Designing a Winter Coat

Your task is to design a winter coat. Here are just some of the relations to think about as you are designing.

Firstly it's about you.
What you have worn, what you have seen, what you have liked and disliked. You think about why you are designing a coat, what kind of coat is needed. These first thoughts are important. You are recognising where your design comes from (as we have elsewhere noted, no idea drops without precedent from the sky). You are also recognising that your design(ing) is an extension of you and says something about you as a designer.

It's also about what you perceive is expected of you.
Your imagination is constrained by the material, cultural and symbolic conditions of your work. Are you an established designer with a given clientele, are you a design student who has been encouraged to experiment with the whole idea of 'coat', are you an experienced dressmaker wanting to make a coat as a gift for a friend? How do you negotiate these conditions?

Then it's about what you create...
Materially. The coming together of the inherent qualities, feel and look of a fabric with the shape of the coat, who the wearer is, what he or she does circle in your mind. What are the material requirements for this coat? Where are the materials you want to use to make the coat from, how are they made, what kinds of environmental impacts that will stem from their manufacture? Will they need to be dyed or bleached? What alternative, less environmentally impacting materials have you considered, and why have you rejected them? How are the materials you have chosen best looked after? How do they wear? Do they have water resistant qualities? Can your coat be worn in light rain, is it comfortable to work in, will it need to be sustained by special cleaning solvents or processes? Can these be avoided? Will it need zips, velcro, buttons, pop studs, care labels, waterproofing agents? Can your design be simpler?
Socially. Who will make your coat – will it be made in conditions of safety, security and appropriate pay? What ancillary products will be needed to make the coat, and will those involved in making the garment be harmed in any way indirectly by the inputs and outputs of the manufacturing processes your design has generated? Will the makers of your coat themselves have access to your coat?
Symbolically. By designing a winter coat, you are adding to that imaginary catalogue of winter coats carried around in people's minds. Future designers will learn from what you have designed and what your design means. Coat wearers will learn from it too. Is your coat made for instant impressions or is it also introspective, styled for long life and comfort? Will your coat, some years down the track, pleasantly surprise its wearer (who has grown used to poorly made coats) with its extraordinary quality and resilience?

For more to think about in relation to designing clothing:
Read Elaine Scarry's book Body in Pain: Making and Unmaking of the World Oxford: Oxford University Press 1985 (particularly the chapter 'Interior Structure of the Artifact').
Society for Responsible Design's 'sustainable apparel' checklist.
Interesting papers on clothing care are available at the SusHouse project, a European research project concerned with developing and evaluating scenarios for transitions to sustainable households.