What can the fashion industry learn from textile decomposition?

Unmaking displays co-creative process between a human designer, deadstock textile and compost. There are around 9 billion organisms in one teaspoon of compost, creating a vibrant living system - compost therefore presents an opportunity for designing with, and through, soil.

In the project, I am revisiting my past design practice by upcycling overproduced, deadstock drawstring bags, previously used as packaging. In contact with compost and under optimal conditions, cotton - a cellulosic textile, is slowly broken down by bacteria, fungi, and macro-organisms. During this decomposition process the textile becomes imprinted with pigments through microorganisms' decay as well as by pigmented bacteria, resulting in an innovative and double-sided print. This print mirrors the beaming life of this diverse living system through a process usually linked with departure from life.

Through the way compost is applied to the textile, the human designer explores agency of the living and non-living actors - the compost is either contained by 3D printed forms or covering the whole textile. The cotton with the undesired old text, the strings and the compost print all play a vital role during the unmaking process, presented through a modular wall hanging installation.

Unmaking aims to demystify decomposition and display agency in design through an exploratory, approachable and considerate process.