fulfil fashion writing dealt with these dear dichotomies, such
accessories that academicians, and likewise journalists, the demands of appearing as a successful consumer as how to separate the fashioned from the fashion, and
pasted adjectives onto. The fashion jargon, cheap Fashion and schizophrenia conscious about what was dictated as “in”. And while other old-school questions that scarcely had anything to
phrases, caprices put into use, “sexy elegance”, or why consciousness always implies unconsciousness it followed do with reality. Interior and exterior, text and context had
not“sensuality and independence”, or just another In their clairvoyant outline on Capitalism and schizo- that what was commanded as “in” was already “out”. no relevance at all: they were already then one and the
combination of adjectives that frightened any attempt phrenia, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari put forward, In its massive occurrence, dominant models encouraged same, within as out, in the identity industry. In liaison with
at critical interpretation. Fashion writing made fashion simply and concisely, that in order to expand the market, a Veblenesque kind of vicarious consumption, and at the other design media, the fashion business was the detritus
design similar to consumer advice. Meanwhile, inflation Capitalism de-codes values at the same time it re-codes same time, the fashion business, as a part of the identity of consumer capitalism. Homo Fashionismus was, as said,
of fashion aesthetics made its images variations on the them, and therefore produces schizophrenia. In the first industry, egged on masturbation of the beholder’s eye, an avatar (I hesitate to write “scum” – forgive me for just
same theme: the fashion body exposed as an object decade of the century fashion and schizophrenia was a becoming humid by desire before the mirror image doing so) of Homo Capitalismus. Nevertheless, fashion
and re-sold as a good attached to other goods. These matter of fact. Taste is out of joint! would be the Hamlet- haunted by dominant models (Rampell 2007). became a most, if not the most, influential consumer
projection surfaces, which consumers were supposed to slogan of those days when Carrie in Sex and the City, myth, by which nothing had to be explained, which to
kneel before and invest their dreams into, became at the among many others going in repeat mode, paved the A collection of essays entitled Consuming Fashion was some extent excused the jargon that described it and
same time their distorting mirror. They ran the risk of way for fashion as entertainment, exposing an already foremost a matter of consuming the fashion word, but dictated impossibilities: fulfil yourself with fashion!
being laughed at; even the seemingly most fit for fash- vulnerable “I” to the schizophrenics of branded styles, a whole world followed in the bargain. The identity that Leaving out questions of alarming concern, such as who
ion was haunted by the terror of not being as young as posing a view of life in which every possible “I” split this wor(l)d holds was insecure indeed – provoking inside the body would suddenly emerge, and if so, then
fashion was said to be novel. Why? Because only when up and vanished into flickers of identites multiplied uncertainty, such as – are not the arms the new legs?, would be what for less than three months.
this threat – to be ridiculed as fat, poor, ugly and aging with the many. or was it “arms are the new breasts”, as the fin-de-siècle The naive defence of fashion as “self-fulfilment” was
– remained, could the fashion industry be sustained. In novelist Bret Easton Ellis wrote? But no one at shelf “F”, never investigated in depth, but instead re-directed to
fact, its monopoly to victimize was reinforced through Applauded were identities with many names. In order to I dare say, cared much of what this disquietude meant, remarks wrenched out of context, just to make them
layers of brands, from models to magazines (Rampell be a dutiful consumer, to embody at least three brands and above all, never questioned “I=I”. Powdering sugar fit into each other with the force of glue. Much ado
2007 and 2008). (certainly, there were more), schizophrenia was on over a can of worms was a part of the mythology of about singing along the falsetto of the fashion libretto:
request, cheerled in management vocabulary as “extended fashion: its myth-makers remained silent on how it people could create their identity through fashion again
This was the beginning of the end of fashion. Today branding”, another name for schizophrenia inherent in legitimated itself as an identity industry. Was it because – despite the fact that the fashion business summoned
there is no longer any fashion: there are only brands. the business. The label was pasted on a diverse array of fashion was not treated as such? Hardly: the myth-making up identity disorders.
Fashion was already then a brand, not a seasonal flash in goods: shoes, interior design, clothes, cars, bags, cosmet- was due to the fact that fashion’s state of the art was
the pan. A brand, not in a literary sense of the term with ics, food, movies, aeroplanes – and thereby forced its schizophrenic, and with it, a hint of psychosis followed. “Our society produces schizos the same way it produces
juridical implications, but an ongoing struggle to be more beholders to look upon the world through the sunglasses The world outside the word ceased to exist. Fashion Prell schampoo or Ford cars, the only difference being
in-fashion than fashion itself. The result: the revenge of that sold in bulk, yet pretended to be “limited edition”, to consummated itself with a ravenous appetite, but that that the schizos are not salable” (Deleuze & Guattari
the unfashionable. Egged on by fashion as brand, the render the spectacle some exclusivity. All in a desperate was not enough to save it from itself: fashion had already 1972). But in 2010, schizos had become salable in the
fashion industry strived to turn the exchange value, effort to save the brand from what it already had become something else. same breath, as consumption of communication became
re-distribution of codes of consumption, to a surplus become: gregarious. Assembled in a name, the troops of a mass monologue. By then, what Paul Virilio referred to

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as the information bomb had become reality. And with it, Fashion paranoia In fact, this remained for a long time the reality among Pierre Klossowski gives a lucid example of this in analysing
fashion permeated with schizophrenia spread. Deleuze’s the fashion-proletariat, to which everyone was doomed the informal dress of Nietzsche: “Informal dress represented
dividual, the schizo-identity, the code of a divided identity, “’I go everywhere in my student overcoat, slap someone to belong. the suppression of the ‘impropriety’ of the principle
became the plurdual, the code as an atom, split from or another on the shoulder and say: Siamo contenti? Son of identity – on which not only science and morality is
target groups and multiplied with offers (Rampell 2007 dio, ho fatta questa caricatura…’” (Nietzsche cited in The eternal return of fashion comprised a consumer based, but the behaviour that follows from them, and
and 2008). Insiders of the fashion industry, such as the Klossowski 1969). Before his breakdown in Turin (1889), pathology. It had no goal, no purpose other than juicing thus all communication based on the distinction between
then influential editor of Vogue Paris, Carine Roitfeld, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote a letter to his friend, the his- profits (as desire then was called) out of people’s systems reality and the unreal.” (Klossowski 1969)
said they were surprised by the mass-fixation of fashion, torian Jacob Buckhard, telling him that he did his “own of craving, and it disguised itself as an overcoat labelled
interposing that the public interest for fashion in the shopping”, suffered “from torn boots”, and apparently with sartorial – or was it salacious? – signs of status. This would have been a revolt against Hegelianistic
year 2000 and beyond was a weak shadow of what it was humiliated in this “student overcoat”, while walking fashion writing, hence the view on fashion itself, but
would become in 2010: a mass movement. Typically, the streets and slapping men on their shoulders, say- “Are we happy? I am God, I made this caricature”. dichotomies were kept until 2010, and even years
Roitfeld made this comment on CNN. She was herself a ing: “Are we happy? I am God, I made this caricature”. Nietzsche, on the other hand, practiced inverted thereafter. Articles such as “The Professor Wore Prada”
labourer at a direct marketing institution, in the depart- Nietzsche was lying, but it was true. In a similar way, it paranoia: I am not what you see, but the unseen was reinforced the formality of fashion writing, and revealed
ment of fashion media, and hence not only distributed, became a matter of fact that fashion 2010 was one of also compensated by delusions of grandeur. Pierre an anal-sadistic preoccupation with appearances: every-
but also legitimized dominant models, whose function the greatest and most well-guarded consumer myths, Bourdieu called that “self-celebration”: I am Napoleon! one who was not in style was met with ridicule and
was to evoke an inferiority complex. The fashion image flattering its recipient by making her/him believe s/he Notwithstanding, Nietzsche had a more profound contempt. Meanwhile, fashion beckoned as a maiden
as a projection surface of people’s shortcomings and an was the designer that had created her/himself, even reference: the fashion business lived on this narcissistic field for dried-up Homo Academicus: suddenly it was
introjection subface of their anxieties about themselves as a caricature. lust for revenge upon others. She (the fashion consumer shoes, stockings and shopping!
was evidently enough to provoke the disease that spread was mostly a she) compared herself with others inside
in bits per second and set the fashion schizophrenia free. Fashion had become another word for consumption. herself. The others were popping out of her eyes to Already then, oppositions – overtaken à la carte, from
But nothing was for free. What was consumed? The dreams of the middle class, judge her, because she was several. Therefore, not even the menu available at the mental museum, with which
lubricated in those adjectives from cool to sexy, as a self-doubt seemed to occur when many took themselves to interpret postmodern appearances – told about the
“A Schizophrenic out for a walk is a better model promise to become an adjective seen as a noun, from for Kate Moss. And, as Jean Baudrillard hinted, the paranoia inherent in the fashion wor(l)d: far from self-
than a neurotic lying on the analyst’s couch” (Deleuze adorable to successful. By 2010, plurduals had became identification with the dominant model’s hairstyle, to pleasing, it aggressively promoted itself by exhorting
& Guattari 1972). What happened to Deleuze and part of the statistical normality of the middle class craving begin with, is founded upon paranoia that give rise to form-fascism. Money was at stake, and with it, vanity in
Guattari’s schizophrenic taking “[a] breath of fresh air”? for the same names. Thus, the underground masses a kind of psychosis, which fashion pretended to cure in all its varieties followed. However, this disquietude was
The one who could not be branded by Freud? What did not happily deflate in suburban surrogates of nylon the same breath it brought it into life. We know that never about the images of fashion, displaying the imper-
became of the masochist and his fetish, he who from the dreams. To the contrary: there was a constant struggle for Nietzsche was not an “ordinary guy” with identity disorder fect as perfect, as some more daring fashion writers had
beginning was incurable by Freud’s talk therapy, developed the means of consumption, such as fashion goods. Far who catwalked the street as if owning it because of a the courage to suggest in a sentence before drowning in
to treat women endowed as neurotics? They had gone from being equal for all, however, supply for the middle- newly bought outfit. A manner that would have been the jargon. Rather, the maddening was logical, because
shopping. In fact, they were already set free in the con- class dreams, how disquieting they may have been, the called “street fashion” by historians who could not say “[f]ashion is never anything other than the amnesiac
sumer prison. Because the neurotic was a fast-fashion circle of fashion psychosis was secured. Luxury became goodbye to trickle-down theory, which, turned upside- substitution of the present for the past. We could almost
consumer, while the masochist indulged in fetishism. By the new gregarious. “Buy a lipstick”, the then influential down, was used as a trickle-up version, for making their speak of a Fashion neurosis.” (Barthes 1969) During the
the first decade of the 21st century, schizophrenia had editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, answered a vertical distinctions between the tastes of consumers, carnival of consumption, one did not speak of it, because
become a shopping condition. Schizophrenics were both journalist who asked how people hit by the 2008 reces- in an aim to pigeonhole them on the social ladder. But one was sucked in the media mud of the craze, and
a cause and an effect, both supply and demand of the sion and its aftermath could stay in fashion without a Nietzsche unpinned every possibility to rest the foot. In hence could not see the interior design for all the bodies
identity industry to which fashion was the main purveyor. fashion budget. Is this not the Marie Antoinette answer fact, by necessity, he elevated his situation to his law. In of clothing, showroom manequins, bags, legs and shoes.
A schizophrenic walking from shop to shop, with paranoia to the shortage of bread for the starving Parisians with Die fröliche Wissenschaft the chapter begun with “L’ordre Yet, this neurosis had hardly anything to do with Freud’s
following hard on her/his heels, is a better consumer than “let them eat cake”? The dictator-designer of modernism du jour pour le roi” makes an example of this perverted neurotic, but rather with schizophrenia prêt-à-suppôter
a schizophrenic medicated to mourn her/his lost I of a had turned the fashion-media dictator, and there were power. Nietzsche dressed himself down, and to some – reproduced inside plurduals persecuted to shop “identity”
lost life s/he evidently did not have in the first place. many in line to exhort form-fascism (Rampell 2007). extent made use of counter-fashion, the deconstruction (Rampell 2008). But even when not purchasing, the con-
Or did s/he? of the dandy, in order to sustain values imposed on him. sumer was already consumed, as Baudrillard hinted, and

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Edgar Allen Poe prescribed: “He entered shop after shop, References
priced nothing, spoke no word, and looked at all objects
with a wild and vacant stare.” (Poe, “The Man of the BARTHES 1967: Roland Barthes, The Fashion System,
Crowd”, c. 1850) University of California Press 1990.
Translation: Matthew Ward & Richard Howard.
In his essay “Kleptomania” (1863), John Bucknill made First published in France as Système de la mode 1967.
an outline of urban consumer behaviours. Of special
interest was women’s collectively exhorted kleptomania. BARTHES 1962 and 1969: Roland Barthes, The Language
Hence, we must add, not even then did they steal. of Fashion, Oxford/New York 2006.
Rather, women were obliged to shop, spurred by fashion Translation: Andy Stafford. Edited by Andy Stafford and
paranoia: they felt as if their possibilities were stolen Michael Carter. Texts quoted: first published in France
before they had a chance for revenge (Rampell 2008). 1962 and 1969.
The most devoted to fashion, that is, accustomed to
heterosexual gender behaviour, were in 2010 still DELEUZE & GUATTARI 1972: Gilles Deleuze & Félix
women. Her body was occupied by the form-fascism of Guattari, Anti-Oedipus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia,
fashion, which dictated, disguised as a merry piece of University of Minnesota 1983.
advice, how a woman should look before she could even Translation: Robert Hurley, Mark Seem & Helen R. Lane.
become a woman. A how-to-be list made the shopping First published in France as L’Anti-Oedipe 1972.
list, which secured the market monopoly of the fashion
business. Fashion pictured itself as a means of escape, KLOSSOWSKI 1969: Pierre Klossowski, Nietzsche and the
but there was no exit door. Regardless of heterosexual Vicious Circle, London 2005.
preferences stereotyped in gender goods, there was Translation Daniel W Smith. First published in France as
nevertheless no greater liberty than to choose from what Nietsche et le Cercle Vicieux 1969.
others already had chosen when the target group was
labelled trans-sexual behaviour or queer culture. On the POE, “The Man of the Crowd”, c. 1850: Edgar Allen Poe,
contrary, the latter, in fact, made diversity a conduct of Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Hesperides Press 2008.
codes dependent upon traditional values, if ever to be
seen as queer, and obliged to gather together in a pocket RAMPELL 2007: Linda Rampell, Designdarwinismen™.
of the same trousers. But neither did this bring relief. Homo Kapitalismus del I, Stockholm.
In her essay “Agoraphobia” (1996), Rosalyn Deutsche
deals with the fear of being seen in public spaces, RAMPELL 2008: Linda Rampell, Freud med skalpell.
although, they were not public spaces, but markets – a Modekropp prêt-à-suppoter.
dumping ground for the mass conformism of fashion. Homo Kapitalismus del II, Stockholm.
And since private and public had become one and the
same, as Baudrillard stressed, s/he was persecuted
everywhere, and there was no respite, hence the paranoia
that followed the schizophrenia of fashion. Even if fashion
schizophrenia was not a registered clinical disease, it
was a symptom of a mad promise, to fulfil oneself while
becoming someone else.

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 Transition times
Trade and textile dressing over three industrial
revolutions in Sjuhäradsbygden

Lars G Strömberg Lars G. Strömberg

Ph.D in ethnology. Senior lecturer The Swedish School of Textile
at the Swedish school of Textiles University of Borås
lars.g.stromberg@hb.se

When the American Charles Loring Brace traveled through Norway and
Sweden in the mid-1800s, he passed for a few days by Sjuhäradsbygden,
probably more specifically, through the hundred of Mark. He noted that
industrialization had clearly begun with several factories along the river
Viskan, but at the same time there was an extensive home industry production.
He had the opportunity to visit at least one factory owner, who was also an
entrepreneur, and several houses of tenants and estates for farmers, where
some people devoted themselves to peddlery. What stuck in his retina was,
among other things, that although the journey was partly through a harsh
and sometimes barren landscape of forest with virtually no farm, he still
found a population that was considerably prosperous in circumstances, which
would otherwise have led a visitor to believe that this was extreme poverty.

”He directed us to some of his manufacturing hands, who lived at a little

distance. The houses were pretty little log-cottages, among flower-beds and
potato-patches, each having, perhaps, two rooms. In the first, there was
an arched room with several windows - everything clean and whitewashed
within, even the fire-place. Four women, with ruddy, cheerful faces, were
at work at hand-looms; one was quite young. They were weaving common
handkerchiefs and shawls of bright colors. Everything looked comfortable and
happy in the place. There were curtains at the windows, perfectly white, and
flowers. The women all wore silver brooches. They were paid by the master
by the piece, earning from twenty cents to twenty-seven cents per day; the
youngest, a mere girl, only twelve cents - not poor wages in a country where
a carpenter frequently only gets thirty cents per day.”1

1
Charles Loring Brace s 215

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He also made a visit to a textile factory. The owner is Stämmemad. However, there are some additional notes the historical source material in order to seek out trade capital and an intensified regional specialization
unknown in the diary, but I believe it is likely that it was that are eye catching and I choose to summarize. He new perspectives. in response to an expanding market are also important
the textile publisher and industrialist Sven Erikson from mentions that the transport of raw materials is made matters.5 These theories have generated sharp criticism
Stämmemad in Kinna parish. The diary provided with horse carriages, either from Gothenburg or from My view is, therefore, that from a selection of historical among other scientists with an essential point that they
information that the factory was built in 1853, and it is Varberg. The railroad is not built yet but is expected to be research concerning this item; try to formulate a synthe- do not give any explanation for that certain regions of
probable that he aimed at the Rydal linen spinning factory. so in not too distant future. The trading of the finished sized article aimed to hit some important aspects in the Europe turned to mechanized industrial production, while
fabrics is made by means of peddlers, but also at the field of fashion communication. It is focused on the others did not but even fell back to the traditional crafts.
”The first factory, to which we were directed, after homes of the textile publishers and in separate rooms proto-industrial era in general and its role in the industry To proceed without being too detailed in investigations
visiting the weavers, was built, I think, in 1853. The besides factory buildings. These textile publishers and of Sjuhäradsbygden in particular, but also with a special of the proto-industrialization systems and functions, we
building is of stone, but the surrounding boarding-houses farm traders live mainly in the more fertile areas along the review of the subsequent process of industrialization and need to focus some factors and see how these exist and
of wood. The clerk introduced us into his sitting-room, river Viskan and its major tributaries, especially in the areas the industrial heritage that survived the textile de-indus- interact in the region of Sjuhäradsbygden. The conditions
and wine and cigars were of course produced. We around Kinna, Skene and Örby. Agriculture is not of impor- trialization in the 1960s- and 1970s. can be found in
begged off, finally, and drank his health in pure water. tance to any large-scale exports of cereals. This is consumed
Fortunately he spoke English and, I found, had several in the household of the farmers or for animal feed. What is a proto-industrial system? • Craft and trade
English foremen and workmen. The factory is for spinning
yarn. There are 200 hands employed, and 16.000 spindles. Charles Lorens Brace’s travelogue depicts a piece of Before an industrial process can start, a number of fac- • Specialization and the textile tradition
….One of the Englishmen accompanied us over the Sweden in the midst of a profound societal stage, the tors and dynamic forces must exist and also interact
works. Most of the hands were women, though many transition from a pre-industry agrarian society to an under specific social conditions. The proto-industrial • The land-based agrarian conditions for living
children were at the spindles, seemingly working very industrial state, a track in the first industrial revolution stage, which is the stage that could lead to the actual
skilfully – some must have been as young as seven or in Sweden. However, this apparently simple finding leads industrialization, has long caught the researchers’ interest. • The population’s social composition and the degree of
eight years. Generally, their faces looked pale and not on to questions and issues that research has highlighted The concept was first mentioned in 1972 by Franklin proletarianization
healthy. The foreman pointed out to us child after child from different starting points and with different perspec- Mendel.3 Christer Ahlberger summarizes Mendel’s three
who had been beggars on the highway, and were now tives. What this is really about in Mr Brace´s travel story is criteria for proto industrialization in his thesis: • Rural entrepreneurs
industrious workers in the establishment. ….I asked him the picture of a hybrid between an elderly agrarian society,
about the capacity of the Swedes for machinery. “They mainly dependent on agriculture and breeding livestock in 1. The market for the products shall be located outside • Market expansion
have a great capability, sir, for the spindles; they are such a natural small monetary economy, and a industrial society the region, this criterion is crucial as it separate the pro-
patient set, you know. But the women, sir, there´s the that is based on a market wage and consumption economy. duction of goods from the traditional and local crafts. I ignore the order of these factors while it can easily
rub! They were never accustomed to such close work. We call this the proto-industrial stage. become an issue of which item is a triggering factor in
Always at ´ome, they ´ve been in the ´abit of talking ´ and 2. Producers must be able during the year to switch the process, the important thing is that they interact in a
chattin ´ you know, as they work, and I find it very ´ard to The sentence of the essay between farm work and the work of proto-industry. particular way in society’s social and economic information
keep ´ em hattentive and consideratesome. And they are
so tricky. Why, two Swedish women can´t possibly meet This period of transition, with its peculiar economic, 3. A commercial farm in nearby areas, according to Craft and trade
without a little dance, just together, which won´t do you social and cultural relationships, is well-lit by a series of Mendel’s is also an important criterion.4
know here, sir. Bur they´ll learn. It´s a young nation, sir; research within the historical, ethnological and economic The pre-industrial society produced different products in
very young. ….It will take time – time, sir, before they do sciences. From a regional standpoint, especially given Mendel’s theory has been supplemented by other the homes in rural areas. This home industry for own use
as the English and Americans”.2 Sjuhäradsbygden, this scientific transparency applies even researchers. One of them, Peter Kriedt, also added the has very old traditions. It follows the principle to produce
more. It is therefore not easy to find an interesting entry degree of proletarianization among rural people and little of everything when the opportunity came in addi-
It would take too much space to fully reproduce the text to one or more entirely new issues which could poten- the emergence of capitalist groups. The availability of tion to agriculture and animal husbandry. It could be
of these interesting observations of a pair of American tially bring new knowledge. The editorial restrictions for
eyes, traveling in the area around Kinna, Rydal and this article, make it impossible to penetrate deeper into
3
Mendels 1972
4
Ahlberger 1988
2
Charles Loring Brace s 217-218 5
Kriedte 1977

68 Textile Journal Textile Journal 69

 husbandry. It could be for personal needs but also to sell at local markets or in cities. In rural
areas, in principle, no sales were allowed according to the law, except that you made the
for personal needs but also to sell at local markets or in for other goods, such as textile products from South In Bergslagen but also in the south part of Halland there product, of weaver’s and spinner’s property which he or
product and sold it to someone else in
cities. In rural areas, in principle, no sales were allowed
the village. If that person bought a set of different
Västergötland. The iron was forged and re-sold locally was a market for these goods, which were to be manu- she sold. Production had still the art of craftsmanship of
according to the law,products,
except youand
madethen theresold it in the countryside,
product or exported it wastoa Halland,
south violationwhich
of the law.
was On the
at that timeother factured in large quantities in Bollebygd. Woodworking locally produced raw materials.
and sold it to someone else in the village. If that person Danish. It is important to stress that trade relations were was generally very important in the region. The Gäsene
hand, it was allowed to travel to the at
bought a set of different products, and then resold it
city, clear the goods at the city gate and sell them to an
least as intense southward to the Danish kingdom hundred was known for leather production and Redvägs, During the 1700s began wealthier farmers to supply
in the countryside, it urban merchant.
was a violation of the law. as it was to the north. Discarded oxen from the mining Ås and Veden for forging. Although the Mark and Kind raw materials to poor farmers, crofters and other dis-
On the other hand, it was allowed to travel to the city, industry in the north were slaughtered and resulted in hundreds were prominent areas for the production of possessed people and pay wages. But the production is
Today Sjuhäradsbygden or with a modern word - region is a concept that is not so old as we
clear the goods at the city gate and sell them to an hides, which were brought home to Sjuhäradsbygden, woodwork, this was also an area of large sheep breed- one thing to sell another. And without the market there
urban merchant. could expected. It is coined in the 1930s, wherebutthe have much
tanning older took
of leather traditions
place, related
and were tolocally
the trade ing, which resulted in a homespun wool production and would be no sale. Until about the mid-1800s Swedish cit-
processed for further commercial purposes. Wood was knitted goods. However, there is no evidence of a medi- ies, with few exceptions, were undeveloped and small.9
privileges granted by government to the town of Borås in the 1600s. The privilege gave
Today Sjuhäradsbygden or with a modern word - region an important raw material in the old agrarian society as a eval cultivation of flax. This growing was in competition The urban citizen’s had an extensive demand for textile
is a concept that is nottrading
as oldrights
as we throughout
could expect.the It iskingdom, something
material that use
for storage stuck in the eyes
of various kinds.of other cities' with grain, which was a scarce commodity on the barren products of cotton. The majority of the population was
coined in the 1930s, but has much older traditions, land that made grain into a commodity that must be rural and it was also here the peddlers found their cus-
merchants. Over time, the state generosity towards Borås was something that also applied to
related to the trade privileges granted by the Swedish imported into the region.7 We can therefore conclude tomers. The textile products were resold by professional
government to the town thoseofliving in the
Borås in rural areas,
1600s. The that during the Middle Ages there was an existing and an peddler whose only job was to sell.
privilege gave trading rights throughout the kingdom, extensive trade with a diversified range of products from
and subsequently the
something that stuck in the eyes of other cities’ handicrafts production. The old textile croft production slipped progressively over
merchants. Over time, privileges was to be towards Borås
the state generosity to be in the hands of a new powerful group of textile
was something that also applied to those living in rural Specialization and textile tradition men in the industry of the textile publishing system’s
extended to seven
areas, and subsequently the privileges were to be extended form. The real breakthrough for the cottage industry
to seven districts, Ås,districts, Ås, Veden,
Veden, Bollebygd, Mark, Kind, In Mark and Kind the textile handicrafts came to replace came in the early 1800s when cheap cotton was intro-
Redväg and the hundred of Gäsene. Already in the early woodwork and forging. The reason for this is a specific duced as a raw material.10 It was imported by the big
Bollebygd, Mark, Kind
middle ages, 1200s, and 1300s, the trade routes through demand for textile products in combination with the trading houses in Gothenburg, and thanks to textile put-
and Redväg
southwestern Västergötland were well frequented. changed conditions for the agro-production. The earlier ters out trade contacts in the city, the cotton found its
Figure 1 shows a map of the major road network from homespun production increased in size as well as linen way very quickly to the traditional weaving districts in
administrative law
the 1500s, but we can rightly expect that these roads fabric in response to the growing Swedish defence forces’ Sjuhäradsbygden.
also were frequenteddistricts. Already
during medieval in the
times. 6
Here we needs from the mid-1600s. At the beginning of the
can follow two important routes along the valleys of 1700s there are evidences that nearly all the land is sown We can therefore see an increased specialization in the
early middle ages, 1200,
the rivers of Viskan and Ätran that lead up to Skara and with flax and hemp, and that both men and women were arts and crafts of the region during the second half of
and 1300's,
Bogesund, today Ulricehamn, and the
thentrade
continue up to engaged in spinning and weaving.8 It was apparently the 1600s the, as well as the establishment of a rural
the Tiveden forest and routes through theAlong these
central Sweden. more profitable to buy bread grain than to grow it your- trader, the peddler, who accounted for the distribution of
roads cattle were driven north, particularly oxen, which Fig 1 Sketch map of the roads of self. Some of the increasing popularity of these textile woven fabrics under the protection of the privileges that
southwestern
were used in mining operations in central Sweden. Västergölands in the 1500s. Sterner occupations can certainly be attributed to the spinning were launched by the Swedish government. We can also
During the middle ages, the agriculture domain 1949
Västergötland were well was wheel, a revolutionary innovation from the 1600s. Work see how a new group of entrepreneurs, so called putter
dominated by livestock breeding industry. Agricultural was more streamlined and the quality of spun yarn out, establish themselves in the putting out system.
machinery was primitive frequented.
and it wasFigure
difficult1 to cultivate increased. During this home weaving first boom was
the heavy clay areas shows
in the valleys.
a mapJust trading
over the with cattle the raw materials, even as work tools and the finished
was to become an essential part of the local agrarian
economy. During thesemajor
tripsroad
othernetwork
products from
were the
also 1500s Fig
but1 we can
Sketch maprightly expect
of the roads that thesein roads
of Västergötlands also
the 1500s. were
exchanged, iron from Bergslagen could be exchanged Sterner 1949
7
Sterner 1949 ibid
8
Sterner 1949 s 30
9
By the mid-1700s, the total urban population was just over 9% of a total population of just over 1.5 million. In 1800 it had not yet reached over
10% of a population of just over 2, 4 million. Guteland/Holmberg m.fl. s 27
6
Sterner 1949 s 23 4 10
Ahlberger 1988 s 69

70 Textile Journal Textile Journal 71

The supply base of agriculture the agrarian society of the lower, property-less classes, as Rural entrepreneurs as literal education. His schooling was virtually non-exis-
tenants, cottagers, crofters, day labourers, and maids are tent with poor literacy skills. Rational office work was not
In the mid-1700s large areas of forest in Sjuhäradsbygden growing in number. The family formation among these Weavers themselves did not possess the capital required something he cared about; correspondence was handled
were very heavily taxed for timber. There were areas groups increased enormously with the growing children to buy foreign raw cotton. They also lacked the necessary badly, answers of letters and packages could be much
that were almost completely devastated of forest and cohorts which got their supplies through cottage home contacts with commercial houses, mainly in Gothenburg, delayed. But as Ahlberger points out:
it was predominantly oak forest that was cut down to industry. Here we had a huge potential workforce which which accounted for imports from North America and
satisfy the needs of the commercial and naval fleet. In stimulated the emergence and growth of cottage industry. England. Actually, only a few large farmers had these ”This lack of education was not affected, as in so many
hilly terrain and rocky areas, the fields were small and necessary contacts and capital to be engaged in the cases; his chances of success because his personal quali-
fragmented and could with difficulty provide grain to the ”It was particularly the Kinna and Fritsla villages that, business of textile production. Such a farmer was named ties enabled him to explore new avenues and solutions to
population, who often had to buy it. On the slopes at the during this period, (1820-1830s note of the author) were textile putter out, when he provided the weavers with problems.”16
large and small rivers there were better and more easily the center of extensive cottage industry activities. Most yarn, and sold the finished fabric to either a peddler
worked soils with good possibilities for farming. Farther weavers also lived in the Mark and the western Kind or to wholesalers. With the cotton, the textile putter In 1825 Sven Erikson started with his own textile put-
down in the valleys, in the areas near the rivers, where weaving areas, but extended far beyond these areas, out brought in a European capitalist economy into the ting out business. This was a long tradition in the
the terrain levied off, vast marshy meadows appeared including the adjacent parts of the Halland woodland. Swedish agrarian society. In 1816 the tax tariff for cotton family that stretched back behind the parental genera-
with extensive pastures. It was the landscape of the cattle’s In the 1820s and 1830s the textile putters out must have was set very low for the benefit of those who devoted tion. His business was brilliant and in 1834 he formed,
and pasturage that characterized the whole region. been 20 or 30, which is probably too low. A couple of themselves to the import and processing. together with the merchant J Francke from Gothenburg
With simple agricultural tools at that time, it was almost the most famous, Sven Eriksson and Sven Andersson in and merchant JC Bäfverman from Borås, Rydboholms
impossible to expand the cultivated areas and it was not Kinna, had at that time between 1000 to 2000 Cotton putter out soon competed the small and medium- Konstwäfveribolag in Kinnarumma parish. In 1837 there
necessary to do so because of the small population in domestic workers.”11 sized farmers, who had previously provided flax and wool were 147 mechanical looms in the factory. It was a trou-
the mid-1700s. for weaving.14 Gradually the textile putter out organized bled start and he was forced to recruit the technical staff
Christer Ahlberger notes in his thesis that the trend the production so that some weavers specialized in dress from England. It was these people that, can we assume;
The land-based industries in the region generally consisted towards an increased proletarianization not necessity led fabrics, and others on handkerchiefs headscarves in cotton, the somewhat surprised Charles Loring Brace met dur-
of small farms in the usually barren land, with a clear to increased poverty, but even an increase in prosperity. others in curtains of half linen. One of the most impor- ing his visit at Erikson. Problems were also economic in
weighting towards livestock production, in addition to tant putter out was Sven Erikson. He was born 1801 in nature, and in 1845 the whole company, then taken over
a growing home manufactured of specialized products ”The fact that two out of three peasant children sank Stämmemad, Kinna parish, and died 1866 in Rydboholm, by Sven Erikson, almost went bankrupt. Apparently he
where textile putter out and peddlers was for the supply into the property-less groups meant that they should Kinnarumma parish. His mother was the fabled Kerstin sort out the problems and at the end of the 1840s, the
of materials and distribution of products. have expected a social degradation without necessar- Andersdotter, ”Mother Kerstin”, as she was called and situation was much better, so well that he started a print-
ily falling into a worse economic situation. The weaver’s came, like her husband Erik Andersson, from an old tex- ing of cotton fabrics in 1853 Rydboholm and weaving in
Population and proletarianization families had a greater opportunity for social advance- tile putter out and peasant family. Otto Mannerfelt, has Svaneholm 1852. The industrial empire grew rapidly with
ment because knowledge and skill in weaving, during together with Hilding Danielsson, written a comprehensive two new factories in 1856; Viskafors for weaving and
During this period Sweden was depicted as a highly the ”good” years, gave the opportunities for increased biography of Sven Erikson, where he Rydals for spinning fabrications.
agricultural country where the agricultural production income, that they, through the work, could change their
increased, more people could be supplied, more survived social status.”12 ”... ... possessed a high and agile intelligence. Richens This lapidary presentation of an industrial, textile empire
the first critical years of childhood and in the country- of ideas and turn-ups and ingenuity in overcoming dif- with roots in rural putter out system and cottage industry
side the population therefore increased. This is a trend It can thus be reasonably assumed that the introduction ficulties. .... A great patience and energy, which was not designed to focus on Sven Erikson’s ”cultural capital”
that becomes particularly evident after the 1820. But of the textile putting out industry’s production methods allowed to become discourage because of the multitude and his ability to manage the distribution of textile prod-
the peasants were only marginally more. The availability created new economic conditions for the population and of the barriers that stood in his way.”15 ucts. It is now so, that without a significant opportunity
of land was nevertheless limited and what we now see, the population growth and that is what we see in these to distribute what you produce, the enterprice is doomed
from the early 1800s, is a growing proletarianization in areas cottage home industry in a positive way; the possi- Sven Erikson was not said to have had, what we now see to failure.
bilities for a family was outside the agricultural society of
11
Sterner 1949 s 42 traditional frames, increasing birth rates and hence also 14 Känn Sjuhäradsbygden del 8 s 23
12
Ahlberger 1988 s 83 labor supply.13 15 Ahlberger 1993 s 79 Quoted from Mannerfelt: Sven Erikson and the history of Rydboholms industries 1834-1866
13
Ahlberger 1988 s 128 16 Ahlberger 1993 s 82

72 Textile Journal Textile Journal 73

 The second
In 1825problem,
Christer Sven Erikson
Ahlberger the location
highlightsbegan withofhismanufacturing,
some characteristicsown
that What distinguished these merchants from city merchants
are generally not seen as particularly positive in the was that the later ones met the customers in their shops
may betextile
explained
entrepreneurial if we
publishing.
role. Sven examine
This wasseems
Erikson more
a long
to be closely
tradition in the
something while peddlers sought out the customers in the whole
of a romantic, an idealist who had neither literate breeding country of Sweden. Clientele in the cities was limited
the
accounting family
formation
that
fornorthe stretched backofbeyond
an distribution
economical, rational textile
mind.
theproducts
This, almost and, moreover, these merchants traded mainly with
clueless positive attitude that
His”everything will be brilliant
all groceries. They lacked a distribution network, while the
before parental
the
right”,
generation.
railroad businessThere
wasstubbornness
combined with available. was were in Marks
that surely many peddlers were nationwide, and even covered the whole
and ininterpret
would 1834 he formed,actually
as foolhardy, together with thedid
the operation of Scandinavia. Sven Erikson had very good contacts with
and Kinds administrative
not give a profit in decades, law districts,
is not what we todayfor a long time,
see as these farming traders and sold to them, initially, the bulk
merchant J Francke from Gothenburg and
a common picture of the genial entrepreneur. How could of his production. He even developed the trade by open-
a category of merchants,
his industrial
merchant JCadventures getpeddlers,
Bäfverman the credit and which
from Borås,confidenceaccounted ing the Commissioner shops in Örebro and Christiania
necessary to continue? In addition, to provide a fabrication (Oslo).18 The location of the factory production close up
for a highly
in rural efficient
areas, theKonstväfveribolag
Rydboholms logistical problem was toinget the raw to the peddler’s residence was from a logistical point of
materials to the plants or distribute
Fig the finished products.
4. Rydboholm strategic view a very rational move. It leads also to the importance
distribution
That doesnetwork.
Kinnarumma parish.
not indicate In 1837
a rational there were
economical 147
disposition.
location in relation to the
of market and distribution systems.

mechanical
What distinguished
His imagination, looms inmanner,
inspiring thedistribution
factory.
and the It was
verbal a
network.
ability Ahlberger
he used to create a vision of ”that this will be all right
troubled start and he was1996 forced to recruit the
these merchants from
– trust me”, made use of a personal exposure, what we
technical staff from
now call storytelling, England
or simply andpersonal
- effective it was PR. these
He
city merchants
built
people
around
mother as that,was
himself that
the
cantextile
the first
they received
myth
we assume;
including
putter out the
the story
somewhat
in the
the customers in
of his
district, which
was not true, and about his extrovert life in Stockholm,
their shops
surprisedwhile peddlers
Charles
either at restaurants orLoring
sought
Bracewith
in the audience
outtheduring
met there
king. He
customers.
his
obviously
visit used theseProblems
at Erikson. stories frequently
weretoalsocreateeconomic
the pic-
ture of himself as a legend in life.
17 in nature and in 1845 it was close that the
Ahlberger
”It is 1993
possibles there
87 are two opposite poles of his person-
whole company, then and
ality – the romantic person taken the over
rationalby Sven
contractor
- which really is the key to the answer of the question of
Erikson, went bankrupt. Apparently he sort out 10
why Sven Erikson persisted - and finally succeeded - to Fig 4. Rydboholm strategic location in relation to the
pushproblems
the the factory and
of Rydboholm
at the end to economically
of the 1840s, good the distribution network. Ahlberger 1996
conditions, despite the great difficulties it entailed.” 17

situation was much better, so well that a

The second problem, the location of manufacturing, may
Fig 3. Photo by Sven Erikson in the old days. Farmer or gentleman? printing of cotton
be explained, fabrics
if we examine was
more built
closely the in 1853
accounting
Fig 3.
Photo: ThePhoto by Sven
Textile Museum Erikson in the old days.
in Borås
for the distribution of textile products before the railroad
Farmer or gentleman? Photo: The Textile Rydboholm and weaving in Svaneholm 1852.
was available. There were in the Marks and Kinds hundreds,
Museum in Borås for a industrial
long time, a category
The empire ofgrew
merchants,
rapidlypeddlers,
with who
two
accounted for a highly efficient distribution network.
new factories in 1856; Viskafors for weaving and Rydals for spinning fabrications.
17
Ahlberger 1993 s 87 18
Ahlberger 1993 s 85-86

15 75
74Ahlberger 1993
Textile Journal s 79 Quoted from Mannerfelt: Sven Erikson and the history of Rydboholms industries 1834- Textile Journal
1866
Market expansion I have mentioned above the dynamic opportunity the
g
peddlers trade developed in the protection of privileges
Pia Lundqvist writes in her thesis that the period from
1800 to 1850 can be seen as a breakthrough period for
to get a nationwide distribution network and much
larger net of customers than urban merchants were
re
new spending habits of the vast majority of the people. able to present. But the cities were still important for

”The market is oversaturated with new objects, goods

these farming traders, because the cities passed on both
imported and industrially manufactured goods to the
a
that made life more comfortable, more enjoyable and peddlers. They therefore came to be the link between
have resulted in social status. There were groceries such
as coffee, tea and sugar, household items like porcelain
customer, wholesale and producer. As well as products
were sold to customers, peddlers could convey customer fi
and clocks and textiles for various purposes.”19 desires and needs to the suppliers. The boundaries

What is apparent is that the expanding market in these

between urban and rural areas gradually vanished during
the 1800s and in that process, these farming traders n
years is not taken for granted and expansion can only were an important factor.
be seen in relation to needs for life’s necessities, a desire
for a better life, status and financial opportunities to buy. ”The development of early consumption market was w
But it was not the peasants or the urban bourgeois who multi-structured. Peddlers - spiders in the network
stood for the consumption growth. Their number was
negligible as consumers and farmers in large families
between country and city, production and consumption,
craft and manufacturing - came through their activities to T
picked their needs from their own breeding and production. contribute to greater integration of different markets.”22
But given the discussion above the population growth
among the agricultural inferior classes, the image What we can see, there was no need to look at the c
becomes quite different of the driving forces for landless among cottage weavers as a relative status, liv-
increased consumption in the broad sense. Land- and ing conditions were far from those that well-off farmers
Fig 5. Two peddlers haggle. Painting by JW Wallander. Nordic Museum
property-less people were to rely on wage labor and a
market for their livelihood. By the mid-1700s, the number
and citizens could boast, but that did not mean a life of
misery and poverty. The cash salary made it possible to For Sweden as a whole, the early decades of the 1800s the children of his home weavers’ families. We may sus- p
of these social groups in rural areas is 20%. More than
a hundred years later it was 49%!20 This relationship has
buy consumer goods and in time, as the commodity pro-
duction and mechanized grain farming was streamlined, Fig 5. Two peddlers haggle. Painting by JW Wallander.
gave the result of a general increased consumption and
in this process the trade of the peddlers plays an impor-
pect that he also selected an exemplary family because
of Lorings visit, to show up and that he did not want to
been caught in a classic comment by Richard Oastler: the prices on grain fell as well as for consumer goods in
Nordic Museum
tant role.23 In such a sparsely populated country with
poor or outright non-existent communications other than
b
show the worst living conditions in the parish. I do not
think this critical point of view is relevant in relations and
general sense that previously were inaccessible, both for
”... ... A big capitalist, no matter how rich he is, has only economic reasons but also because of the current abun- the horse, wandering tradesmen were an important part in terms of what research has revealed about the market
one coat on in time, at least, only rarely wearing two
coats at the same time, but thousands of workers who
dance regulations. The abundance regulation in 1794
eliminated the last key controls, which in more than five
of the consumers revolution that preceded the first indus-
trial revolution.24
d
and consumption. What he saw was indeed rare among
rural people from the lower classes; a clean and tidy
are in a position to buy a thousand gowns when they hundred years had governed the way of dressing and house, curtains in the windows, which also were adorned
cannot get one, would certainly boost trade.21 consumption for various groups in the society. A last
effort was made to renew these regulations in 1817, but
among
But what the
did he observe, agricultural
Mr Charles Loring Brace, that sub-classes, the image become
day when he visited a family of weavers in the hundred
with flowers and as well there were neat plantings of
both flowers and potatoes around the corner of the
the result was only a small limitation of coffee imports. of Mark? Certainly Sven Erikson had, we may assume house. The weavers apparently were wealthy, they even
that itincreased consumption
concerned him, received information that this in the broad sense. The agricu
gave him smiles and showed a sort of happiness and the
spectacular company was coming and wanted to make women also wore silver brooches in their blouses. And
inquiries about the situations of learning in the school for on the contrary we have the images from the factory
19

20

21
Lundqvist 2008 s 209
Ahlberger 1996 s 55
Quoted after Ahlberger 1996 ref. to Adamson 1980 s 92 23
labor and a market for their livelihood. By the mid-17
Lundqvist 2008 ibid
people, pale, gloomy, listless and haggard without that
cheerful and welcoming attitude which he met in the
22
Lundqvist 2007 s 86 24
Ahlberger 1996 ibid cottage weaving household.

76 Textile Journal
areas is 20%. More than a hundred years later it was 4 Textile Journal 77
 operations".27

Summary and overview Firstly, we note that the cottage industry was not ousted
by the factory system, but came to exist as a parallel
I have tried to synthesize a small selection from a great production mode. Charles Loring Brace´s observations
literary and scientific production about a transition confirm that picture about 1850. And more than 30
between two types of society, the pre-industrial and years later, in the 1880s, the cottage industry found two
industrial society. I have done this with the help of six new niches, knitting and sewing in small scale, which in
points, factors, which themselves are related to each 1912 employed 4228 home workers in the southern part
Summary and overview
other and whoever is in interaction of dynamics of a of Älvsborg county to compare with factory employees
Ihistorical, social,
have tried to economic
synthesize and cultural
a small selection from acontext,
great literary1750-
and scientificofproduction
1365. Even the weaving cottage industry stood well
1850.a transition
about The following
betweengraphic
two typesimage,
of society,Figure 525, gives aand industrial
the pre-industrial against theI factory production. The number of those
society.
”frozen”
have picture
done this ofhelp
with the theofrelations,
six points, functions
factors, whichand situations
themselves who
are related to worked
each otherin this home industry, engaged in weaving,
butwhoever
and it does isnot show theofsystem’s
in interaction dynamics of variability and
a historical, how
social, the and
economic was in 1912 2807 persons to compare to 2887 in the
cultural
transition
context, to the The
1750-1850. factory system
following gradually
graphic replaced
image, Figure the a "frozen"
525, gives factories. 26
But this home industry of weaving decreased
picture of the
cottage industry in the second half of the 1800s. We can strongly
relations, functions and situations but it does not show the system's variability and how the
after the Great War.
say that this is the truth in the general sense, but in the
transition to the factory system gradually replaced the cottage industry in the 1800s the
case Sjuhäradsbygden there is reason to further examine Björn Sterner writes:
second half. We can say that this is the truth in the general sense, but in the case
the relevance of that statement. Was it really so that the
Sjuhäradsbygden there is reason to further examine the relevance of that statement is. Was it
factory system of mass production for mass consumption ”The spread of a cottage industry is primarily dependent
really
total so thatthe
beat the factory system home
small-scale of massindustrial
production production
for mass consumption total on by beating out
whether there is a textile putter-out at close range,
the small-scale
after 1900? home industrial production after 1900? but the putter-out has been in increasingly difficult com-
petition from factory production of woven products. A
few of them have transferred to knitting and sewing.
Others, who have switched to factory operation, provide
new contributions to industrialization. Increased produc-
tion capacity makes plant operation competitive. But it
also offers greater opportunities to control production
than in housework. The putter out does not have the
same guarantee as the manufacturer that the material is
used efficiently. He has no opportunity to influence pro-
ductions rate, during those time periods, when the work-
force is needed in farming. He can also not avoid that
the quality of the finished product will differ from differ-
ent home weavers. Coffee drinking and cowberry pro-
cessing may leave traces. The putter-out will have interest From
From this, firstly,
this, we can
firstly, weunderstand that the textile
can understand that the cot-textile
at cottage
this time in the professional
industry in the role,
earlya prerequisite
1920s stillfor house-
losses if the material sits a long time in the cottages. If he tage industry in the early 1920s still existed in full vitality, work to be able to live alongside a factory system. This
succeeds in gathering an initial capital from the cottage existed
and in full vitality,
that employment and thatwith
was combined employment
small-scale was combined
multi-activitywith a small-scale
economy is illustratedfarming, notin Figure
in the graphic
industry, he generally turns over to factory operations”.27 farming, not unlike the business model that existed 6, which is a result of Björn Sterners investigations in 1930.
about
26 100 years
Sterner 1949 searlier.
53 We see the specialization in the production of commodities
27
Sterner 1949 s 54 that may be headed back in time at least 150 years, and
Firstly, we note that the cottage industry was not ousting by the factory system, but came to Secondly, it appears that the textile putter-out does not in we see also the geographical scope of home sewing and
exist
25 as a parallel
Strömberg 1996production mode. Charles Loring Brace observations confirm that about any way disappear from history that we might think. On knitting. Undeniably, the railroad network meant a lot 15for
Sterner
1850.
26
And1949
mores than
53 50 years later, in the 1880s, the cottage industry has found two new the contrary, he or she is, women were not uncommon transportation of both raw materials and finished products.
27
Sterner
niches, 1949 sand
knitting 54 sewing in small scale, which in 1912 employed 4228 home workers in
southern Älvsborgs County against factory employees 1365th. Even the weaving in cottage
78 Textile Journal Textile Journal 79
industry stood well against the factory-driven production. The number of those who worked
in this home industry, engaged in weaving, was in 1912 2807 persons from 2887 in the
Thirdly, the development of free domestic trade did not personal tragedies as a result of a comprehensive social telling example is that, despite the dominance of large- were affordable; making the dream to a reality through
end the peddlers´ business, which we might expect when crisis. In some cases, these turbulent events actually scale industry during the second industrial revolution, dressing outside the everyday trivialities. Fashion communi-
the law on total freedom of trade was passed in 1864. presented a total de-industrialization in some European the small-scale production never ceased. Thus, there is a cation today is definitely a concept that can be used
Competition was gradually more intensified for the regions. One such example is Hälsingland in Sweden dur- real continuity, a tradition continually built on, but also a in this historical perspective on fashion and cultural
consumers, when plenty of general stores were esta- ing the 1700s. Linen fabrics from Hälsingland became change towards completely new market conditions. communication. Contemporary textile expressions in
blished in the countryside and the distribution of goods a major export article. Flax and linen production almost From this overview we can make the conclusion that fashion and communication show the textile heritage
became so much more efficient through the expansion pushed out agriculture as the most important business in the region Sjuhäradsbygden has been able to pass the but also the strength of renewal through textile design,
of the railroads. the whole region. problematic thresholds between the various industrial logistics and new commercial ideas.
revolutions in an amazingly good way. It is not the only
The itinerant traders became surely fewer, but many of The fields were sown with flax, and grain was needed example in Sweden, or in Europe. The Lake Siljan area in
them continued to operate well into the 1900s. Mail to be bought for money they received. The whole pro- Sweden, northern Italy and the Manchester region are
order trade broke through in the early 1900s and can duction of linen was sold to buyers in the cities, mainly other examples. Survival and rebirth, how has this been
be seen as a transformation of the itinerant traders’ Stockholm. When the chep cotton appeared, linen was possible?
activities, but now with a mail order catalog, a new quickly ousted. The distribution channels were too few
graphic media, which in pictures exposed the goods to enable the farmers to reach the buyers. This proto- Can this be a question reflected and based on traditional
which had been sold earlier only in physical form. Even industrial production pattern ended completely in the historical, economic and cultural structures? Let us
in this case the railroad, and the dense depot network, early 1800s, and there was never a transition to industrial examine the issue through a hypothesis. We return to the
came to operate as an effective opportunity to production, as opposed to Sjuhäradsbygden. six paragraphs on page 3, which as likely can be seen as
distribute the orders. Another example is the collapse of the Swedish textile driving forces in a dynamic production system. In a particular
and clothing industry. The war in the Middle East in 1973 social formation, they interact with the system in such a
Economists and historians are now fairly in agreement did not cause the end of this industry, but was one of positive and effective way to provide a clear competitive
that there is not only one industrial revolution, but rather the final factors which undermined the textile industry advantage against other regions’ economy. The social
three. The third one is probably now happening in the economy. In the second half of the 1960s the first signs and cultural patterns are the glue that may allow the
western conception of ourselves; we find ourselves at the came that something was wrong. Textile industry began system to achieve these benefits. When the crisis occurs,
beginning. Or maybe we are the middle of it or in the to get serious difficulties with profitability. The wages the effects attenuate because the driving forces in the
end? Perspectives on the absolute moment of the present rose, and now competition from outside increased. Many structure are switched; some lose in importance while
are too short to understand our own contemporaries, did not understand the seriousness or did not want to do others move their positions forward. But they will not
and we cannot see ourselves in the present; we must let so. The Swedes were brutally confronted with bankrupt- disappear, because they are based on ”tough” social and
history have happened, before we can make any state- cies, price rises and petrol rationing and the insight that cultural patterns of a distinctive regional and even local
ment about it. But we can look back in history of the the global situation in the world affected their well-being identity. This pattern has the ability to attract new growth
other two industrial processes. in an unpleasant way. functions, when the crisis is overcome, which
create new platforms for new dynamic progress. The idea
The word ”revolution” interprets in, more or less uncon- We were now facing a process of transformation of is by no means new but has been tested by research.28
sciously, a violent, rapid transformative event, in which stable industries, such as shipbuilding and textile industry. Today there is much talk about sustainability in many
archaic structures collapses like a house of cards. But if These businesses were almost entirely wiped out. contexts; Sjuhäradsbygden is a concrete example of how
we instead choose the perspective of the slowness with Industrial regions in Sweden were on the verge of a the tradition of ”tough” social and cultural patterns can
variations in economic, social and cultural patterns, the complete de-industrialization. These fears came true in interact with drivers to overcome a structural crisis. In the
image becomes more relevant how transitions occur some cases with the Norrköping textile industry, while in peddler´s catalog textile and fashion found its way into
between different social formations. These passages are other areas, such as Borås with Sjuhäradsbygden, textile both rural homes and the homes of the urban cities.
often of brutal nature, high unemployment, social unrest, production was taken over the crisis threshold, but now The lower classes in the societies saw modern times
increased poverty, reduced consumption, industrial in so completely different formations that it can be hard materialized in beautiful and desirable fabrics that also
bankruptcies, the destruction of capital and, of course, to see it as a legacy of the older textile industries. A
28 Putnam 1996 ibid

80 Textile Journal Textile Journal 81

References Ahlberger, Christer 1996: Konsumtionsrevolutionen.
Humanistiska fakulteten. Göteborgs universitet

Ahlberger, Christer 1993: Sven Eriksson.

Monumentbyggare eller entreprenör. Om fantasins kraft
i historien. I Personligheter och händelser ur den svenska
historien. Västgöta-Dal.

Ahlberger, Christer 1988: Vävarfolket.

Hemindustrin i Mark 1790-1850. Institutet för
lokalhistorisk forskning, skriftserie, nr 1. De sju
häradernas kulturhistoriska förening.

Brace, Charles Loring 1857: Norse-folk; or a visit to the

homes of Norway and Sweden. New York

Guteland/Holmberg/Hägerstrand/Karlqvist/Rundblad
1983: Ett folks biografi. Befolkning och samhälle i Sverige
från historia till framtid. Liber. Stockholm

Lundqvist, Pia 2007: Som en spindel i nätet. I Varans

vägar och världar. Handel och konsumtion i Skandinavien
ca 1600-1900. Ahlberger&Lundqvist (red.). Skrifter från
Historiska institutionen i Göteborg, nr 9

Lundqvist, Pia 2008: Marknad på väg. Den västgötska

gårdfarihandeln 1790-1864. Avh. från Historiska institu-
tionen nr 52. Göteborgs universitet

Putnam, Robert D 1996: Den fungerande demokratin:

Medborgarandans rötter i Italien. SNS förlag. Stockholm

Segerblom, Mats/Larsson, Anders 1993: Känn sjuhärads-

bygden. Odling, handel och industri. Norma förlag. Borås

Sterner, Björn 1949: Sjuhäradsbygden. Industrins

upplysningstjänst serie B 2. Stockholm

Strömberg, Lars G 1993: Lokala kulturmiljösystem. I Vad

berättar en by? Riksantikvarieämbetet. Stockholm

Winberg, Christer 2001: Hur Västsverige blev västsvenskt.

Historiska institutionen. Göteborgs universitet

82 Textile Journal Textile Journal 83

 Research and education at
The Swedish School of Textiles

Full scale laboratories

– experiments and production
Knitting, weaving, finishing-dyeing-printing, sewing & assembly, logistics

84 Textile Journal Textile Journal 85

 Smart Textiles Fashion Function Futures
More or less all people have a relation to textiles. Textiles can be natural bearer In the textile and fashion value chain from ideas to customers and beyond,
of technology and electronics, so there is an encouragement to further the decisive stage is the design process, which combines artistic skills and
develop textiles. functional considerations in order to make the fashion products logistically
manageable, attractive for customers and resourceful from an environmental
In Western Sweden, with Borås as the centre, an internationally well-known and sustainability point of view. Other salient elements of the chain are
textile cluster operates with Smart Textiles at its core. logistics, production, branding and marketing, merchandising and retailing,
consumer behavior, and post-consumption management.
The goal of Smart Textiles is a dynamic innovation system, which promotes
growth, strengthens the international competiveness and creates job F3 - Fashion Function Futures – is a programme for research and artistic
opportunities in the region. development, addressing these elements from artistic design to distribution
logistics and returns management, characterized by a strong professional
Smart Textile´s mission is to stimulate and support research and development context and an environment of interaction between theoretical knowledge
and facilitate collaboration between end users, researchers and industry. and applied experience in the field. The programme is based on a ”passion
All this will result in new textile-based products and services on the global for fashion” and an interdisciplinary environment, which supports the
market. There is a multitude of innovations and ideas for integrating tech- development and balancing of artistic expressions and design methodology
nology in textiles and finding sustainable solutions to interactive textiles. with logistics and value chain management skills. Several departments of the
Business and development opportunities in the cluster are benefits for all University of Borås collaborate to achieve the interdisciplinary approach and
industrial branches with textiles as the common denominator. knowledge required for identifying and shaping the Fashion Function Futures.
More information about Smart Textiles can be found at www.smarttextiles.se.

86 Textile Journal Textile Journal 87

 Fashion Function Futures
Outlining a research project
Björn Brorström is a professor Björn Brorström
in Business management and bjorn.brorstrom@hb.se
Prorector at the University
of Borås Johan Sundeen
johan.sundeen@hb.se
Johan Sundeen holds a Ph.D. in
History of science and ideas and 1 Vision and points of departure
is a Strategic Information Officer
at the University of Borås We are all affected by fashion: perhaps most obviously so as consumers,
but also e.g. through the importance of the business to national economy,
through the prominent position of fashion advertising in our cities’ public
environments or through the public debate on textile production and ecology.
Fashion is a phenomenon affecting many areas of society and also our daily
lives. Thus, it is a field of research well suited for interdisciplinary research
efforts.

The research and development programme Fashion Function Futures at the

University of Borås aims to develop new knowledge on the constituents of
the textile value chain and about the special characteristics of the fashion
industry in comparison with other industries.

In a figurative sense, the aggregated research task comprises of following and

influencing the entire development process from start to finish, i.e. participating
interactively in the processes starting with the conception of an idea all the
way to the meeting between the finished and distributed textile product and
the consumer. A sustainable development perspective has been included in
the R&D project, visible in the research on recycling and reuse.

Design Petra Högström,

The Swedish School of Textiles, 2009
Photo Henrik L. Bengtsson

88 Textile Journal Textile Journal 89

 karnivå inom det konstnärliga området. Design – inriktning textil,
definierar den konstnärliga textila forskningen vid lärosätet.

The immediate geographical surroundings provide the Bild 3: Bilden visar F3 R&D programme build up
hur de flervetenskapli-
knowledge chain and the infrastructure needed by the
The textile value chain industry. The Swedish School of Textiles, a department of
ga forskningsprogram-
men Smart Textiles
The textile research environment
och M3 står i relation
the University of Borås, holds a prominent position in the till de tre huvudin- Design Technology Management Fashion Artistic
Nordic countries and has strong characteristics in a wider riktningar som kän- Market Design
Brand Design Distribution Retailing Consumption netecknar den unika Studio Studio
international comparison. The Swedish School of Textiles textila kunskapsmiljö
is characterized by its integration of three main fields in som finns i Borås.
Smart Textiles
a single knowledge environment: design, technology and
From concept to consumption management. This gives breadth to the work and creates
ar-
om conditions for research which mirror those of the textile Fashion Function Futures Fashion F3
nter-
r- and fashion industry. The Swedish School of Textiles also Logistics Projects
extila
n textila Studio
éidé
till till
Recycling possesses an advanced machine park and labs and studios.
This practice-based research and development environ-
5. Inriktningarna på magisternivå är: textilteknologi, textilekonomi, applied textile manage-
ment has few counterparts internationally. 2
mentStructure and organization
samt fashion management. På masternivå ger Högskolan i Borås en konstnärlig master i
The research groups within F3 are interactive, investigating the entire
Inom
value Inom ramen
chain. ramen
förför
MM ryms
3 3
rymsenenlång
lång
radrad
angelägna
angelägnaforskningsom-
forskningsom- mode- och textildesign med inriktning mot modedesign eller textildesign. Modelled on Smart Textiles, the organizational structure
råden,
råden,som somsamtliga
samtligaharharenenstark starktillämpningsorientering.
tillämpningsorientering.Forskar- Forskar- The framework of Fashion Function Futures holds urgent The Swedish School of Textiles works as the organiza- of research within Fashion Function Futures includes
One
grupper of studerar
grupper the points
studerar ochoch of departure
förklarar
förklarar exempel
exempelis that
påpå the
fram-
fram- actors
och och on och
motgång,
motgång, och research projects with strong orientation toward applica- tional foundation for Fashion Function Futures. The a number of studios, which may be accessed by the
8
the textile
levererar
levererar andtill
förslag
förslag fashion
till
effektivaremarket
effektivare often operatesåväl
verksamhetsformer
verksamhetsformer insåväl
a som
global
som bidrar
bidrar tion. Groups of researchers study and explain examples programme, however, is interdisciplinary and crosses into companies involved in co-production with the University.
till
till
utvecklingen
utvecklingen
marketplace. Atavav nya
the nyaprodukter.
produkter.
same time, the programme has of success and adversity and deliver suggestions for more a multitude of research fields. It involves research groups Fashion Market studio conducts research on various
a Scandinavian and regional (se
Regionens
Regionens näringslivsstruktur
näringslivsstruktur (se
avsnitt
embedment,avsnitt4)4) och
och Högskolan
Högskolan
resulting ini Bor-
i Bor- efficient strategies and contribute to the development of from other research fields at the University of Borås, most aspects of market, ethics and communication,
ås
favourable conditions in an international comparison. lä-lä-
ås
tydliga
tydliga profil
profilsomsom ett ett
motmot det det
kvalificerade
kvalificerade yrkeslivet
yrkeslivet inriktat
inriktat new products. notably Logistics and Commerce, Consumer Behaviour and the Artistic Design Studio comprises research con-
rosäte
rosäte harhar
varit
varit
viktiga
viktiga utgångspunkter
utgångspunkter förför
MM . Forskningsprogram-
3 3
. Forskningsprogram- and Resource Recovery. cerning Body and Dress in their context. The textile value
metmet baseras
baseras på påen enflervetenskaplig
flervetenskaplig
There is a connection between the research and ansats
ansatsi enlighet
i enlighet med
med lärosätets
the lärosätets The Swedish School of Textiles is centre for a research chain, including the resource recovery dimension, is
övergripande
development work carried out within the frameworkområden
övergripande forskningsstrategi
forskningsstrategi ochoch ansluter
ansluter tilltill
flera
fleraav av
dede
områden
of and innovation programme, which has been attracted The R&D programme is characterized by high ambitions researched primarily in the Fashion Logistics Studio.
inom
inom vilka
vilkaHögskolan
Högskolan i Borås
i Borås stårståri begrepp
i begrepp attattsökasöka examensrättig-
examensrättig-
Fashion Function Futures and the sphere of associations, international attention: Smart Textiles, developing the concerning dialogue and co-production with the local
heter
heter påpåforskarnivå.
forskarnivå. 1 1
which is often referred to as the Scandinavian way. It next generation of textile products. It focuses on deve- community. The knowledge environment around Fashion In addition to these three main research environments
I dialog
I dialogochochinteraktion
interaktion medmed näringsliv,
näringsliv, offentliga
offentliga aktörer,
aktörer, forsk-
forsk-
includes
ningsinstitut
among
ningsinstitut samt
samt
other things a culture
kulturinstitutioner
kulturinstitutioner somsom
of strong brands
Textilmuseet,
Textilmuseet, skaska
profes-
profes-
loping textile materials with high knowledge content, Function Futures resembles an open experimental activity there is also other research conducted at the University of
– sionslärosätet
with H&MHögskolan
sionslärosätet and IKEAi as
Högskolan theutveckla
Borås
i Borås most
utvecklaprominent
MM 3 3
tilltill
enen examples
internationellt
internationellt which is integrated with modern technology. Applications area and will be an attractive meeting place. This provides Borås which provides results relevant to the profession,
– konkurrenskraftig
a leadership and
konkurrenskraftig miljö a för
miljö corporate
för
forskning
forskning culture
ochoch where certain Detta
produktutveckling.
produktutveckling. Detta are being developed in various areas, e.g. working favourable conditions for fruitful exchanges of ideas, expe- while not being oriented directly at the textile and
aspects
partnerskap
partnerskapareharclearly
harpotential specific
potential toblistilbildande
attattbli the Nordic och
stilbildande countries
ochfå fåstor and
stornationell
nationell environment and medical care. riences and knowledge and also for interaction between fashion industry (so called F3-projects).
a betydelse.
well deve-loped environment and sustainable develop-
betydelse. corporate-driven and academically motivated projects.
ment ideology. Whereas Smart Textiles is primarily concerned with
research on design and technology and the interplay
The fact that the R&D project Fashion Function between these areas, the scientific point of departure
Futures resides physically in Borås is part of the auspicious of Fashion Function Futures is the interaction between
conditions of the project. Historic factors as well as con- design and management. These two strong research
temporary ones provide excellent reasons for mentioning programmes overlap and supplement each other.
Borås
1. 1.
I enI enas theprocess
successiv
successiv textile
process
skaskacapital
Högskolan
Högskolan of
i Borås Sweden.
i Borås
sträva
sträva
efter attBorås
efter att
erhålla
erhålla with the
forskarutbildnings-
forskarutbildnings- Together they form the foundation for a complete textile
rättigheter
rättigheterinom
inom
följande
följande
sexsex
områden:
områden:
biblioteks-
biblioteks-
ochoch
surrounding
tjänstevetenskap,
tjänstevetenskap,
Sjuhärad
lärarutbildning
lärarutbildning
area
ochoch
holds
pedagogisk
pedagogisk
ininformationsvetenskap,
informationsvetenskap,
its textile
yrkesverksamhet,
yrkesverksamhet,
handels-
traditionhandels-
resursåtervinning,
resursåtervinning,
ochoch
atextil
textil
research environment.
culture-historical
ochoch
modemodesamt
samt
integrerad
integrerad heritage
vårdutveckling. of
vårdutveckling. tradekommer
Härutöver
Härutöver and
kommer industry;
lärosätet
lärosätet
att att a heritage
ansöka
ansöka
omom exa-exa-
mensrättigheter
mensrättigheter på på
forskarnivå
forskarnivå
that lives on and is inominom
detdet
constantlykonstnärliga
konstnärliga
området.
renewed området.
in the dynamic Design Petra Högström,
textile and fashion industry based in the region. The Swedish School of Textiles, 2009
Photo Henrik L. Bengtsson

90 Textile Journal Textile Journal 91

92 Textile Journal Textile Journal 93
3 Research projects about developing technological, economical and social
resources, which can be mobilized to allow enterprises to
Currently, Fashion Function Futures is in a development be strengthened rather than weakened by adversities.
stage. Research groups are being formed and closer relations
are established with collaborating actors in the local com- Studying entrepreneurship is part of the management
munity. Several research projects have been launched research carried out within the framework of Fashion
already or are just about to begin. Function Futures. It is of vital interest to be able to
explain the meaning of entrepreneurial leadership and
One example of research and development within its importance in corporate development. One point of
Fashion Function Futures concerns the study of models departure for the studies planned is ongoing research
and methods for control, organization and management at the University on the meaning of the traditional local
in the fashion industry. One important purpose is to ‘pedlar spirit’ (“Knalleandan”) and its importance to the
increase knowledge about the conditions in the textile development of the textile and fashion industry.
and fashion industry and what is specific to the corporate
culture in the textile cluster in the Borås and Sjuhärad area. One important goal of Fashion Function Futures is to
contribute to the development of design methodology;
In the field of Fashion Logistics, researchers are developing collaborating closely with the profession to come up with
models for efficient demand-driven supply networks. basic models, which may be used as a starting point to
Studies are conducted on the transition from the idea develop methodology for professional work and to
that items which can be produced should be sold to develop education in fashion design.
the thought that items and services, which can be sold,
should be produced and distributed, i.e. those being in On top of this, the fashion design process is special in
demand. The problem is connected to research on con- itself with its short cycles, its intensity, its demands on
sumer behaviour and to ever-important questions on the swift decision-making and the fact that it is founded on
relationship between supply and demand and how more or less accurate assumptions about future trends.
companies are to act on the market to secure a The process puts great demands on working systematically.
sustainable development. The development of design methodology specifically
adapted for fashion design is thus important to the
The purpose of the project Recycling of clothes is to development of fashion design as a profession.
develop knowledge about handling waste clothes. Up
to now, most of the research on environmental issues The above presentations of projects and fields of
and textile waste has been conducted from a producer’s research are to be seen as examples and landmarks for
perspective. Increased understanding about consumer the research in Fashion Function Futures. The start of a
behaviour is important for the market to develop new full-scale realization of the R&D programme entails the
solutions to reduce the environmental hazards around development of a number of dynamic processes. Existing
waste clothes. research projects are intensified while at the same time
broadening the agenda. Most notably, the collected
Studies of so-called resilient organizations are another critical environment provides individual researchers and
important research area. Organizational resilience, or the research groups with access to networks and interaction
long-term vitality of companies and organizations, is not with other projects, opening up for collaboration and
mainly about foreseeing future development but rather co-production with external actors. Design Helena Quist, The Swedish School of
about an ability to handle uncertainty and crises. It is Textiles, Fashion Week by Berns
Photo Kristian Löveborg

94 Textile Journal Textile Journal 95

4 Education closely related to research 5 Co-production development executives and mana-
gers of companies working mainly in
A basic idea in Fashion Function Futures is that there In a number of areas, the research competence contai- the Sjuhärad area, have developed.
must be a close relationship between research and ned in Fashion Function Futures matches the corporate The resources for Fashion Function
education. A systematic endeavour aimed at education culture and the structure of the business community of Futures add to the resources set
is of vital importance to build up the critical mass of primarily Borås and the Sjuhärad area, but also the larger aside for building and maintain-
academic resources needed in a full-scale realization of geographical region – the county of Västra Götaland. ing bridges between actors in the
Fashion Function Futures. This is true mainly for the textile field, but fields such innovation system and to facilitate a
as logistics, trade and sustainable development are also well-developed and functional co-
The education of the Swedish School of Textiles is multi- strong fields for both the University and the local business production. Opportunities for fruit-
faceted, both the first cycle programmes and at the community. The opportunities for cross-fertilization between ful meetings are created, providing
advanced levels. The strongest connections between scientifically and empirically based knowledge are great, the prerequisites needed for joint
the research within Fashion Function Futures and the as are the opportunities for meetings, where different research and development projects.
education will be at the advanced level. Today, there are perspectives may contrast one another.
three Master Degree programmes in the field of textile Research-driven collaboration and
and fashion: textile technology, applied textile management One of the trends characterizing the development of the co-production in the strong regional
and fashion management. The Swedish School of Textiles structure of the local business community is a rapidly field of fashion and textile will sti-
also gives an artistic Master Degree education in fashion growing culture of networking and formal and informal mulate the creation of new business
and textile design, geared toward fashion design and collaboration between businesses, the University and the opportunities and also new jobs in
textile design. public sector. established companies.

The supply of postgraduate students is vital to strengthen As a knowledge centre, the University of Borås wants
the scientific competence in the textile field, since today to bring the multitude of actors of this knowledge and
it is difficult to recruit teachers and researchers who competence cluster closer together; the goal is to further
combine knowledge of the textile industry and relevant develop the Sjuhärad area to a Scandinavian textile and
academic/scientific background. The idea is to create a fashion centre of European and global relevance.
flow of researchers-to-be and teachers from the Master
Degree education into the platform of Fashion Function In Borås and in the area surrounding the city, established
Futures. It is not to be seen only as a supply for the platforms for collaboration and co-production exist
academy itself, however, but also as a supply of top- already, e.g. the pre-incubator the Textile and Fashion
notch competence for the textile and fashion industry. Factory. It is a result of collaboration between the Espira
business development centre and the University of Borås.
The strategy behind Fashion Function Futures also The incubator provides an opportunity to test materials,
includes creating new ways to recruit people to textile design and products. Another important platform is
education and consecutively also to the fashion industry. Marketplace Borås, which is an organization for collabo-
A possible model is to design an advanced level pro- ration for, among others, enterprises in the industry. One
gramme aimed at people with first cycle academic of its goals is creating a Fashion Park with 20-30 entre-
education in various fields, offering them an opportunity preneurs and developing networks for top competence.
to amend previous knowledge with specialist knowledge
in the field of textile and fashion. In the research and innovation programme Smart Textiles,
Design Karin Bäckström,
a large number of projects, built on far-reaching The Swedish School of Textiles,
collaboration between researchers at the University and Fashion Week by Berns
Photo Henrik L Bengtsson

96 Textile Journal Textile Journal 97

 The Research Group at The Swedish School of Textiles Kenneth Tingsvik Associate Professor
Textile Chemistry
Simonetta Carbonaro Professor kenneth.tingsvik@hb.se
Design Management
simonetta.carbonaro@hb.se Clemens Thornqvist Associate Professor
Design Management/Fashion Design
Marie Dreiman Professor clemens.thornqvist@hb.se
Textile Design
Marie.dreiman@hb.se Kajsa G Eriksson Ph D
Fashion Design
Lars Hallnäs Professor kajsa.eriksson@hb.se
Interaction Design
lars.hallnas@hb.se Lars G Strömberg Ph D
Ethnology
Olof Holm Professor lars.stromberg@hb.se
Management and communication
olof.holm@hb.se Linda Worbin Ph D
Textile Design
Nandan Khokar Professor linda.worbin@hb.se
Textile Technology
Nandan.khokar@hb.se Lena Berglin Post Doc
Textile/Interaction design
Heikki Mattila Professor Lena.berglin@hb.se
Textile Management
heikki.mattila@hb.se Nils-Krister Persson Post Doc
Textile Technology
Ann Merete Ohrt Professor nils-krister.persson@hb.se
Fashion Design
ann_merete.ohrt@hb.se Anna Wallgårda Post Doc
Interaction Design
Lisbeth Svengren Holm Professor anna.wallgarda@hb.se
Fashion Management
lisbeth.svengren_holm@hb.se Martin Ciszuk Ph D student
Textile science/Handloom weaving
Håkan Torstensson Professor martin.ciszuk@hb.se
Transportation Safety and Security,
hakan.torstensson@hb.se Delia Dumitrescu Ph D Student
Textile Design
Pernilla Walkenström Professor delia.dumitrescu@hb.se
Textile Technology
pernilla.walkenstrom@hb.se

98 Textile Journal Textile Journal 99

 Maja Gunn Ph D student
Fashion Design Linnéa Nilsson Ph D Student
maja.gun@hb.se Textile Design
linnea.nilsson@hb.se
David Goldsmith Ph D student
Fashion Management Rudrajeet Pal Ph D student
david.goldsmith@hb.se Textile Management
rudrajeet.pal@hb.se
Li Guo Ph D student
Textile Technology Anna Persson Ph D student
li.guo@hb.se Interaction Design/Textile Design
anna.persson@hb.se
Barbara Jansen Ph D Student
Textile Design Joel Peterson Ph D student
barbara.jansen@hb.se Fashion logistics/Supply chain
management and Knitting technology
Karin Landahl Ph D student joel.peterson@hb.se
Fashion Design
karin.landahl@hb.se Karl Tillberg Ph D student
Textile Technology
Ulrik Martin Larsen Ph D student karl.tillberg@hb.se
Fashion Design
ulrik-martin.larsen@hb.se Anne Britt Torkildsby Ph D Student
Textile Design
Jonas Larsson Ph D student anne_britt.torkildsby@hb.se
Fashion Logistics
jonas.kj.larsson@hb.se Margareta Zetterblom Ph D Student
Textile Design
Rickard Lindqvist Ph D student margareta.zetterblom@hb.se
Fashion Design
rickard.lindqvist@hb.se Maria Åkerfeldt Ph D student
Textile Technology,
Anja Lund Ph D student maria.akerfeldt@hb.se
Textile Technology
anja.lund@h.se

Lotta Lundstedt Ph D student

Fashion Design
lotta.lundstedt@hb.se

Veronica Malm Ph D student

Textile Technology
veronica.malm@hb.se

100 Textile Journal Textile Journal 101

 The Textile Research Centre
Managing Director
Håkan Torstensson
hakan.torstensson@hb.se

Assistant Managing Director

Agneta Nordlund-Andersson
agneta.nordlund-andersson@hb.se

www.hb.se/ths/ctf

Since its start in 1998 the Textile Research Centre, CTF, gathers international
and national actors who work for reinforcing research in the textile and fash-
ion sector. The CTF is linked to The Swedish School of Textiles, THS, at the
University of Borås. Through active work the CTF is now of central importance
to the research and the artistic development work carried out at The Swedish
School of Textiles. Seminars, conferences, publication of journals and other
works, and creation of research networks are items from the programme.

Today (2010), The Swedish School of Textiles has some 10 professors and
25 postgraduate research students. Its intentions are now to develop and
strengthen the CTF as an arena and as part of the infrastructure for research
and artistic development work. To achieve this, a re-examination of activities,
organization, communication, and financing has been carried out.

Purpose

The purpose of the activities of the CTF is to promote Nordic research in tex-
tile and fashion by making research results and information available to all
professionals in the field. The CTF strives to provide an overall picture of this
kind of research by highlighting design and craft as well as technology and
management and the unique combination of these subject areas represented
by The Swedish School of Textiles and its partners. Thus, CTF activities include
hosting lectures, seminars, and conferences along with reflecting current issues
and presenting discoveries through publications and media.

Design Karin Bäckström,

The Swedish School of Textiles
Photo Henrik L Bengtsson

102 Textile Journal Textile Journal 103

 Organisational Scheme of CTF, Advisory Council

The Textile Research Centre, CTF

The aim of the membership of the CTF Advisory Council is to create close
links within the field of textiles relevant to the work of the CTF. The first
board meeting was held on August 31 1998.

Organisational Scheme of the Textile Research Centre, CTF Chairperson: Håkan Torstensson Managing Director, CTF,
The Swedish School of Textiles,
University of Borås
CTF Textilhögskolan, Högskolan i Borås
hakan.torstensson@hb.se
Members:
Lotta Ahlvar Managing Director, Swedish Fashion Council,
Operative Manager Group Advisory Council
Svenska Moderådet
lotta.ahlvar@moderadet.se

Journal Publishing Communication Conferences Björn Brorström Prorector, University of Borås,

Seminars Högskolan i Borås
Events bjorn.brorstrom@hb.se
Editors
Ingrid Giertz-Mårtenson Managing Director, Swedish Vision AB
igm@swedishvision.se

Editorial Board Anne-Charlotte Hanning Production Manager, Swerea IVF

anne-charlotte.hanning@swerea.se

Johan Huldt Managing Director, Innovator

Textile Journal Book Publishing Exhibitions info@innovator-design.se

Roger Johansson Chalmers University of Technology,

Prepress Prepress Chalmers Tekniska Högskola
s.roger.johansson@telia.com
Print Print
Maria Levin Creative Director, Nudie Jeans
maria@Nudiejeans.com

Eva Ohlsson Managing Director,

The National Swedish Handicraft Council,
Nämnden för Hemslöjdsfrågor
eva.ohlsson@nfh.se

104 Textile Journal Textile Journal 105

Members: Ola Toftegaard Managing Director,
Swedish Textile and Clothing Industries
Association, TEKO
ola.toftegaard@teko.se

Margareta Van Den Bosch Chief of design, H&M

bosch@hm.com

Pirjo Hirvonen Professor, University of Art and Design,

Helsingfors
pirjo.hirvonen@taik.fi

Curry Heimann Museichef, Borås Museum &

Textilmuséet, Borås
curry.heimann@boras.se

Additional members: Agneta Nordlund-Andersson Assistent Managing Director, CTF

The Swedish School of Textiles,
University of Borås
agneta.nordlund-andersson@hb.se

Larsh Eriksson Senior Administrative Officer, CTF,
The Swedish School of Textiles,
University of Borås
larsh.eriksson@hb.se

Karin Rundqvist Student Representative,

The Swedish School of Textiles,
University of Borås
Textilhögskolan, Högskolan i Borås
S082823@utb.hb.se

Design Ragnhild Nordhagen,

The Swedish School of Textiles, 2009
Photo Henrik L Bengtsson

106 Textile Journal Textile Journal 107

 The Textile Research Board at Swerea IVF,
Textiles and Plastics Department
Pernilla Walkenström Adjunct professor in Textile Technology at The University of Borås,
The Swedish School of Textiles. Manager at Textiles and Plastics department,
Swerea IVF. Finished her PhD 1996, focusing on “Phase distribution of mixed
biopolymer gels in relation to process conditions”. Has since then worked
Textiles and Plastics department:
with biopolymers, gel formation phenomena, followed by fibre
Our R&D work covers chemical,
spinning processes.
physical and mechanical properties
of fibrous and polymeric materials,
Bengt Hagström PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Expert on polymer processing, polymer melt
production technologies of, textiles,
rheology and melt spinning of fibers. Manager Functional fibres group
plastics, nonwovens and rubber
at Swerea IVF.
products and their waste manage-
ment.The results of our research
Anna Thorvaldsson PhD student at Swerea IVF. Finished her Master of Science in biotechnology in
work are implemented in a number
spring 2006. The studies focused on biopolymers (DA-work) and molecular
of industrial applications.
biology. Has thereafter worked with electrospinning of nanofibres for
biomedical applications.
By choosing Swerea IVF as your R & D
partner you benefit not only from
Anders Bergner Senior scientist at Swerea IVF. Polymer materials engineer in 1987, then
our researchers know-how but also
studied innovation engineering 1989-1992. Long industrial experience in
from our many strengths:
the field of polymeric materials, composites and textiles from automotive,
defense and medical technology as design engineer, project manager,
- Well-educated personnel with
R&D manager and technical manger.
in-depth industry insight
Ioannis Chronakis PhD in physical and colloidal chemistry of biomacromolecules. Expert in
- Extensive laboratory facilities for
electrospinning of functional nanofibers and micro/nanostructures.
analysis, design, manufacturing
and testing-In-house strategic
Staffan Toll Senior scientist at Swerea IVF. Professor of Fibrous Materials at Chalmers,
research for long-term competence
since 1995. Research revolves around the micromechanics, rheology and
development
constitutive theory of fibre networks, suspensions and composites.
- Academic research combined with
Martin Strååt PhD-student at Swerea IVF. Master of Science in polymer engineering
applied development and
materials in 2005. Licentiate in polymer engineering in 2008 on dielectric
knowledge transfer in intimate
properties of polyethylene foams. Currently working on developing new
collaboration with industry-Close
conductive fibres for smart textile applications.
collaboration with universities and
research organizations
Valter Dejke Licentiate in engineering in 2001 on durability of fibre reinforced polymers
in concrete. Has since worked with development and production of chemical
- Active international collaboration
type humidity indicators. He was employed 2008 as a researcher at Swerea
IVF where he focuses mainly on mechanical and thermophysiological
properties of textile materials.

108 Textile Journal Textile Journal 109

 The Editorial Board, The Nordic Textile Journal Johan Huldt Professor Design
The University of Borås, Sweden
Zane Berzina Professor
Head of the Textile and Surface Nandan Khokar Professor Textile Technology
Design Department the Art The University of Borås, Sweden
College Berlin-Weißensee, Germany
Vladan Koncar Professor GEMTEX ENSAIT-Ecole
Margaret Bruce Professor Design Management and Nationale Supérieure des
Marketing. International Business Arts et Industries Textiles, France
and Strategy Division. Manchester
Business School, UK Heikki Mattila Professor Textile Management
The University of Borås, Sweden
Simonetta Carbonaro Professor Design Management
The University of Borås, Sweden Ann Merete Ohrt Professor Fashion Design
The University of Borås, Sweden
Lucy Daly Research Business Manager, Centre
for Engagement, Manchester Vibeke Riisberg Associate Professor
Business School, The University of Designskolen Kolding, Denmark
Manchester, UK
Johan Redström Senior Researcher
Stig Franzén Professor Design & Human Factors Interactiv Institut, Stockholm
Chalmers University of Technology,
Gothenburg, Sweden Lisbeth Svengren Holm Professor Fashion Management
The University of Borås, Sweden
Marie Dreiman Professor Textile Design
The University of Borås, Sweden Clemens Thornqvist Associate Professor
Design Management/Fashion Design
Lars Hallnäs Professor Interaction Design The University of Borås, Sweden
The University of Borås, Sweden
Håkan Torstensson Professor
Mary Ann Hansen Senior Lecturer Transportation Safety and Security,
The Danish Design School, Denmark The University of Borås, Sweden

Hilde Hauan Johnsen Professor Olga Troynikov Senior Lecturer

Bergen National Academy of The School of Fashion and Textiles
Arts, Norway RMIT University, Australia

Olof Holm Professor Management and Pernilla Walkenström Professor Textile Technology
communication The University of Borås, Sweden
The University of Borås, Sweden
Roger H Wardman School of Textiles & Design
Heriot-Watt University,
Scottish Borders Campus, UK

110 Textile Journal Textile Journal 111

New book, CTF Publishing School Fashion Fashion School is a visionary work in
three volumes investigating the global landscape of high-
Philosophia Academiae explores not only the schooling
of different perspectives in fashion design, but academia
er education in fashion design. Through world renowned in general as it is understood from the perspective of
academies and institutions in their shade the work is fashion design as an ambiguous field in-between differ-
not only a comprehensive study of the schooling of the ent university faculties. While trying not to reveal myself
future of fashion design, but equally an outlook into the in any one of the shiny mirrors in all the fashion design
fashion of world academia. schools along the way, but at the same time trying to
ISBN: 978-91-85659-50-0 find an expressive point between the sensible and its
Three volumes in hardcover (cloth) form, this first part of the work presents the academy as
300x210x75mm, 520 pages, 400 colour prints an obscure mirror.
€ 100 ex vat & shipping 300x210mm, 248 pages, colour, hardcover (cloth).
The Textile Research Centre Isbn: 978-91-85659-42-5
The Swedish School of Textiles
University of Borås Ontologia Pupae examines the basis of creation
501 90 Borås, Sweden originating in the tailor mannequin as an unquestioned
www.hb.se/ths/ctf a-priori and pre-model for theorization, model making
and design development. On one hand, the tailor’s
For more information and to order please contact: mannequin is made to suggest a quality of blandness and
Stiftelsen Proteko impartiality. On the other, the freedom that may charac-
litteratur@proteko.se terise it seems to be deeply rooted in necessity. This is to
ph. +46 33 20 49 50 say; in this pre-model there is evidence of its resistance to
fx. +46 33 20 49 69 transformation post by its matter, as well as openness to
truth because of its disability for closure.
300x210mm, 128 pages, colour, hardcover (cloth).
Isbn: 978-91-85659-44-9

Logica Contra investigates different logics, motives,

materials, methods, norms, collections and inferences
in fashion design cultivated by its different harbouring
faculties. As a universal pattern of vigorous and patient
experimentation, the contrapunctual pulse joins together
fragments, independent in line, rhythm and harmony,
to find the greater depths of the dream from whence
to build a new myth of birth. And it is from here the
work renders a discrete model for art, science and
the humanities.
300x210mm, 144 pages, colour, hardcover (cloth).
Isbn: 978-91-85659-43-2

School Fashion Fashion School

clem ens thornquist

112 Textile Journal Textile Journal 113

 Notes for authors
Refereeing

Submitted article manuscripts will be peer reviewed by at least two referees

appointed by editorial board. Article manuscripts can be either accepted as
submitted, accepted after requested major or minor modifications or rejected
by the editorial board. Submitted images of research objects will also be
scrutinized by experts appointed by and after the assessment, accepted or
rejected by the editorial board.
Submitted exhibition reviews and book reviews will be subjected to an
editorial assessment.

Free access publication

The journal will be published electronically, with free access, six months after

Contributors
the publication date of the printed issue. The electronic version will be pub-
lished in the University of Borås institutional repository BADA (Borås Academic
Digital Archive) http://bada.hb.se/ .

Guidelines - articles

- Submitted article manuscripts should be original articles, written in

English. They must not be published in the same form earlier or submitted
for publication elsewhere.

- The text should be submitted in two copies: one editable copy and one
non editable copy in appropriate file formats.

- Photos and other images should be supplied as separate files in an

appropriate file format.

- It is the author’s responsibility to obtain the required approval from all the
parts involved: authors, photographers, artists and others.

- There is no page limit specified for contributions, but it is recommended

that the material is presented in a form that is succinct and attractive
to read.

- An abstract of not more than 250 words should be supplied as well as

5 essential subject keywords.

Textile Journal 115

- A biography of 3-5 sentences for each author should Example 2, websites
be supplied as a separate file. The reference:
(Scalway 2009)
- References should preferably be in Harvard style In the reference list:
(the “name-year system”). Scalway, H. (2009). Essay: Means and meaning.
[Online] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/
Harvard system: collections/fashion/features/diasporas/movingpatterns/
essay1/index.html The next issue of
Example, books [Accessed 19 April 2010].
The reference:
(Finnane 2008, pp. 44-48) Guidelines - exhibition reviews and book reviews
The Nordic Textile Journal
In reference list:
Finnane, A. (2008). Changing clothes in China. For book reviews, bibliographic information should be will be published in November 2010.
Fashion, history, nation. New York. Columbia supplied: author(s), title, publisher and publication year.
University Press. For exhibition reviews, name of originator(s), title,
location and dates of the exhibition should be supplied.
Special Edition: Smart Textiles
Example, book chapters
The reference:
(Breward 2001)
In reference list:
Breward, Ch. (2001). Manliness, modernity and the
shaping of male clothing. In: Entwistle, J. & Wilson, E.
(eds.). Body dressing. Oxford. Berg, pp.165-181.

Example, journal articles

The reference:
(Studd 2002)
In reference list:
Studd, R. (2002). The textile design process.
The Design Journal. Vol. 5:1, pp. 35-49.

Example 1, websites
The reference:
(Victorian and Albert Museum n.d.)
In the reference list:
Victorian and Albert Museum (n.d.). Fashioning
diaspora space.
[Online] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk
/ Research & Conservation
/ Research / Research Project: Fashioning Diaspora
Space [Accessed 19 April 2010].

116 Textile Journal Textile Journal 117

Notes

118 Textile Journal Textile Journal 119

120 Textile Journal