This research investigates how invisible data markers can be embedded into woven textiles and retrieved using near-infrared (NIR) imaging. It focuses on integrating machine-readable information without altering the textile’s visible appearance, which is essential for traceability and compliance with emerging frameworks like the Digital Product Passport (DPP). The method follows a multi-stage approach, beginning with an analysis of material behavior and the combination of yarns with differing NIR absorption properties. Transparency and contrast serve as key evaluation criteria. Results demonstrate that specific yarn combinations in compound woven structures can be programmed with invisible markers that are detectable under NIR light yet remain invisible to the human eye. A final demonstrator validates the approach. This supports circular design by embedding product data within the material itself and contributes to human–computer interaction (HCI) by enabling non-electronic, material-based interfaces. The work advances research on embedded markers and tags, enabling machine-readable codes without additional hardware.

In the current fast-fashion regime, clothes are produced according to a linear economic model that continuously accelerates the cycles of take-make-waste. This has increasingly negative impacts on social and natural systems, causing concerns and desires to change this dominant way of producing and consuming clothing.
The practice of regenerative fashion offers a solution for making fashion that is good, causing positive impacts for the communities and ecosystems in which this practice is based. The regenerative philosophy is bound to place, leaving everything better than it was found.
For Dutch fashion designer Joline Jolink, the regenerative way of making fashion offers new opportunities to practice her job and passion in alignment with her personal values, especially by not contributing to the collective negative industry impact. With the founding of the Fashion Farm, she is mobilizing regenerative fashion in the Dutch apparel market and industry.
In order to increase her positive impact, she needs support from stakeholders to build capacity for her mission and enterprise. To establish meaningful relationships with stakeholders, she needs to communicate her goals, actions, and impact. This has led to the foundational purpose of this thesis, mainly trying to find answers to the problem/question:
‘How can she monitor and communicate her impact to stakeholders and internally in a transparent way in order to efficiently and effectively mobilize her mission further?’
To investigate this problem space and to design a tangible solution to support regenerative-driven entrepreneurs in monitoring and communicating impact, the Double Diamond method is put into practice. Through the adoption of sustainable transition theories and the Frame Innovation method, a well-rounded foundation was established before going into the solution space. After this, in-context, learning-by-doing baseline monitoring and reporting interventions were conducted. With both insights from the problem space and insights from the interventions, a strategic tool was designed that aims both to overcome the identified obstacles and to unlock new opportunities for stakeholders regarding impact monitoring and communication.
The main function of the tool is to enable internal, integrated documenting, planning, strategizing, and executing impact monitoring and communication. Next to this, the tool aims to establish increased collaboration, shared understanding, and responsibility in impact monitoring and communication in order to collectively accelerate the sustainability transition.
Besides, the tool advocates for communicating the ‘whole story’ of the intentions and actions of regenerative businesses. Lastly, the tool ensures—through the use of AI and automated activities—that organizations can internally perform impact monitoring and communication tasks in an effective and efficient manner. The ongoing feedback-looping system guarantees that fertile data is captured and fruitful insights are used to modify or redirect actions towards more positive effects.
Nevertheless, it is still difficult to mobilize regenerative businesses in the current economic space. The increased significance of impact monitoring and communication to enhance transparency and accountability is a good start, but it takes collective action on all levels of the system to create significant, long-lasting change, impact.

This research presents a conceptual design for a tool aimed at supporting fashion designers in creating new garments from existing ones, addressing the urgent need for circular practices in the fashion industry. While designers are critical to driving this transition, they lack practical resources to navigate the complexities of circular design. The proposed tool focuses on remanufacturing, a promising but under-explored strategy that enables the creation of new designs without breaking garments down into fibres for recycling. Despite its potential, remanufacturing poses significant challenges, underscoring the need to explore how designers can be effectively supported to scale this approach.

A case study with the low-cost textiles retailer Zeeman informed the tool's design, ensuring alignment with the company’s specific needs. Alongside the tool, a strategic roadmap outlines anticipated industry transformations, envisioning the tool’s phased development. The initial version (2025), tested by Zeeman’s design team, is based on feasible technologies and can be implemented immediately. Later versions (2030 & 2035) are designed to adapt to future developments, including changes in legislation, shifts in consumer behaviour, technological advancements, and potential partnerships envisioned for Zeeman.

By equipping designers with effective resources, the tool holds considerable promise. It enables designers to influence product development for the companies they work for and in that way foster more sustainable and circular practices, aligning with EU’s vision to have the textile industry fully circular by 2050.

The fashion industry’s significant global environmental impact, primarily driven by low-cost, high-volume production through wasteful and traditional manufacturing, necessitates sustainable alternatives that overcome limitations associated with current solutions, such as zero waste fashion design. This research investigated the potential of modern circular knitting techniques as a zero waste solution for garment production. Using an iterative Research through Design approach, this research developed a method for shaped circular knitting, integrating textile manufacturing and zero waste fashion design as a holistic process. By leveraging the inherent dimensional properties of knit structures, the research realised the versatile personalisation of garments without the need to redraw their pattern. The results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach based on the principles of existing large circular knitting machines by delivering a design toolkit and proof of concept through detailed designs and prototypes. These provide opportunities to eliminate pre-consumer cutting waste, simplify and reduce production, and improve garment design flexibility and personalisation.

This research explores the possibilities of combining additive manufacturing and weaving of textiles to create a novel textile-form. In recent years, additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing processes by enabling the creation of complex three dimensional geometries with precision. Conversely, weaving, a traditional method of fabric production, offers inherent structural integrity and flexibility. However, recent research focusses on developing three dimensional textiles. By combining these two production methods, this research unlocks new opportunities for the production of composite textiles with enhanced properties and functionalities. During the FDM-printing process yarns were placed like a warp between two layers of filament. This basic principle of integrating these processes in explored in this research.

Throughout three design phases, the process was explored and further developed. Subsequently, the material underwent characterization through two rounds of testing. During the first tinkering phase, emphasis was placed on the connection points between the yarn and the filament. Achieving a connection between both materials heavily depended on the height of the nozzle. Various combinations of materials yielded samples with diverse behaviours, ranging from flowy to more elastic and springy textiles. All the samples exhibited anisotropic behaviour: along the x-axis, the material could plead like a textile, while along the y-axis, the filament provided rigidity, allowing the textile to form a dome. In the second phase, the emphasis shifted towards exploring forms by experimenting with various printing patterns. By implementing a zigzag pattern, an auxetic textile was successfully produced. When the samples were pulled along the x-axis, the material demonstrated the ability to open up in the z-direction. An experiential characterisation test was done by using the Ma2E4 toolkit, which conformed the curiosity and surprising qualities of the material. However, the material’s weakness and fragility posed limitations on the freedom to explore its potential fully. Interesting to find out was the contrast of interpretation between manufactured and handcrafted. During the third phase of tinkering, greater control over the auxetic behaviour of the material was achieved through experimentation with different densities and the implementation of cutting the yarns with a hot nozzle. Also the textileness was increased by using LW-PLA and adding noise to the print. For the technical characterization, a tensile test was conducted, revealing the clear anisotropy in the strength of the material. Additionally, the consistency in print quality was confirmed.

For this novel process and material, a variety of future applications could be envisioned. Ranging from utilizing the material’s movement in the z-direction for isolation to its ability to open up for light control. The process enables a seamless transition between a solid plastic and a textile, opening possibilities for applications such as shoes or chairs.

Tissue extraction in Minimally Invasive Surgery is often performed using a suction catheter, valued for its capability to continuously remove tissue from the body. However, suction catheters face limitations in further miniaturization and reliability due to energy losses and clogging. Kortman et al. (Kortman, 2023) proposed a solution: a soft tissue transporter that does not affect the surrounding tissue and enables miniaturization without sacrificing performance. The mechanism involves a soft silicone-based conveying toroid that transports tissue from one end of the tube to the other end of the tube. However, a shortcoming of the device is its inability to function as a continuous tissue transporter. Continuous transporters are often preferred as they shorten surgery times, reduce the amount of anesthesia needed and lower the overall operational costs compared to discrete transport mechanisms. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop a continuous toroid tissue transporter, compatible with Minimal Invasive Surgery, for which the transport efficiency is independent of the tissue elasticity, shape and size. The final concept featured a toroid that was continuously everted while remaining stationary, enabling it to function as a conveyor-like mechanism. By integrating an internal skeleton with magnets at its edges, the toroid could be actuated externally using a gearbox. Additionally, an uniaxial mesh was incorporated into the toroid to allow flexibility in its width, allowing the shape grip to transport various objects, while preventing stretch in the length of the toroid, thereby improving eversion efficiency. A proof-of-principle prototype was developed to validate the working principle. Results demonstrated that the toroid efficiency was not limited by various tissue sizes, shapes or elasticities. Therefore, the study goal has predominantly been achieved.

Improvement of actuation efficiency can be achieved by further alignment between the actuation system and the toroid, as currently slip is causing a reduction in actuation efficiency. In conclusion, the Continuous Toroid Transporter demonstrates promise for surgical applications and other fields requiring precise object transportation and is recommended to be further developed.

This research-through-design explores 3D knitting for load-bearing, transformable structures using a Material-Driven Design approach. 3D knitting is a low-waste textile production method that allows for highly adaptable designs and an iterative design process. Current literature is studied in various domains, exhibiting the knowledge gap on development of 3D knitted, load-bearing, transformable structures on the scale of a sitting object.
A tinkering phase resulted in a Design Space, demonstrating the range of possible materials, structures, geometries and transformability methods. Multiple concepts are developed to define the relationship between the parameters. The final demonstrator is the ARCHETYPE.98, a sitting object showing the adaptability, load-bearing capacity, transformability, material expressions and streamlined, low-waste production process of 3D knitted, transformable, load-bearing objects. The ARCHETYPE.98 is a bending-active textile hybrid structure. The load-bearing capacity is evaluated through a technical evaluation which exhibited the framework material to require improvement. User research exhibited the novelty of the design. The transformability of the sitting objects allows for eight variations of the aesthetics within one product. The sitting surfaces are highly adaptable through the knitted material, enabling personalization of the aesthetics and ergonomics of the chair.
The development and production process of the ARCHETYPE.98 show the need for modelling software for knit structures and textile hybrid structures to improve the technical performance and reduce the number of required iterations. Further research into the frame material and bursting strength of knit structures related to the yarn materials could improve the load-bearing capacities of the object and bring forward the limitations of the applied rigidifying method.

The field of interactive textiles has many names, all describing textiles that interact with the environment, often using electronics to create interactivity. However, combining textiles with electronics creates hard to recycle materials. In this research, linen is proposed as a sustainable alternative, using its hygromorphic characteristics to evoke interactivity. Guided by the material driven design method, this research experimented with linen yarns and woven textiles, looking at their behavior when wetted. The results, showing which variables of a yarn and woven textile influence its behavior, are gathered in a design space overview and applied during the creation of a demonstrator. This demonstrator demonstrates how manipulation of the variables can create a piece behaving as intended. The design space overview provides designers who want to create interactive textiles using linen with design guidelines. Lastly, future product examples are presented showing the possibilities of using linen and its hygromorphic characteristics.

The textile and clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries worldwide and requires the use of many resources.Textile-to-textile recycling can be crucial for closing the material loop and transition towards a circular textile and clothing industry. Currently, only 1% of textile waste is recycled into new high-quality textile items. The Netherlands has ambitious circularity goals and textile-to-textile recycling should be scaled up to reach a 100% circular industry in 2050. This research explores the textile-to-textile recycling niche in the Netherlands from a transition perspective.

This IPD master thesis describes the process of developing the product-service of Maki. Maki is a startup with the focus of making the life of a beginning sewer easier. Currently, beginning sewers have a learning journey full of struggles.

In this project, a design process is described that attempts to design an online learning platform for these beginning sewers. Through extensive user research, prototyping and exploring the field of sewing, the final concept was presented.

Maki is a platform that provides sew-alongs where the user learns hands-on through making garments. The user first gets to design how they want the garment to be through varying modular elements, like sleeves, or collars. After this the sew-along guides them through a process where they learn to draw the pattern and sew it together. This is done with steps in text, illustration and video, so the beginning sewer is fully supported. Since Maki users have the desire to learn how to make and design the clothing that truly fit them, the sew-along teaches them how to draw their own patterns. This is done with the help of a set of printable rulers. The rulers and sew–along will help them build a skill-set that can serve as a stepping stone in making anything they want later in their learning journey.

On the platform some collaboration with other users can take place. Users get the chance to inspire others with their work through sharing pictures of end-results. The sew-along also allows users to comment, so they can help each other out and a community of beginning sewers can grow.

In this graduation project the design process: the Potential to Value Circle, for designing from a waste stream is presented. The Potential to Value Circle creates a structured way of working in which the potential of a waste stream is translated to value. Value is generated by combining the perspectives of material, stakeholders and context around a waste stream into a concept direction. Through this process, The Bin guides their clients to take the next steps in becoming part of a circular economy.

This project was done in collaboration with The Bin. The Bin is a startup in the circular economy. They help their clients to become part of a circular economy by creating circular concepts out of their waste streams and setting up a circular system around these concepts. These waste streams can be defined as products at their end-of-life or by-products from a production line.

Currently, the Bin bases its process on the circular frameworks the Value Hill (Achterberg et al., 2016), R9-list (Potting et al., 2017) and the Butterfly diagram (EllenMacArthur Foundation, 2019). These frameworks give the bin a high-level overview of circular value creation. However, they want to have a more step by step process that helps to turn waste streams into circular concepts. This was the essence of their request for this graduation project and resulted in the Potential to Value Circle.

The Potential to Value Circle approaches a waste stream from different perspectives, resulting in opportunities that get turned into a concept direction that uses the waste stream to move towards a circular economy. The Potential to Value Circle is built up in three phases, 1) Analysis, 2) Combining, and 3) Circular design goal. The first phase presents how an understanding of the elements around a waste stream can be created, by analysing material, stakeholders and context. Based on this, potentials are formulated. In phases 2 and 3, the potentials of phase 1 are combined, which allows translating the potentials of the waste stream into opportunities. With these opportunities, a concept direction is formulated that creates value. Three ways of applying the Potential to Value Circle are presented, on which the Workshop is elaborated further. The workshop shows how to work in three hours with the Potential to Value Circle to a circular design goal with the client.

The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries worldwide (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017). The current industry for producing garments is built on the overproduction of cut-and-sewn textile products, which are produced as fast as possible for as little money as possible. The denim industry is a major contributor, producing over four billion denim garments every year (Toepel, 2018). Over the last 150 years, the aesthetics of a pair of jeans and a denim jacket has barely changed, which is a result of this cut-and-sew fast fashion industry that still exists. A way to reduce the global impact of denim garment manufacturing would be to reduce the number of production steps.

This research aimed to investigate 3D weaving to rethink the production process for a denim jacket. 3D weaving combines woven textile design and garment design in multi-layer textile forms. With 3D weaving, the number of production steps after weaving and the resulting cutting waste can be reduced by weaving parts of the garment as already connected pieces.

This project is executed in a sustainable context of limiting pre-consumer waste and reducing the number of parts to assemble the denim jacket. A change in the manufacturing process of a denim jacket will raise the question if the 3D woven denim jacket can and also has to look the same as a denim jacket produced with the regular cut-and-sew method. The 3D woven denim jacket versions in this report show how and to what extent this is possible. These concepts also show how this new production method affects the aesthetic outcome of denim jackets.

This report starts with setting the context of denim jackets, the industry and its polluting side. After introducing 3D weaving and setting the criteria the process of experiments is explained and visualised. Research through design has been the basis of this research. This iterative research led to three 3D woven versions of a chosen concept. These prototypes were developed at Diamond Denim during a visit to their factory in Pakistan through many weave cycles. One of the outcomes is a zero-waste 3D woven jacket.
The aesthetic of the 3D woven jackets was found to fit the description of a denim jacket but was different due to the fabric density, texture and raw fraying seams.
Change is inevitable. Let’s wear the change!