Fashion House
On architecture and urban design
in relation to the fashion industry in Europe’s Red Thread
Fashion House
On architecture and urban design
in relation to the fashion industry in Europe’s Red Thread
Collective Description
Fashion House is a collective architectural project that anticipates an alternative future for the fashion industry in five emerging fashion centers in and around Berlin, Marseille, Rotterdam, Valencia, and Zurich. These five cities–each the focal point of formerly post-industrialized regions that are undergoing shifts toward creative and service industries–form the Red Thread, an imagined discontinuous urban corridor that encourages intercity exchange of products, services, and expertise to collaboratively introduce a paradigm shift away from the traditional “big four” global fashion capitals of London, Milan, New York, and Paris which are the exemplars of a global fashion industry laced with untenable practices, ranging from resource over-extraction to exploitative labor practices.
The project explores topics including garments’ utility, trend making, and mass-customization to examine the economic, environmental, and cultural implications of a fashion industry that has slowed and contracted as a result of global efforts to regionalize economic networks in response to 2050 climate goals. In particular, the European Union’s climate-neutral goals for 2050–made possible by the implementation of its “Made in Europe” by 2030 framework–establish the backdrop in which this project is situated. Fashion House establishes a pan-European cooperative and regulatory body–entitled Fashion House–that intensifies regional production and reinforces conscientious consumption patterns within the Red Thread and beyond by granting certifications to products and businesses and by providing consultancy and industry services to smaller-scale regional designers, producers, and suppliers via membership.
The certifications–a combination of universal certifications, that dictate bare-minimum requirements for participation within the Red Thread network, and discretionary certifications, that certify specific processes and products for brands that surpass universal requirements–establish a single baseline standard across the Red Thread. These standards include extended garment lifespan through commonplace repair and recycling infrastructures, only made-to-order production in a seasonless and limited production calendar at close-to-home fabrication sites, and harnessing fully-automated technologies and expert hand-craft in specialized facilities to improve quality standards and discontinue sizing standardization.
In each city within the Red Thread, Fashion House operates a physical location–modeled after, and reinterpreting the medieval guild house–that provides small batch and prototyping services, workshops, and gathering spaces for regional members alongside the certification and administrative facilities necessary to operate the cooperative. Like the guild house before it–and in contrast to the contemporary fashion brand headquarters–each location is designed as a place where all constituents within the fashion industry congregate to exchange expertise, eliminating the binary distinctions of production and consumption by overlapping the “workshop” with the “showroom.” In this new model, the fashion house is relieved of its retail functions–which is now conducted only on digital platforms–emphasizing a shift away from the point-of-sale as the defining moment of a garment’s life.
Each Fashion House location is designed to contextually implement the design principles, guidelines, and standards of the Pattern Book, a set of manuals conceptualized to establish a consistent vocabulary for Fashion House—from architectural detailing and programming to daily operations and letterhead design. Divided into four primary chapters—Design & Implementation, Certifications, Governance & Operations, and Red Thread Atlas—the Pattern Book is the template for Fashion House, ensuring that—like the guild house before it—each Fashion House location simultaneously maintains universal standards and context-specific character.
Through the research and design of the Pattern Book, five Fashion House locations, and twenty-three contributions, the project anticipates that decentralized economic networks will span across national borders—led by joint efforts from cities and regions—to become instrumental in delivering a fashion industry that operates within the ecological limits set by a slowed global economy. Paradigm shifts including the quality in a wardrobe becoming more coveted than its quantity, circular and fully-traceable processes that eliminate new resource extraction, and international infrastructures for textile waste collection and garment-sharing will replace persistent procurement of new garments and refocus the entire process of garment creation—from fabrication to fitting, showcasing and its maintenance—towards its continual alteration from one state to another: initial construction, to repair, to upcycling, to decomposition. From topics ranging from aspiration and authority to fanaticism and fetish, Fashion House explores the spatial implications of a fashion industry that is no longer “fast.”
Fashion House is a collective architectural project that anticipates an alternative future for the fashion industry in five emerging fashion centers in and around Berlin, Marseille, Rotterdam, Valencia, and Zurich. These five cities–each the focal point of formerly post-industrialized regions that are undergoing shifts toward creative and service industries–form the Red Thread, an imagined discontinuous urban corridor that encourages intercity exchange of products, services, and expertise to collaboratively introduce a paradigm shift away from the traditional “big four” global fashion capitals of London, Milan, New York, and Paris which are the exemplars of a global fashion industry laced with untenable practices, ranging from resource over-extraction to exploitative labor practices.
The project explores topics including garments’ utility, trend making, and mass-customization to examine the economic, environmental, and cultural implications of a fashion industry that has slowed and contracted as a result of global efforts to regionalize economic networks in response to 2050 climate goals. In particular, the European Union’s climate-neutral goals for 2050–made possible by the implementation of its “Made in Europe” by 2030 framework–establish the backdrop in which this project is situated. Fashion House establishes a pan-European cooperative and regulatory body–entitled Fashion House–that intensifies regional production and reinforces conscientious consumption patterns within the Red Thread and beyond by granting certifications to products and businesses and by providing consultancy and industry services to smaller-scale regional designers, producers, and suppliers via membership.
The certifications–a combination of universal certifications, that dictate bare-minimum requirements for participation within the Red Thread network, and discretionary certifications, that certify specific processes and products for brands that surpass universal requirements–establish a single baseline standard across the Red Thread. These standards include extended garment lifespan through commonplace repair and recycling infrastructures, only made-to-order production in a seasonless and limited production calendar at close-to-home fabrication sites, and harnessing fully-automated technologies and expert hand-craft in specialized facilities to improve quality standards and discontinue sizing standardization.
In each city within the Red Thread, Fashion House operates a physical location–modeled after, and reinterpreting the medieval guild house–that provides small batch and prototyping services, workshops, and gathering spaces for regional members alongside the certification and administrative facilities necessary to operate the cooperative. Like the guild house before it–and in contrast to the contemporary fashion brand headquarters–each location is designed as a place where all constituents within the fashion industry congregate to exchange expertise, eliminating the binary distinctions of production and consumption by overlapping the “workshop” with the “showroom.” In this new model, the fashion house is relieved of its retail functions–which is now conducted only on digital platforms–emphasizing a shift away from the point-of-sale as the defining moment of a garment’s life.
Each Fashion House location is designed to contextually implement the design principles, guidelines, and standards of the Pattern Book, a set of manuals conceptualized to establish a consistent vocabulary for Fashion House—from architectural detailing and programming to daily operations and letterhead design. Divided into four primary chapters—Design & Implementation, Certifications, Governance & Operations, and Red Thread Atlas—the Pattern Book is the template for Fashion House, ensuring that—like the guild house before it—each Fashion House location simultaneously maintains universal standards and context-specific character.
Through the research and design of the Pattern Book, five Fashion House locations, and twenty-three contributions, the project anticipates that decentralized economic networks will span across national borders—led by joint efforts from cities and regions—to become instrumental in delivering a fashion industry that operates within the ecological limits set by a slowed global economy. Paradigm shifts including the quality in a wardrobe becoming more coveted than its quantity, circular and fully-traceable processes that eliminate new resource extraction, and international infrastructures for textile waste collection and garment-sharing will replace persistent procurement of new garments and refocus the entire process of garment creation—from fabrication to fitting, showcasing and its maintenance—towards its continual alteration from one state to another: initial construction, to repair, to upcycling, to decomposition. From topics ranging from aspiration and authority to fanaticism and fetish, Fashion House explores the spatial implications of a fashion industry that is no longer “fast.”
Propositions
1. The future fashion industry must dislocate the trendsetting dominance of the global big four fashion capitals of Paris, New York, Milan and London–that perpetuate practices of resource over-extraction and exploitative labor conditions—by dispersing manufacturing and design centers into interconnected and specialized European regions.
2. In 2040, the European fashion industry will achieve self-sufficiency by reconfiguring material sourcing landscapes to altering climate conditions and establishing a circular continental network for collecting and reusing textile waste and other raw materials, thereby eliminating the need for non-renewable resource extraction.
3. Shifts in automated and handcraft manufacturing processes—bolstered by re-shored operations, the resurgence of vulnerable craft-trades, and the harnessing of local thriving industries—enable a slower-paced fashion industry to revitalize Europe’s emerging fashion hubs—which include Berlin, Zurich, Marseille, Rotterdam and Valencia—toward an economy that emphasizes design and fabrication.
4. An interconnected system of waterways and high-speed railways, in addition to commonplace infrastructures of repair, alteration, recycling, and reuse facilities, will create a synergetic collaboration between regions to increase lifespan of products while minimizing carbon emissions.
5. Inspired by the role of the medieval guild house as a node within a regulatory network that served as a hub for civic activity, a decentralized fashion industry requires a regulatory body with administrative centers scattered throughout its network to certify small and medium-sized enterprises—ranging from hyper-personalized services to durable, long-lasting production—and provide spaces for regional members to prototype, meet, and showcase innovative industry practices that promote degrowth.
1. The future fashion industry must dislocate the trendsetting dominance of the global big four fashion capitals of Paris, New York, Milan and London–that perpetuate practices of resource over-extraction and exploitative labor conditions—by dispersing manufacturing and design centers into interconnected and specialized European regions.
2. In 2040, the European fashion industry will achieve self-sufficiency by reconfiguring material sourcing landscapes to altering climate conditions and establishing a circular continental network for collecting and reusing textile waste and other raw materials, thereby eliminating the need for non-renewable resource extraction.
3. Shifts in automated and handcraft manufacturing processes—bolstered by re-shored operations, the resurgence of vulnerable craft-trades, and the harnessing of local thriving industries—enable a slower-paced fashion industry to revitalize Europe’s emerging fashion hubs—which include Berlin, Zurich, Marseille, Rotterdam and Valencia—toward an economy that emphasizes design and fabrication.
4. An interconnected system of waterways and high-speed railways, in addition to commonplace infrastructures of repair, alteration, recycling, and reuse facilities, will create a synergetic collaboration between regions to increase lifespan of products while minimizing carbon emissions.
5. Inspired by the role of the medieval guild house as a node within a regulatory network that served as a hub for civic activity, a decentralized fashion industry requires a regulatory body with administrative centers scattered throughout its network to certify small and medium-sized enterprises—ranging from hyper-personalized services to durable, long-lasting production—and provide spaces for regional members to prototype, meet, and showcase innovative industry practices that promote degrowth.
3 Universal Certifications
Sustainablity
Traceablity
Ethical Labour
23 Certifications
Nowhere to Hide
certifies the breeding, raising and dignified euthanization of animals, within a natural habitat
Perfect Matchcertifies a wedding ceremony of local traditions and contemporary protocols that leaves no trace on the surrounding landscape |
Made to Last
certifies a product lifespan of at least 60 years for garments by ensuring their durability and that they can be altered and repaired |
Ready to Growcertifies that an individual has completed two years of training in the wool textile industry |
End-to-Endcertifies that textiles have been produced with grown methods and are completely biodegradable |
With Lovecertifies that a garment has been carefully repaired by local repair experts or qualified customers |
Digital Vaultcertifies the security of a minted digital fashion asset that has undergone a process of authentication of its rightful designer |
Classifiedcertifies a one directional spatial organization to ensure anonymity and limit the exposure of the client |
Made form Scratchcertifies the production of modifiable digital mannequins according to autonomously collected user data |
Sweep Upcertifies the collection of human hair for safekeeping and in return to production of hair by-products |
Sorted Outcertifies that all textiles and garments collected have been sorted according to local standards of health, safety and hygiene |
Savoire - Fairecertifies that products have been crafted according to local ancestral know-how |
Good as Newcertifies the sanitization and restoration of pre-loved products to the same quality as the shopping floor |
As Foundcertifies shared locations as suitable for use within the hospitality industry |
Off the Shelfcertifies the elimination of all deadstock through the hyper-personalization of products |
Know it Allcertifies knowledge and skills competency in at least five couture garment or accessories production. |
On the Housecertifies production not intended for profit |
Clothes the Loopcertifies new acoustic material products that have been created using recycled textiles |
Shamelesscertifies designers that stay in residency for four months immersing themselves in, in-depth understandings in contemporary norms and body types |
Extra Ordinarycertifes the suitability of garments within extreme conditions |
Re-Scentscertifies that synthetic essential oils have been reproduced from local and upcycled raw materials |
Proof of Pastcertifies the historic record of fashion items which are to be accepted by an archive |
Growing the Scenecertifies locations as suitable for the hosting of fashion events by ensuring the necessary facilities |
Teaching team
Salomon Frausto
Benjamin Groothuijse
Salomon Frausto
Benjamin Groothuijse
Contributors
Nigel Alarcon (MX), Pooja Bhave (IN), Mariano Cuofano (IT), Fabiola Cruz (PE), Alonso Díaz (MX), Xiaoyu Ding (CN), Ines Garcia‑Lezana (ES), Sandra Garcia (ES), Martino Greco (IT), Sebastian Hitchcock (ZA), Alejandra Huesca (MX), Yesah Hwangbo (KR), Takuma Johnson (US), Yi-Ni Lin (TW), Paola Tovar (MX), Cristhy Mattos (BR), Preradon Pimpakan (TH), Adi Samet (IL), Raymond Tang (US), Kulaporn Temudom (TH), Danai Tsigkanou (GR), Jesse Verdoes (NL), Rongting Xiao (CN)
Nigel Alarcon (MX), Pooja Bhave (IN), Mariano Cuofano (IT), Fabiola Cruz (PE), Alonso Díaz (MX), Xiaoyu Ding (CN), Ines Garcia‑Lezana (ES), Sandra Garcia (ES), Martino Greco (IT), Sebastian Hitchcock (ZA), Alejandra Huesca (MX), Yesah Hwangbo (KR), Takuma Johnson (US), Yi-Ni Lin (TW), Paola Tovar (MX), Cristhy Mattos (BR), Preradon Pimpakan (TH), Adi Samet (IL), Raymond Tang (US), Kulaporn Temudom (TH), Danai Tsigkanou (GR), Jesse Verdoes (NL), Rongting Xiao (CN)