Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Transforming Quilts: A Material Culture Approach to Sustainable Design

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Abstract

As concerns over the environmental impact of the textile and apparel industry rise, designers are increasingly turning to sustainable practices such as upcycling material culture. This research examines designers’ experiences when upcycling quilts into garments to understand their relationships with material culture and implications for sustainable design. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, interviews with 17 designers revealed a design process centered on emotional and aesthetic responses to quilts. Designers treated quilts as collaborators, valuing their history and signs of wear as markers of life cycles. Emotional engagement fostered reverence and responsibility, while aesthetic considerations guided creative decisions to preserve and reinterpret quilts. Unlike consumer-driven models, this material-centered approach aligns with slow fashion paradigms, offering new pathways to sustain cultural heritage and challenge overproduction. Findings highlight how designers’ reciprocal relationships with quilts transform them into garments with renewed cultural and historical significance.

Keywords: Quilting, upcycling, sustainable design, material culture, design process

How to Cite:

Pokorny, C. G. & Bye, E., (2025) “Transforming Quilts: A Material Culture Approach to Sustainable Design”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 82(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.21410