From Product to Process in Fashion: Reading a Disciplinary Evolution Through the Metadesign Approach

Nowadays, Design, as discipline and practice, is referred to the interpretation of the contemporary culture, in its tangible and intangible expressions. As our networked 24/7 global culture is getting more complex, the more our need of understanding through modelling is growing. In the last decade, the design practice has been widely crossing disciplines and their inputs to empower its capability to create a synthetic model of the observed reality and, then, to re-shape it by new reading and representations that, again, influence the context and so modify it, in a continuing design process. Referring to that perspective, Fashion, as one of the most advanced design oriented sector, represents a peculiar case. Fashion is “the mould of the contemporary culture, in its ability to join in the dynamics between individual and society” 1(p8). “Today Fashion, that has always been a multidimensional universe, is not just a change, a trend, the spirit of the times, the succession and combination of styles. ... Fashion is the most complete expression of a post-modern industrial culture that find its way to be in the design process.” 1(p7). Fashion is a typical new old economy sector, producing hybrid products whose value depends on the intangible content of knowledge they build up. In Fashion, innovation is defined as the attitude of a product to be closed to the symbolic and cultural contents of the system of reference, so the designer becomes a creative intermediary, offering not a subjective view but rather a codified design approach to develop and share new cultural meanings. Moving from a product oriented practice to a process oriented one, we refer to a metadesign approach as unique opportunity to produce inspirational inputs, shelf creative components, continuing innovation in languages and behaviours. The paper will present the metadesign theoretical approach, highlighting its peculiarities in the fashion design practice and demonstrating its application into the practice, through project case studies from the Metadesign Studio of the Fashion Program – School of Design – Politecnico di Milano.