The design project presented here explores the relation between body and a garment. It is concerned simultaneously with the fundamental notion of a garment and the act of dressing. The project can be contextualized as a constructive design research since the aim does not involve analysis of the material world nor rational problem solving. Rather, the aim is to create new imaginary realities, and visualize them. As a startup method to construct a theory, workshops were set up using life size vertical action collages, in order to integrate the act of dressing with the aim to develop a new construction method. Two actors, one of them myself, were used to provide a greater diversity of perspectives and interpretations. A method of dressing which involved interlocking the body - limbs and waist - with vertically hanging textiles, was developed through the search for the holes, that constitute the infrastructure of a garment. The results are both artefacts, that visualize the new garment construction as well as a new routine of dressing through the novel method of garment construction. Dressing a body in textiles through interlocking which results in an intimate connection between body and the garment as the body reacts to the garment and vice versa. The motivation for exploring the act of dressing is an urge to reflect upon the fast evolving society of today which tends to emphasize a static relationship between body and a garment.

The research objective of this thesis is to re-examine womens labour in the eighteenth-century English sewing trades. Several aspects womens working lives in the sewing trades are explored in three sections. The first section examines diversity within the sewing trades, employment opportunities, working conditions and quality of life. The second focuses on garment construction practices and techniques. The third discusses social standings of needlewomen, and consumer economy issues as they pertained to the needletrades. Methods employed include building upon prior scholarship of womens work and aspects of pre-industrial English garment trades, primary source material, and object-based research using garment artefacts from the Museum of London, England, Berrington Hall, and the Royal Ontario Museum. The research findings indicate that pre-industrial English needlewomens working lives were highly nuanced, their skills more sophisticated than generally believed, and their role within the burgeoning consumer society worthy of further in-depth investigation. / Clothing and Textiles

This thesis aims to contribute to global value chain studies by examining an empirical case of vietnamese apparel firms in Swedish clothing value chains with a focus on insertion and upgrading issues . we apply mixed method of  both qualitative and quantitative tools from a holistic approach researching from both vietnamese suppliers and Swedish buyers perspective. Our findings show some progressive improvements of Vietnamese suppliers in GVC especially of private sector. In swedish value chain trust and long term cooperative business realtions for mutual benefits are among the key points for insertion and ugrading. On Vietnamese suppliers side, lack of information serves as the main reson for their reluctance in approaching Swedish market . Willingness to listen to buyer's advice or suggestions and management strategic Vision of development are critical for upgrading sucess of suppliers.

This thesis investigates whole-garment weaving as an experimental design and construction method. The majority of the current development and research within the field focuses on production efficiency and the development of weaving techniques. Here, the intention is to connect form, material and making. The aim is to find ways to deconstruct the process of garment making in order to create new knowledge through craft. Within whole-garment weaving, many design processes are dealt with simultaneously, through direct experimentation on the loom. In order to maintain the integrity of the weaving, interferences such as cutting and sewing is limited. The basics of the practical method is that the cloth is woven as a double weave on the loom. For the practical work, the first objective was to find basic parameters for the project, freely experimenting with weave constructions and bindings. As the process developed, more aspects of garment construction were included in the design process. The combination of bindings, floats and elastic is used to create expressive textile as well as dress, so that the textile surfaces influences the silhouette or the drape. The result shows the expressive potential of whole-garment weaving through a series of nine examples, each showcasing different aspects of the method. The focus is on showcasing experimental approaches to simultaneous fashion/textile design interaction.

Big business and small business, the global and the local, the rich and the poor—these polarities often inhabit compartmentalized geographies within the modern global city. This compartmentalization proves to be problematic since the lack of a localized diversity of socioeconomic actors is a critical point of vulnerability in the context of urban resilience. The question is, what role does the relationship between the built world and human socioeconomic agency play in the context of this issue? The objective of this dissertation is to document, analyze, and understand: (1) at the district scale, how architectural / urban characteristics, typologies, and configurations have historically influenced the developmental trajectory and composition of the city’s socioeconomic fabric, and in turn how socioeconomic structures have historically influenced the architectural / urban characteristics, typologies, and configurations observed in the city; (2) at the building scale, how the internal physical / spatial characteristics and configurations of buildings have historically influenced the developmental trajectory and composition of the socioeconomic fabric, and how socioeconomic actors in turn have historically altered and influenced the internal physical / spatial characteristics and configurations of buildings over time; (3) the commonalities, patterns, and processes that can be discerned via the historic study of these narratives of physical and socioeconomic change; and (4) how these commonalities can in turn inform future architectural and urban projects in their capacity to support localized diversities of socioeconomic actors. In seeking to answer these questions, this dissertation endeavors to understand, more broadly: (1) the historic nature of the relationship between the physical and the socioeconomic fabric of the city; and (2) how future alterations to the physical fabric of the city can be informed so as to positively impact a locality’s ability to attract and maintain a diversity of socioeconomic actors over an extended period of time. These broader objectives are pursued with the supposition that they have the capacity to significantly impact the ideological conception, as well as practical regulation, planning, and administration of global cities.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A migração laboral de bolivianos para São Paulo é um processo intrinsecamente relacionado aos planos de ajuste estrutural ocorridos na Bolívia e no Brasil na segunda metade dos anos 1980 e no início da década de 1990, respectivamente. Para a Bolívia, o Decreto 21.060 implicou a privatização de mineradoras e conseqüentes demissões em massa, além de uma abertura econômica que favoreceu migrações internas para as regiões cocaleiras e para as periferias das grandes cidades. Posteriormente, esses migrantes e seus familiares se destinaram a países limítrofes como Argentina e Brasil. Destaca-se nesse contexto a localidade de El Alto, origem de grande parte dos imigrantes que se destinaram a São Paulo. Do lado brasileiro, houve também uma abertura econômica que foi prejudicial a amplos setores da indústria, como a cadeia têxtil-vestuário. Para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar sua competitividade em relação às mercadorias asiáticas, a indústria de vestuário se reestruturou defensivamente e subcontratou grande parte de sua produção material às oficinas informais que empregam imigrantes bolivianos geralmente jovens, indocumentados e com baixa qualificação profissional. Nessa pesquisa, relacionamos esse fluxo populacional às transformações estruturais ocorridas nos dois países, destacando as mudanças nas relações de trabalho decorrentes do processo de reestruturação produtiva. Também abordamos as redes de solidariedade desses imigrantes e os meios pelos quais estes vêm revertendo uma inserção na sociedade de destino em que predominam condições precárias de trabalho e habitação, além de uma instabilidade permanente decorrente da irregularidade documental que atinge grande parte desses trabalhadores. / The Bolivian immigration to São Paulo is related to the structural adjustment plans which took place in both countries. In Bolivia, the State mines were privatized, meaning the loss of approximately thirty thousand jobs. The open trade policy was also harmful to familiar agriculture and both policies were followed by the migration to coca zones, the outskirts of the biggest cities and other countries, like Argentina and Brazil. In this context, the population of the city of El Alto located in the outskirts of La Paz - grew steeply and became the origin of most of the immigrants that travelled to São Paulo. On the Brazilian side, the trade-opening was harmful to many industrial sectors and led to their productive restructuring. That was the case of the garment sector which, to reduce its costs, outsourced the production to the sweatshops where the Bolivians work. These immigrants are mostly poor, undocumented and have low education level. In this research, we also relate this population flow to the structural transformations in these two countries, like the changes in the labor relations that occurred due to the productive restructuring processes. We also address the solidarity networks of these immigrants and the means by which they are improving their conditions on the destination society, where precarious work and habitation conditions prevail as well as a permanent instability as result of the irregular documentation for a expressive part of these workers.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A migração laboral de bolivianos para São Paulo é um processo intrinsecamente relacionado aos planos de ajuste estrutural ocorridos na Bolívia e no Brasil na segunda metade dos anos 1980 e no início da década de 1990, respectivamente. Para a Bolívia, o Decreto 21.060 implicou a privatização de mineradoras e conseqüentes demissões em massa, além de uma abertura econômica que favoreceu migrações internas para as regiões cocaleiras e para as periferias das grandes cidades. Posteriormente, esses migrantes e seus familiares se destinaram a países limítrofes como Argentina e Brasil. Destaca-se nesse contexto a localidade de El Alto, origem de grande parte dos imigrantes que se destinaram a São Paulo. Do lado brasileiro, houve também uma abertura econômica que foi prejudicial a amplos setores da indústria, como a cadeia têxtil-vestuário. Para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar sua competitividade em relação às mercadorias asiáticas, a indústria de vestuário se reestruturou defensivamente e subcontratou grande parte de sua produção material às oficinas informais que empregam imigrantes bolivianos geralmente jovens, indocumentados e com baixa qualificação profissional. Nessa pesquisa, relacionamos esse fluxo populacional às transformações estruturais ocorridas nos dois países, destacando as mudanças nas relações de trabalho decorrentes do processo de reestruturação produtiva. Também abordamos as redes de solidariedade desses imigrantes e os meios pelos quais estes vêm revertendo uma inserção na sociedade de destino em que predominam condições precárias de trabalho e habitação, além de uma instabilidade permanente decorrente da irregularidade documental que atinge grande parte desses trabalhadores. / The Bolivian immigration to São Paulo is related to the structural adjustment plans which took place in both countries. In Bolivia, the State mines were privatized, meaning the loss of approximately thirty thousand jobs. The open trade policy was also harmful to familiar agriculture and both policies were followed by the migration to coca zones, the outskirts of the biggest cities and other countries, like Argentina and Brazil. In this context, the population of the city of El Alto located in the outskirts of La Paz - grew steeply and became the origin of most of the immigrants that travelled to São Paulo. On the Brazilian side, the trade-opening was harmful to many industrial sectors and led to their productive restructuring. That was the case of the garment sector which, to reduce its costs, outsourced the production to the sweatshops where the Bolivians work. These immigrants are mostly poor, undocumented and have low education level. In this research, we also relate this population flow to the structural transformations in these two countries, like the changes in the labor relations that occurred due to the productive restructuring processes. We also address the solidarity networks of these immigrants and the means by which they are improving their conditions on the destination society, where precarious work and habitation conditions prevail as well as a permanent instability as result of the irregular documentation for a expressive part of these workers.

Essa dissertação analisa e demonstra fatores que afetam a cadeia têxtil e confeccionista, através de um mapeamento do panorama que os respectivos setores apresentam principalmente aqueles relativos à gestão e governança corporativa. Para adquirir dados empíricos o projeto contempla o desenvolvimento de uma pesquisa bibliográfica possibilitando a constatação de dados e avaliação de aspectos sobre o perfil do contexto atual desse segmento usando informações que comprovam os meios que levam a degradação do ramo, principalmente fatores que contemplem a governança corporativa como estrutura solucionadora para o quadro apresentado, foco central desta dissertação. A pesquisa visou obter dados qualitativos e quantitativos através de: a) caracterização do universo cultural de gestão das empresas têxteis e confeccionistas; b) fatores políticos que prejudicam a cadeia têxtil e confeccionista; c) identificação da visão dos diferentes tipos de consumidor sobre o nicho têxtil e confeccionista. d) a influência externa no mercado têxtil confeccionista; e) mapeamento de dados e identificação dos fatores relevantes da cadeia completa; f) apresentação de fatores globais que identifiquem os focos mais relevantes, de forma a compreender o momento dos setores associados. Com os resultados obtidos, foi evidenciado o uso da governança corporativa e a implementação de meios sustentáveis como meios de restabelecer e vigorar a competitividade do mercado interno e projetar melhores enfrentamentos perante a concorrência internacional, notadamente de países asiáticos, que são umas das grandes razões do atual panorama que esse setor enfrenta. / This dissertation analyzes and demonstrates factors that affect the textile and clothing manufacturer chain, through an overview of mapping the respective sectors have particularly those relating to management and corporate governance. To acquire empirical data the project includes the development of a literature enabling data verification and evaluation aspects of the profile of the current context of this segment using information that prove the means that lead to degradation of the branch, especially factors that include corporate governance as solver framework for the overview of the segment, central focus of this dissertation. The research aimed to obtain qualitative and quantitative data through: a) characterization of the cultural universe of management of textiles and clothing manufacturers companies; b) political factors that affect the textile and clothing manufacturer chain; c) Identification of view of different types of consumers about the textile and clothing manufacturer niche. d) the external influence on the clothing manufacturer textile market; e) data mapping and identification of the relevant factors of the complete chain; f) presentation of global factors that identify the most relevant focuses, in order to understand the timing of associated sectors. With the results, it was evident the use of corporate governance and the implementation of sustainable media as a means of restoring force and the competitiveness of the internal market and design better clashes in the international competition, especially from Asian countries, which are one of the biggest reasons of the current situation that the sector faces.

This thesis investigates performative values of garments and objects in relation to space. It aims to show the potential of using abstract garments and objects as choreographers and communicators for dance performance. The concept of creating garments that act as indicators for movement in contemporary dance is insufficiently explored. This research will provide further knowledge of how one can use garments and objects to extend the body and therefore reach unexplored movement territory. Furthermore this study is made with a fashion research perspective and strives to provide an alternative to fashion that is experienced instead of consumed. #performativefashion First different investigations were made to get a deeper understanding of what such work tells us about the relationship between objects, body and space. Then a selection of pieces were finalized in order to show their performative and communicative potential. The methods used in the project were structured by experiments built on restriction and interaction. The tests were made in collaboration with a professional dancer. In the experiments, the body has to overcome a restriction. The limitation is transformed into possibilities that generates new movements, shapes and communication. In conclusion, this research can help change our perception of objects and space. It will also provide more information about how to explore the potential of garments as directors for dance performance.

This work starts with a simple question of ; Why not to draw the garment directly on the body since this is the way it will inevitably be worn? Working through steps; wrapping into a fabric and drawing the garment on the body to reveal lines for constructing that is directly based on the body, this work shows an alternative way of constructing a garment; the result that is presented can be seen as a base for further development within the field this method has explored. Further, the work challenges the current norms in archetypical garments with the intention to redefine their expression, where the methods aim is to broaden the field of garment construction, investigating the gap between construction lines and material expectations. The method Write Drunk/ Edit Sober is both discovering the fundamentals of garment construction and questioning the systematic interpretations we place on a garments connection to materials.