Centring and Decentring the Human: New Alliances with Nature and Technology in Fashion Materials

This contribution investigates two major perspectives that characterise the fashion industry in the twenty-first century and the relationship between humans, nature and technology. The first perspective has to do with the centring of humans and their needs in design, in a systemic and holistic way, leading to the evolution of Industry 4.0 into 5.0; the other perspective is an awareness of the limits of an anthropocentric vision and the need to look beyond the human in search of collaborations with the non-human, nature and technology. Through a literature review and a discussion of some case studies, this contribution explores these two perspectives and their interrelationships. These two trajectories are not alternatives, however, but instead intertwine, thus bringing to the attention of contemporary fashion design an ecosystem composed of humans, plants, animals and technologies.