DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
CD : Due to a linear consumerist model of take-make-use-dispose, every year, the fashion industry produces 53 million tons of fibers, of which 87% end in landfill (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017), becoming waste that eliminates methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
CD : OMDANNE is the world’s first circular and multifunctional fashion collection. It aims to produce 0 waste while discouraging consumption trough co-creation alongside the user. The capsule collection consists of three pieces of clothing (T, R and E) that can each transform into over 10 different styles. Its multifunctional design discourages consumption as one piece can transform from jumpsuits and dresses, to trousers and jackets, creating also long-term emotional attachment from the user. All three pieces are 100% biodegradable and compostable; thus, they become nutrients to the soil instead of polluting textile waste. We have made use of natural, renewable resources and product life cycle traceability to ensure a clean closed-loop fashion system.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
CD : OMDANNE was created as a proof of concept to showcase our design studio's idea of implementing a closed-loop systems in fashion companies around the world. We continuously offer design consultancy but also the possibility of scaling up the OMDANNE collection.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
CD : One year and a half.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
CD : We create products that we wish existed, explore new territories and dedicate our work to imagination with a human-centered approach, as we believe that design has an added value to the world, apart from aesthetics. Omdanne is one of our signature design projects, to showcase our mindset, values and the extensive possibilities that design offers for humans to be in sync with nature.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
CD : Our plan is to sell or lease the production rights of Omdanne.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
CD : It was a personal journey at the beginning. It started in 2014, I wanted to show that we can create responsible clothing that is in sync with nature. I was told that that is not possible, and I enjoy a good challenge. It took over 1.5 years to make it happen, and it was so worth it. It forever changed the way I design.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
CD : As we use biomimicry as one of the tools when we design, nature was our inspiration, and we believe it to be the most astute designer of all, given its 3.8 billion years of expertise.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
CD : Early adopters, women who look to experiment and discover new more exciting ways to address the way they dress. That is also because we look to involve the user/customer in the design phase, in order to create attachment between them so that they keep the garment for a longer period of time.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
CD : OMDANNE is the world’s first circular and multifunctional fashion collection.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
CD : "Omdanne" means "to convert" in Danish, which is exactly what our clothes do.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
CD : We made use of the tools that our design studio regularly uses: design thinking, circular economy principles, biomimicry and new technology.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
CD : That it is convertible (3 garment turn into over 30 styles) and 100% biodegradable or compostable.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
CD : Innovation can only occur trough a multi-disciplinary approach to problems. We are a multi-disciplinary team over at SOLVE and for this project we also discussed with materials science engineers about our chosen fabric and its processes.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
CD : By using high tech machinery such as digital microscopes to observe different fiber selections and how they behave or a martindale machine for pilling tendency tests, we could test and select the right fabrics out of which to create the garments. Then, the fabric itself is created by utilizing the latest technology by the manufacturer we chose to work with.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
CD : We create a user&nature-centered design. We use design thinking as a guideline and infuse it with biomimicry and circular principles. Thus our research was more in these areas. We look to empathize with the user, learn from natural processes and look at closed-loop system.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
CD : We faced two major challenges: of designing pieces of clothing that were extremely functional, easily incorporated into any existing wardrobe and truly versatile; the second challenge was to obtain information about the processes, chemical reactions and solvents used for the production of the fiber and later on the textile. We needed to make sure that the fabric was safe, with no toxic chemicals involved so that it could be composted at the end.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
CD : We wanted to showcase to the word how a combination of unconventional design tools (such as circular economy or biomimicry) can aid to create innovative sustainable solutions. Our work continuously builds on a new design paradigm. We hope to inspire more designers to aim to create sustainable circular solutions.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
CD : Simply working together with people from other fields it such an immense gain. We all learned that patience, fast prototyping and a lot of iteration will bring us to an elegant solution. We use design thinking with every project we work with so we empathize a lot with the user; we asked them to show us their wardrobes, and explain what is important to them. You can discover so much from your user, as a designer you always have to listen, that's how you grow, that's how you create meaningful design.
