Carole Collet "Designing Across Domains to Enable Planetary Change"

Special feature "Cycles of Life: The Past & Future of Apparel" in collaboration with Yoshikazu Yamagata, designer of the fashion label writtenafterwards and organizer of the fashion learning platform "coconogacco." This time, we are pleased to welcome Carole Collet, a leading figure in research that bridges sustainable design, bio-design, and textile design since the 1990s, driving the field forward.

We discussed with Collet about the changes she envisions, considering the current landscape, where she questions textile design methods and now comprehensively examines design itself beyond the boundaries of fashion design.

Is it Possible to Be Both a Textile Designer & an Ecologist?

Passion for Textile Design & Concerns About Environmental Impact

I began actively researching how to incorporate the principles of biomimicry and biology into textile design in 2007. Prior to that, I focused on developing sustainable textiles, considering sources of raw materials, recycled materials, and types of dyes. While studying textiles at a university in Paris in the late 1980s, I learned in technology lectures how textiles are mass-produced and how reliant they are on harmful processes. Until then, I had not connected the textile industry with its environmental impact, but I vividly remember deciding I didn’t want to engage with such a polluted industry. In other words, my interest in sustainability stemmed from being an ecologist.