Design and Product Development

Embodied Maps: Self-Knowing in Designing

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Abstract

This paper highlights a teaching and learning activity used with students called Embodied Maps. The value of this activity is that it gives students a specific tool to take notice, reflect upon, and name characteristics related to their body capital, including understanding their typically ‘abled’ bodies and their ‘clothed’ bodies. Understanding their own body means looking into their personal identity and relationships to race, sexuality, gender, ability, disability and more. This enables students to understand similarities and differences to other people’s bodies, which makes them more aware of commonalities and more able to identify the specifics related to their project at hand to better design for other people. The Embodied Maps activity is a powerful tool to support the design process in a systematic way because it provides tangible motivators to engage in a multitude of fashion design projects.

Keywords: Clothing, Design Process, Fashion, Human-centred Design, Positionality, Reflexivity, Teaching and Learning

How to Cite:

Strickfaden, M. & Thomas, J., (2025) “Embodied Maps: Self-Knowing in Designing”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 82(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.22031