Using Origami for Creative Design and Pattern Development in Fashion Education

Situation based design-thinking challenges the designer to innovate while applying knowledge and skills in search of design solutions. This research explores design thinking and investigates a methodology for fashion design education, which assists students with 3-dimensional creative thinking. The project was implemented with a group of 2nd year students from the Department of Fashion and Textile Design as a controlled exercise. With a focus on the transitional process from 2-dimensional ideas to 3-dimensional products, origami was selected as an inspiration point to explore complex structures, firstly in paper before reinterpretation in fabric as a skirt design. Overall results indicated that this project proposes a successful methodology for fashion design education in order to develop creative thinking. This approach to fashion design and pattern making education offers a more contemporary experiential path for design students in order to develop innovative structures by unifying making with design process