3. Circular Open Source Fashion¶

Research & Ideation¶

"I am excited about this week's module. When I think of circular fashion, it reminds me of sustainable fashion methods and accelerate innovation by sharing modular systems, zero-waste patterns, upcycling recipes, repair systems". Zero-waste patterns were very difficult for me after understanding that zero pattern waste means designing a garment so that when you cut out all the pattern pieces from the fabric, no fabric is left unused. This will greatly impact sustainability where the fashion industry generates between 15-20% from fabic waste from cutting.

⸻

References & Inspiration¶

"I was facinated with designers that include shapes in their designs such as circles, squares/rectangle, and/or triangles. Yuima Nakazato is one of a few Japanese fashion designers that I was interested in because of his reach with zero waste and upcycling and shapes in his designs. Through his designs, he treats couture as a research lab: high-end and artisanal work become the testing ground for sustainable techniques and new materials. He use of upcycled / waste textiles, biotech materials, and hybrid methods shows that even couture can engage with circularity. I also likes how he merges fashion, engineering, and material science together."

Two images side-by-side

Both images from Design Art Moda Magazine

Tools¶

Step 1. Process and workflow¶

My design process began with hand-drawn sketches, which allowed me to explore form, repetition, and modularity in an intuitive way. I intentionally chose to work with three primary geometric shapes—the circle, rectangle, and triangle—as a foundation for this project. These shapes were selected for both their visual simplicity and their structural potential when combined.

Within the system, the triangle functions as the male component, while the circle functions as the female component of the structure. This relationship guided how the pieces connect, lock, and orient themselves, creating a modular language that is both functional and symbolic. The rectangle serves as a stabilizing and directional element, helping to guide movement and alignment within the overall form.

An additional source of inspiration came from a Pinterest reference image (shown below), which features repeated arrow-like forms and directional cues. The image influenced my approach to movement, flow, and orientation, encouraging me to think about how individual units could suggest direction while still functioning as part of a cohesive system.

This early phase focused on exploring shape relationships, connection logic, and visual rhythm before moving into digital modeling and fabrication.

Step 2. Using 2D system with Adobe Illustrator¶

This module was developed using a 2D design workflow in Adobe Illustrator as an intermediate step between hand sketches and future digital fabrication. I am somewhat familiar with Illustrator, which allowed me to work efficiently while still experimenting with form and connection logic. I recreated my hand-drawn sketches in Illustrator, using basic shape tools to construct each component and manually connecting the pieces to test scale, alignment, and modular relationships. The system was built from simple geometric forms—circles, rectangles, and triangles—translated into clean vector paths suitable for iteration and fabrication.

To create the triangle form, I began with the Star Tool and reduced the number of points until a triangular shape emerged, removing excess anchors as needed. This method allowed me to maintain consistent angles and proportions while keeping the geometry editable. Each shape was then refined, aligned, and connected to ensure the male–female relationships established in the sketch phase were preserved in the digital environment. Working in Illustrator at this stage helped me think critically about precision, repetition, and connectivity, while also preparing the files for downstream processes such as laser cutting, CNC, or parametric translation.

Step 3. Testing different fabrics for laser cutting¶

The laser-cut nesting was developed through a series of material tests using the xTool M1 laser cutter. The goal of this step was to evaluate how different textile substrates respond to laser cutting and to determine optimal settings for clean cuts while minimizing material damage.

I tested five different fabrics with varying fiber content and thickness: • Green fabric – 100% cotton • Pink fabric – PET felt • Gray fabric – thicker PET felt • Blue fabric – 100% linen • Patterned fabric – denim twill (100% cotton)

Initial tests were conducted at 90% power and 25% speed. At these settings, both the cotton and linen fabrics cut successfully, but the process resulted in noticeable burning of the cutting mat, particularly when felt was used as the base material. This indicated that while the laser was effective at cutting natural fibers, the underlying support material played a significant role in heat transfer and surface damage.

After several rounds of testing and adjustment, I found that both the standard PET felt and the thicker PET felt produced the best results when PU leather was used as the cutting material setting. Using 90% power and 15% speed, the felt cut cleanly and consistently, although some mat burning still occurred. Despite this, the cut quality of the felt was significantly improved compared to earlier tests.

This testing phase highlighted the importance of material selection, thickness, and support surfaces in laser-cut textile workflows and informed decisions for future fabrication iterations.