Please introduce yourselves, your role in the DRS and your research.
We are Dr Rebecca Stewart and Dr Elaine Igoe, both founding co-convenors of the Interdisciplinary Textiles Special Interest Group.
Rebecca is Associate Professor of Interactive Systems at the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London where she leads a group of researchers who explore how technologies embedded within textiles can enhance our lives. She joined the DRS in 2023.
Elaine is Associate Professor of Textiles at Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton, UK. In her academic research, she has developed a unique critical voice that collaborates theory and practice from across disciplines to assert new ways of thinking about textiles. Elaine has been a member of the Design Research Society since 2017, reviewing submissions for previous SIGS tracks and contributing her own work to the main DRS conference.
We decided to collate this DRS Selects Note collaboratively as a representation of the approach that our group takes in fostering interdisciplinary research related to and within the field of textiles. Coming to textiles with very different personal backgrounds and perspectives, our selections help illustrate some of the viewpoints that the SIG represents.
Could you talk about the initiatives you’re involved with in the DRS and any upcoming events you’d like to share?
The Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG grew out of Textile Intersections, a conference, doctoral consortium and exhibition that has been hosted by Loughborough University and international partners roughly every two years since 2017. The series has sought to bring together researchers and practitioners working with textiles across disciplines and have all delivered special issues with the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice.
The next edition of Textile Intersections will be hosted in 2026 by Imperial College London. We look forward to hearing about the latest textile research through paper presentations along with showcasing creative works and artefacts from textile design research projects. Past topics have encompassed material developments, interaction design, architecture, and bio-textiles.
What do you see as the benefits of being involved with the DRS and how can those interested become more involved in the Society?
The Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG firmly asserts textiles in the arena of design research and serves as both recognition and motivation. Textiles as a field of design is wide ranging, diverse and innately interdisciplinary.
The Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG delivers on the Design Research Society ethos of uniting and connecting research in broad and inclusive ways via the Textile Intersections conference. This event is a space where theory and practice synthesise and collaborate to interrogate design research and theory through the lenses of craft, textile engineering, material science and critical practice. The Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG supports the biennial DRS Conference which is pivotal place for all designers to come together and shape the future, through academic and industrial projects. We would suggest that those interested in becoming more involved in the DRS should also visit the main international conference taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2026. There they will be immersed in the culture of the organisation and be able to network and gain a snapshot of the emerging ideas across the themed tracks. Perhaps, suggesting a track theme relating to textiles, materials and interdisciplinary practice; https://www.designresearchsociety.org/articles/drs2026-call-for-theme-tracks.
Choose 5 items from the DRS Digital Library.
Fourquier, A.(2023) W(hole), matter and its absence in woven textiles, in Tincuta Heinzel, Delia Dumitrescu, Oscar Tomico, Sara Robertson (eds.), Proceedings of Textile Intersections Conference 2023, 20 - 23 September, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2023/119
Fourquier’s paper from Textile Intersections 2023 is an excellent example of how the integration of practice-based methods, such as drawing, and critical theory can serve as a powerful methodological vehicle for innovation in smart textiles. Her work focuses on holes, or more specifically, the negative spaces formed by the intersecting lines of yarn in woven textiles.
She critiques the limitations of traditional black-and-white weave notation (technical instructions), arguing that it fails to fully capture the complexity of the woven plane; the interplay between lines and spaces is what enables cloth to drape and exhibit various functional properties.
Her research opens up a critical dialogue around conventional didactic protocols, encouraging other researchers to explore “infinite new ways of understanding and writing weave structures.” This exploration, she suggests, could pave the way for designing more ‘intelligent’ textiles by reimagining ancient weaving technologies through contemporary practices.
· https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2022/researchpapers/168/
Pouta, E., Vidgren, R., Vapaavuori, J., and Mohan, M. (2022) Intertwining material science and textile thinking: Aspects of contrast and collaboration, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.525
In this paper presented at DRS2022, Pouta, Vidgren, Vapaavuori, and Mohan explore interdisciplinary collaboration between textile experts and material scientists in integrating coiled actuators into woven textiles. Building on foundational studies by Philpott and Kane, as well as Groth, Pevere, Niinimäki, & Kääriäinen, one of their key insights highlights the value of being open to reflecting on one’s own disciplinary modes of thinking. While the ‘scientific method’ is grounded in structured knowledge production, ‘textile thinking’ is a well-established idiom within the creative textile design research community. In this work, the two approaches are brought into dialogue, each holding up a mirror to the other.
The authors note that the tension between creative dynamism and scientific rigour can lead to frustration on both sides. They also emphasise that shared space and time for collaborative, active learning and exploration are crucial, while a lack of autonomy for differing epistemologies can hinder innovation. Key to interdisciplinary collaboration is effective communication and mutual respect for diverse knowledge systems and research methodologies. This paper builds on the work of numerous researchers who recognise that textiles, as a design discipline, are inherently oriented toward collaboration with other fields.
Brisson, Y., and L Doubrovski, E. (2024) Flatfold3D: 3D printing structures on fabric to facilitate folding of pattern into wearable shoes., in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.226
This paper brings together new additive manufacturing techniques with traditional garment and shoe design approaches. It captures much of the essence of the Interdisciplinary Textiles SIG where a deep understanding of processes that have been developed over centuries, if not longer, can be viewed in a new light to help address a significant need such as a more sustainable means of clothing ourselves.
Ma, Z., Hatfield, L., Jansen, C., Tuo, B., Ozden Yenigun, E., Baurley, S., Jia Wang, S., and Pyo Lee, K. (2024) Workshopping the Textile Hand: Reimagining Subjective Assessment of Textile Materials with Digital Technologies, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.536
Long before digital tools such as virtual reality and pattern modelling became possibilities, academic researchers and industry have tried to express tactile interactions with textiles such as ‘hand’ in standardised ways. More recent technological developments in digital tools have made this topic even more pertinent.
This paper looks at how ‘hand’ can be measured through two workshops. It then weighs the trade-offs different approaches bring – more manageable data generated by digital tools versus the tactility of physical manipulation or the balance between producing data at scale with more statistical power versus allowing discussion and consensus to form as a group. The paper closes with actionable design insights about how future digital tools can be improved.
Shercliff, E., Ward, A., Bliesemann de Guevara, B., Hackney, F., Njaka, C.L., Sánchez-Aldana, E., Strohmayer, A., Twigger Holroyd, A.,and Wellesley-Smith, C.(2025) Materializing Data: A Macramé-Inspired Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Creative Participatory Research, in Karyda, M., Çay, D., Bakk, Á. K., Dezső, R., Hemmings, J. (eds.), Data as Experiential Knowledge and Embodied Processes, 12-13 May, Budapest, Hungary. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2025.107
This paper was presented very recently in just May this year and it explores how textiles as a common metaphor for connection within community can be probed deeper to form a framework for creative participatory practice. The authors use participatory design methods to develop a set of potential frameworks shaped around the textile techniques of knitting, weaving, and macramé, ultimately settling on macramé as the textile approach they take forward and fully develop.
It is a wonderfully rich way to examine and express the complexities of human co-creation and provides new viewpoints for how to both disentangle and embrace the inevitable knots that come from participatory research.