Circular fashion: the new roles of designers in organisations transitioning to a circular economy

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Danish University Colleges

Circular fashion: the new roles of designers in organisations transitioning to a circular economy

Dan, M. Christina; Østergaard, Thomas

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https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2021.1936748

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2021

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Dan, M. C., & Østergaard, T. (2021). Circular fashion: the new roles of designers in organisations transitioning to a circular economy. The Design Journal, 24(6), 1001-1021. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2021.1936748

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Circular Fashion: The New Roles of Designers in Organizations Transitioning to a Circular Economy

M. Cristina Dan & Thomas Østergaard

To cite this article: M. Cristina Dan & Thomas Østergaard (2021) Circular Fashion: The New Roles of Designers in Organizations Transitioning to a Circular Economy, The Design Journal, 24:6, 1001-1021, DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2021.1936748

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Circular Fashion:

The New Roles of Designers in

Organizations

Transitioning to a Circular Economy

M. Cristina Dan^a and Thomas Østergaard^b

aUrban Studies, Malmo University, Malm€ o,€ Sweden; ^bVIA University College,

Herning, Denmark

ABSTRACT To tackle global sustainability

challenges of the Fashion Industry and ensure long- term viability, companies have slowly started integrating circular approaches. This paper explores if and how fashion designers can aid the transition towards a circular economy. For this purpose, 15 interviews with ten fashion designers working in

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommon- s.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/

4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is prop- erly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

TheDesignJournalDOI:10.1080/14606925.2021.19367481001

THE PUBLISHERS LICENSE ONLY PUBLISHED BY INFORMA UK LIMITED, TRADING AS TAYLOR &

FRANCIS GROUP.

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medium and large international fashion companies and five key expert informants were conducted. The results are summarized in the ORFDCE model (Organizational Roles of Fashion Designers for Circular Economy) and suggests designers can take up three central roles in the transition process, if they expand their sustainability-related knowledge and are supported by four central systemic organizational changes. The model enables companies to identify their specific standing in the transition process and develop designer training and support measures aimed at realizing their designers’full potential. The article also issues several recommendations for further research, to enable the

transition from linear to circular fashion.

KEYWORDS: circular fashion, circular economy, fashion designer, organizational role, circular design, systems thinking

Introduction

An Overview of Problem and Context

+

Design is critical today, because ‘it’s the first signal of human intention’(William 2014), and it plays an important role in transitioning towards a Circular Economy (CE) (Goldsworthy and Ellams 2019; European Commission 2020). It is estimated that up to 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage (European Commission 2009;

European Commission2020). More than three out of four decisions made in the design phase directly influence materials selection and manufacturing processes (IDRCCMU (International Design Research Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University), PDR, and Design Council 2015). Design and CE have a symbiotic relationship, as Sophie Thomas, director of Circular Economy at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), stated,

‘We are convinced that waste is a design flaw’ (RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts and Manufactures and Commerce) 2016, 9).

In the fashion industry, design can aid in the development of a closed-loop system in which the aim is to extend the garments’ life span (implying durability and universality) as well as recovering and recycling raw material in multiple rounds (Niinim€aki 2017; Muthu 2018). These actions are all dependent on the material choice, the clothing construction and finishing processes that are decided by the designer (Gwilt 2014; Muthu 2018). Furthermore, adequate design practices can allow improving the material selection, standardizing product design and modularizing components, create purer material flows, and design for easier disassembly (Allwood et al. 2006; EMF (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)2012) that would ease commercial and technological viability for remanufacturing or recycling.

TheDesignJournal1002

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Currently, in most cases, the fashion designer’s role implies:concept development,market and trend research,designing the collection, sourcing and selecting fabrics and textile processes (Gwilt 2014). From a broad perspective, the design and production process in fashion involves a specific set of stages, also known as ‘supply chain’: design, sample-making, selection, manufacturing and distribution (Lee 2017). In this realm, the designer is a binding agent between the design and production stages (Gwilt 2014). But there still seems to be very little positive impact in regards to circularity coming from the design departments in medium and large organizations. In this article as well as in a lot of the design-research, fashion designers are often described as‘Agents of Change’in the industry, but the actual effect of their efforts is still very limited and so is the knowledge about their actual contributions to sustainability in the companies (Karell and Niinim€aki2020).

Even if there are multiple design methods proposed to plan how materials can stay in circulation for a longer period of time, (i.e:.

design for longevity, design for reuse or design for services) (Niinim€aki2017), CE calls for radical innovation as there are multiple barriers to consider: technological, organizational, financial, structural, operational and attitudinal (Karell and Niinim€aki 2020; Ritzen and Sandstr€om2017).

In the context of the designer’s role within organizations shifting towards CE, the organizational barriers, structural barriers (missing exchange of information and unclear responsibility distribution), operational barriers (infrastructure/value chain) and attitudinal barriers (perception of sustainability and shallow understanding of CE) are highly influential and therefore will be highlighted throughout this paper.

Recent sustainable fashion research also shows how designers approach sustainability at multiple levels in the organization (Kozlowski, Bardecki, and Searcy2019), but at the same time meets organizational limitations in terms of company strategies and mind- sets, and shifting perceptions of the designer’s role and his/her sustainability knowledge (Karell and Niinim€aki 2020). So far, only very little research has been performed onif and howthe designer, as an individual, can drive circularity (Karell and Niinim€aki2020).

Research Purpose

As the fashion industry is interdependent and works as a system (Meadows and Wright2009), it is essential to consider the designer’s surroundings, and the dynamics between the elements in the system aiding the transition towards CE. These surrounding factors, interrelated with the individual person of the designer, can be defined as highly complex systems (Uhl-Bien and Arena2017).

Recent reports and coming EU and national legislation calls for an increased focus on the designers’role and mandates in the transition from linear to circular production. In 2019 the European Environment

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Information and Observation Network (Eionet) provided a briefing with an EU perspective of the impact from textile production and consumption, describing and discussing how circular business models and regulation can help move us towards a circular textiles’economy. Eionet addresses the central role of design and designers in the transition. But also, fashion education, the fashion-organizations, the policy makers as well as the industry itself needs to address and rethink the way things are done today. The illustration from the Eionet report (Figure 1) is used to show the complexity of levels and interdependence of the different sectors involved in a transition of the EU-based Fashion Industry.

Eionet suggests a number of actions in order to enable the transition from linear to circular textile industries, in which design choices are key. The report stresses the need for‘a strong focus on sustainability in design education curricula would be a powerful spur for a change in design culture’ (EEA/Eionet2019). Other actions relate to extended producer responsibility schemes and shifting from linear to circular business models.

Many of these suggestions are about to become legislation, start- ing by 2025. This puts more pressure on the Fashion Industry to

Figure 1.

The Role of Education, Policy, Business Models and behavioural change in Circular Textile Systems. Source: EEA/Eionet2019.

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speed up the transition to CE, and thereby the pressure will also reach the roles of the designers in the transition.

In this perspective, the purpose of this research is to reduce the knowledge gap on how fashion designers can aid the transition to a circular economy in the fashion industry and identify their potential role in transitioning systemically towards circularity. This paper out- lines the intersections and connections between the theoretical concepts of organizational roles, power, design management (DM) and systems thinking, creating a novel systemic understanding in the context of the CE and expanding the existing research in this field. In order to achieve this, three central questions guide the research:

1. What are the perceived main requirements, tasks and new interactions within an organization for fashion designers, in the transition from a linear to a circular economy?

2. What is the designer’s role, within an organization, in the transition from a linear to a circular economy?

3. What organizational systemic factors influence the fashion designer in the transition from a linear to a circular economy?

Theoretical Concept

The paper is built on two main theories: role theory and power theory. Organizational role theory by Katz and Kahn (1978) assumes that an individual’s behaviour within a company has to be under- stood through the lens of the interactions with the other individuals that is dependent on the expected (requirements), the transmitted (tasks) and the received role (interactions). The theory guides the exploration of the designer’s new role, within an organization, to aid the systemic transition towards CE. Social power theory by French and Raven (1959) helps to explore the level of influence that the fashion designer can hold within the organization, for without influence, the contribution of the designer in this transition is very limited. In order for the influence of the designer to have an impact and drive towards CE, there is a need for a good DM within the organization.

Therefore, two secondary theoretical concepts come to aid the exploration of how to better make use of design and the designer in supporting the transition towards CE: design management (DM) (Mozota 2010; Acklin and Fust 2014) and dynamic capabilities (Teece, Pisano, and Shuen1997; Teece2010). While the theoretical concept of DM emphasizes the capability in management to utilize design as a strategic resource, thus empowering the designer in new ways, the latter theory has as its main assumption that both individual (in this case the designer) and organizational core competencies should be used to generate innovation and modify short-term competitive positions that can be used to build long term competitive advantage in a new economic framework. Lastly, systems thinking theory was applied, as it is a critical tool to reach circularity due to the fact that it is a way of thinking that enables to identify a problem’s

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root cause, manage, adapt and see a new wide range of opportunities; it emphasizes seeing the whole rather than parts, understand how parts influence one another within a whole and the relationship of the whole to the parts (Meadows and Wright2009; Senge1994).

Methodology

The research techniques consist of two complementary methods, 1.a literature review, with the purpose of mapping thoroughly the background content, 2. in-depth semi-structured interviews with open ended questions that allow collecting researcher-provoked data and follow an empirical data analysis.

The aim of the interviews was to gain insights from both fashion designers and experts within the field. The initial group of interviewees included 10 fashion designers (FD) working in medium or large international fashion companies. The design of the interview was developed to address design process and workflow when developing a collection, interactions with other departments/companies in the supply chain, knowledge in regards to circular design strategies, current job tasks and requirements, the level of influence he/she has within the organization in regards to product design, obstacles he/

she encounters within the organization in regards to a more sustainable practice, positive changes he/she would like to see within the organization and the industry, his/her take on the role of the designer in a circular organizational context etc. and covers 16 questions in total.

Apart from interviewing designers, it was deemed important to also interview several experts: circular economy and circular fashion expert, design researcher, product developer, product manager and a sustainability manager. The rationale for interviewing specialists was their contribution to understanding the systemic aspect of the designer’s role in the design process. Moreover, they act as key informants due to their international exposure and broader understanding of the topic. In total 5 key informants (in the analysis abbre- viated as KI) were interviewed and 10 questions were prepared for the interview. They addressed, amongst others, the possible role of the fashion designer (FD) within a circular fashion business, circular knowledge FD possess, influence FD have in regards to product design, organizational enablers for positive change and FD empower- ment etc. Both key informants and designers are all part of one heterogenous group that can be seen inTable 1.

Thematic content analysis was applied for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within the data collected. Applying an inductive approach, the research questions and the theoretical background were utilized as a referential frame in order to develop four of the themes which were: requirements (expected role), tasks (transmitted role), interactions (received role) and power, and a 5th one emerged from the interviews: systems thinking (Table 2).

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Table1.Tableofinterviewees. NamePositionOrganizationPlace/DateDuration FD1FashionDesignerLargeinternationalSwedishfashionbrandSkype/02.06.2019 16:0500:59:27 FD2FashionDesignerLargeinternationalDanishfashionbrandSkype/04.06.2019 19:3000:35:12 FD3FashionDesignerLargeinternationalDanishfashionbrandWriting/06.06.2019– FD4FashionDesignerMediuminternationalDanishworkwearbrandSkype/14.05.201910:151:07:46 FD5FashionDesignerLargeinternationalSwissdaywear&nightwearbrandSkype/31.05.201910:0000:49:53 FD6FashionDesignerMediumInternationalDutchbeachwear&nightwearbrandSkype/28.05.201909:0301:01:29 FD7FashionDesignerInternationalluxuryfashionhouseSkype/21.05.2019 16:0200:55:40 FD8FashionDesignerInternationalFrenchluxuryfashionhouseFacebookvideocall 28.05.201918:1400.46:58 FD9FashionDesignerMediuminternationalGermanfashionbrandSkype/28.05.201911:0500:39:57 FD10FashionDesignerMediuminternationalwomenswearSlovakianfashionbrandSkype/03.06.2019 10:0000:55:40 KI1ProductDeveloperMediumInternationalDutchbeachwear&nightwearbrandSkype/09.05.2019 15:5500:58:16 KI2ProductManagerLargeinternationalSwissdaywear&nightwearbrandSkype/24.05.2019 15:0000:58:16 KI3DesignResearcherDanishDesignUniversitySkype/12.05.2019 14:0000:52:01 KI4CircularEconomy& CircularFashionSpecialistInternationalNGOacceleratingthetransitiontoaCEZoom/27.05.201911:0601:15:31 KI5SustainabilityManagerLargeinternationalSwedishfashionbrandSkype/11.06.201913:0000:20:05 TheDesignJournal1007

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One delimitation which was set for this research was to interview designers only from medium and large fashion companies. In these companies, due to high organizational complexity, it is more difficult to transition from a linear to a circular economy, and therefore the research would tackle an immediate need and challenge within the industry. The research is limited by the sample-size, as it is only based on 15 participants, it offers merely a glimpse on how designers could contribute to the transition of a fashion organization towards CE. Ideally, the research data would have benefitted in nuance and depth if it could have included more interviews. It was hard to find more willing participants, because designers proved reluctant due to the sensitivity of the topic. However, by combining designers and international specialists, and having a considerably wide geographic distribution throughout Europe, this research gives a hint about the present potential of the role of the designer in a CE.

Findings

There were five key areas identified in relation to the designer’s new requirements, tasks, interactions, the power/influence he/she has within the organization, and a systemic approach. All these areas are interrelated and each of them elucidate the role of the designer in the Table 2.Table of thematic codes.

Themes Main Findings Respondents (n)

Requirements Shift in design paradigms (new requirements)

5 Little to no existing knowledge to

respond to new requirements

7 Tasks Multiple functions for FD within

organizational levels

6 Specific knowledge & learning

(ex.: sustainable design strategies, value chain and context)

15

Interactions Collaboration and co-creation are essential

15

Stronger DM 4

Power The designer has little influence 9 Organizational structure and

design integration

6 Leadership is important

yet missing

10 Systems

Thinking

Holistic approach 11

Targeting key system factors (internal and external)

12 Connecting design to

business models

12

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context of organizations transitioning towards circularity and are out- lined in the following section.

Requirements

The main findings for new requirements concerning designers consist in the development of new knowledge on sustainable design strategies and context. At the moment, only 3 out of 10 designers felt that they had relevant knowledge regarding sustainability and circular design strategies (CDS).

However, interviews reveal also that in the current practices, the requirements still have a great focus on time, cost efficiency and high volumes.

Tasks

A majority of the interviewed designers confirmed that their current role implies: concept development, market and trend research, designing the collection, sourcing and selecting fabrics and in some cases also textile processes.

All key informants supported the idea that the designer can have the role of afacilitator for collaborative processes.As there are multiple actors and complex processes within the value chain, the designer cannot take action alone but could facilitate other departments and actors in the organization, enabling mutual understanding in order to solve complex sustainability problems.

The most common answer of fashion designers, in relation to sustainability-related tasks, was the approach of different material selection, adaptation of manufacturing and expanding the product lifespan.

The key informants raised the newrole of advisor for top management, KI5 - the sustainability manager of a Swedish brand that is already making considerable steps towards CE, stated ‘Head of design from Men's and Ladies and Kids are part of the top management group. So they are in close connection to all the other departments and the Head Office and of course can contribute with input on a regular basis.’(KI5 2019).

The topic of specific CDS and learning also often arose in the interviews.

Interactions

There was a general agreement in line with Simonsen and Robertson (2012) and Ehn, Nilsson, and Topgaard (2014) that co-creation and collaboration between departments are essential in order to generate innovative solutions that can respond to the challenges that a CE framework poses for the fashion industry.

The current main interactions that designers have are with the product management department, sales department and purchasing department and only one designer mentioned that she collaborated

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with the material research department and another designer mentioned a close collaboration with suppliers.

DM is exercised poorly in regard to designers and management interactions. The specialist in CE and circular fashion alongside the sustainability manager consider it necessary to bring together management and design departments and reconcile their interests so that together they can create effective solutions and strategies.

Designers need to be business trained as well and have an entrepreneurial mindset in order for this interaction to occur.

Power

In line with Raven (2008), Acklin and Fust (2014), the interviewees stated that the fashion designer’s influence is limited at the moment.

The expectations towards the fashion designers are quite high regarding the responsibilities, and based on the interviews, the potential for more influence for the designer is available. Being given the power and mandate by the management and accepted by the designer, depends on many factors, such as: the willingness of management to train and then listen to designers; the personality of the designer and the extent of his/her knowledge bank regarding circular design strategies together with his/her enthusiasm to take on new responsibilities; the general context and a more entrepreneurial mindset. Next to these aspects, the specific organizational settings and structure can be seen as important factors.

Interviewees consider integrating designers in all three different levels and functions of the organization (design department, middle management and top management) as a new way of generating innovative ideas for CE fashion solutions.

Connected to the theme of power is the topic of leadership, and the interviewed fashion designers do not see themselves equipped with the necessary knowledge in leading towards circularity and do not want to be called ‘a leader’, but rather be seen as a support to initiate change.

Systems Thinking

The theme of systems thinking emerged whilst conducting the interviews. Throughout the interviews both designers and all key informants mentioned the opportunity to create greater value and better circular solutions, if there is a holistic approach and mindset in design that is grasping both processes within the entire company and external key factors too: suppliers and customers.

Both designers and key informants identified strong links between:

design, business models, customer demand, educating consumers through design, lowering consumption and volumes and rising the quality and prices of clothes, that if addressed holistically can better respond to CE challenges. Interview responses align with Urbinati, Manfredi Latilla, and Chiaroni (2018) that in order to reach circularity,

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design needs to be closely connected to the value network and the customer value proposition and interface:‘the way you define value and the way you generate value, […] companies that are renting or that are embracing second-hand, they can generate very interesting margins without necessarily producing enormous volumes of waste.’ (KI4 2019).

Discussion and Recommendation

As findings show, a large number of factors influence the potential new roles of fashion designers in organizations transitioning towards CE, emphasizing the complexity. So, at the end of the theoretical discussion, a model was generated in order to condense this broad information in a more explanatory way. Furthermore, outlook for future research is detailed in order to expand the current research route.

Theoretical Discussion

This study contributes to the broader field of research regarding design as a catalyst for transitioning to a circular economy. The findings support that fashion designerscanbring a considerable contribution to the transition of fashion companies to a circular economy.

In order to understand the role of the fashion designer within an organizational context, the organizational role theory by Katz and Kahn (1978) alongside insights from Inns (2010), Burns et al. (2006), Ehn, Nilsson, and Topgaard (2014), Østergaard (2018), Tubito et al.

(2019), Karell and Niinim€aki (2020) were considered. Alongside the theoretical concepts, empirical findings aided to respond to the first and second research questions: What are the perceived requirements, tasks and interactions within an organization for the fashion designer in the transition from a linear to a circular economy?; what is his/her role within the organization in this transition?

Regarding the requirements, there is a contradiction between demanded improved requirements for circularity and current practice requirements in the industry. For the CE requirements, the focus lies on developing new knowledge on sustainable design strategies, context and design dimension, which are important as they improve the designer’s capabilities to adapt his/her practices to the new circularity context. This asks for companies to invest time and provide training to their designers. However, fast fashion does not offer space for these developments to occur as it focuses mainly on time, cost efficiency and high volumes. Hence there is an impending need for requirements and visions to align. Value needs to be redefined and new ways of generating value should be adopted (KI4 2019). The transition towards CE can be supported by the designer, should (s)he have the necessary competencies and circular design knowledge (EMF (Ellen MacArthur Foundation) 2015; Leube and Walcher2017).

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Nevertheless, few designers felt that they had relevant knowledge regarding sustainability and CDS, and so the sustainable design’s deeper significance has still to be recognized (Stebbing and Tischner 2015) among designers. As a result, this affects the way that many designers perceive fashion: as mainly a visual and stylistic endeavour related to shape and good aesthetics and disconnected from the social context (Niinim€aki 2014) and thus fail to develop new knowledge, attitudes, strategies, techniques and practices to be integrated into a sustainable design practice (Stebbing and Tischner 2015). In this way, the what and how the designers are taught becomes essential. But it also becomes central if the educators have the right competencies and didactic understanding to teach the students circular competencies (Vare and Scott2007; UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization) 2017;

Østergaard 2018). Teaching at design-schools is often shaped by disciplinary structures and aims, but research in Educations for Sustainable Development (ESD) has shown this has very little effort, if the students are to cope with complex sustainable challenges (UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization)2017). Findings align with Burns et al. (2006), Wetter- Edman et al. (2014) and Tubito et al. (2019) that suggest the designer could take up the role of facilitator for collaborative processes. Furthermore, findings support Muthu (2018) and Karell and Niinim€aki (2020) in terms of what designers consider to be their sustainability-related tasks (approach of different material selection, adaptation of manufacturing and expanding the product lifespan), leading to a role of prevention. In contradiction to Inns’s (2010) role of coordinator of exploration for the designer, the key informants suggest the new role ofadvisorfor top management. The concept of DM supports this goal to connect exactly the two professions (designers and managers) and thinking approaches (Mozota 2010;

Acklin and Fust 2014). Based on this, new ways of power for the designer need to be explored to support this process of appreciation and acknowledgement of the designer (Raven 2008). The topic of specific CDS and learning arose in the interviews, and aligns with the theory for circular economy (Stahel 2010; EMF (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)2013) and dynamic capabilities, deeming them as a crucial point. The task of the designer is to educate oneself about the necessary strategies and design dimensions, adding that the educational institutions and the organizations itself, play a crucial role in supporting future oriented education of designers (Leube and Walcher2017).

Meanwhile, the findings regarding interactions show a need for more intense collaboration between designers and all other departments, where designers gain access to experts within the company that can aid their creative process by offering specialty insight on materials, production processes or supply chain management. At the present time, an external facilitator can help create these interactions.

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In time, as they become part of the participating actors’mindset and start to happen more organically, the designer can initiate and facilitate inter-departmental co-design and thus generate innovative solutions for a CE within the organization. Moreover, this would lead towards an easier creation of a business model that is suited for a CE.

Another relevant finding needs to be mentioned. This is the notion ofsocial power(Raven2008) playing an essential part in defining the new roles of the fashion designer. Although designers decide on material selection, manufacturing process and product life span (Karell and Niinim€aki 2020), the designer still has a limited influence when it comes to these decisions and within the organization due to the previous stated requirements (cost, time pressure and high volumes). High organizational vertical complexity (hierarchy) and the low level of design integration (Acklin and Fust 2014; Mozota 2010) within fashion companies, diminish the influence and limit the contribution of the designer in a transition towards circularity. Power structures in the company need to be re-evaluated regarding design integration and designers re-educated and trained in order to feel empowered for their new roles.

Continuing to what are the new roles of fashion designers within organizations, three main future roles have been identified: role of preventing, role of facilitating and role of advising, and should be strategically integrated throughout the different organizational levels.

The roles are dependent on the organizational levels and design dimensions and the power that the designer is offered or (s)he is able to use. On each organizational level, a different role is assigned for the designer and correlated with the design dimensions that fit for each hierarchical level and its functions.

On an operational level, where the design department is normally positioned, therole of preventingby practicingsustainable designcan lead to the mitigation of design faults, which has an essential impact on the life cycle of the item and how it can stay within closed-loop.

Following this, on the next level, wheretactics, systems & processes are developed, the fashion designer can have the role offacilitator for collaborative processes by applying co-design throughout middle managers. By utilizing each department’s (purchasing, R&D, supply- chain management, marketing etc.) strengths, ideas, creativity and expert insights, new innovations can be generated through co- creation, thus leading to holistic circular solutions. In the last level, where strategy and business models are discussed, the fashion designer’s role is that of anadvisor for the top management, working together with other advisors/representatives from different departments by applyingtransformation designto adapt the strategy and the business model of the company towards a more circular direction.

Depending on the designer’s individual personality, her/his skills and the organization, she/he may not have the capabilities for all the roles within the organizational levels and design dimensions.

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In order to have a ground for the explained implications, the third and final research question: What organizational systemic factors influence the fashion designer in the transition from a linear to a circular economy?was answered. Four factors were rated as crucial influence on the success of the designer’s role integration in the different levels, in order to effectively contribute to the organizations transition towards circularity: new balanced power structure, new knowledge on design and context, dynamic capabilities and improved DM;they are interrelated and influence each other as they are parts within a complex system. The adoption of a new balanced power structure would encourage interdepart- mental collaboration and better design integration within the company. Adding to this, new knowledge on design and context needs to be attained by the designer in order to implement sustainable design strategies and execute the assigned roles. Finally, the dynamic capabilities support the company’s ability to build, integrate and reconfigure internal and external competences to deal with fast changing surroundings. Thus, one focus lies on developing competences and resources for the fashion designer to embed sustainable strategies into new product development.

The other focus for dynamic capabilities is to establish a foundation for long term innovation in order to integrate circular thinking into all hierarchical levels of the organization. In order to distribute and develop dynamic capabilities relating to the fashion designer, a new improved design management approach is necessary, as suggested by theory, being connected to which roles the fashion designer can assume.

Systems thinking theoretical concepts (Giddings, Hopwood, and O’Brien 2002; Meadows and Wright 2009; EMF (Ellen MacArthur Foundation) 2017) alongside empirical findings, stressed the neces- sity of a holistic approach for both the organizational system and the external ones. The above-described shifts are all happening within the organizational environment and represent the general organizational systemic changes that need to occur in order to enable circularity. At the same time, these change processes can only work effectively if external organizational surroundings support the shift towards circularity (for example a collection/recovery and recycling scheme for clothing at an industry (similar to I:CO) or at the organizational level through a product-service business model). Moreover, the designer needs to develop and work with a holistic approach towards the entire value chain and consider all key system factors that influence his/her designs.

Additionally, every business exists and functions as part of the economic system which is a subsystem of human society, which in itself is a subsystem of the biosphere, resulting in an interlinked complex system (Giddings, Hopwood, and O’Brien 2002; Uhl-Bien and Arena 2017). As such, the context in which a business functions is important and could affect the business model of a company.

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In order to correlate this extensive information in a simpler yet explanatory way, a model was created: the ORFDCE model (Organizational Roles of the Fashion Designer for a Circular Economy).

Outlook for Future Research

Firstly, considering the fashion designer's roles identified by this research, possible future novelty leadership styles need to be exam- ined, alongside the bases of power that fashion designers can make use of in the new circular economy framework. Secondly, in order to aid the fashion industry towards the transition to a CE, further research should be conducted on the development of fashion designers and on how new organizational structures within fashion companies should look like. Thirdly, practical implementations of the developed ORFDCE model should take place within medium and large fashion companies and possibly extending it to related fashion contexts (e.g., design schools, small fashion companies), to evaluate the level of applicability. But as the roles are interdependent on the organizational levels, this point calls for a closer look of the mandates of nascent positions. If the designer is in a transitional positional phase in the organizations, could this influence the effect of their work?

The Challenge of Creating a Mandate

Organizational roles (i.e. occupations) are not made overnight but slowly evolve in a fluid practice. In times of occupational change, the fight for legitimacy emerges within organizations and influences the roles of the designer in the fashion industry (Fayard, Stigliani, and Bechky 2017, 292). The question about ‘mandate’, defined as the internally shared understanding and the externally perceived right to define‘proper conduct’, as well as values, beliefs, and ways of thinking (Hughes1958), gives a cultural construction for an occupation’s legitimacy in an organization. Understanding how an occupational mandate is created is vital to our interpretation of seeing the designer as an Agent of Sustainable Change. Members of occupational groups construct their social worlds and thereby also protect and define occupational domains. This approach shows the way in which daily work practices are connected with symbols and values - and could become a field of future research in order to facilitate the process of achieving an occupational mandate for the designer as Agents of Sustainable Change (Fayard, Stigliani, and Bechky2017).

When dealing with sustainability in organizations, designers may be confronted with tensions and strategic dissonance which may blur their objectives. So far, literature on corporate sustainability has used an instrumental logic focusing on the economic dimension over social and environmental challenges, but in 2014, Hahn et al.

described a lack of consideration of how tensions and conflicts in organizations contrasts with the complex and multi-faceted nature of

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corporate sustainability. According to Hahn’s research, many busi- nesses of today still pursue different sustainability aspects simultan- eously–even if they can seem contradictory. This produces a series of risks of often unwanted tensions on the different organizational levels: personal, organizational, systemic and temporal; because developing a solution to one challenge could be detrimental to that of another. Future research on the designer’s role should include more focus on organizational and managerial areas.

Conclusion

The findings reveal that the transition from a linear to a circular economy entails newrequirements,tasksandinteractions for the fashion designer within an organization. These include developing and integrating new knowledge on circular design strategies, context and design dimensions as well as increasing the collaboration between the different departments and actors within the company. This exchange can support designers’ creativity by sharing expertise on central themes such as materials, production processes or supply- chain management. Until designers develop the necessary skills, knowledge and standing to manage this exchange, external facilita- tors could support this organizational change and implement this new organizational mindset supporting co-design for the CE.

The present research also finds that fashion designers could take up three roles in the transition process: preventing, facilitating, and advising. With regards to the systemic factors, in order for the designer to have an effective and positive impact on transitioning to circularity, four organizational systemic changes must be considered:

first, new knowledge on design and context on the part of the designer; second, dynamic capabilities; third, an improved DM;and fourth, abalanced power structure. With regards to the latter, special attention should be given to designers’ social power, since this will largely influence whether they have the standing, position and deci- sion power necessary to take on these roles and realize their full potential as one of the drivers of the CE transition.

Based on these results, the ORFDCE model (Organizational Roles of Fashion Designers for Circular Economy) (seeFigure 2) was developed. It illustrates how these aspects connect and contribute to the development of the theory by outlining the intersection between the theoretical concepts of organizational roles, power, DM and systems thinking. In terms of practical contributions, this model enables medium and large sized fashion companies on their way to circularity to identify their specific standing in the transition process and develop designer training and support measures aimed at realizing their designers’full potential.

Future research should test the ORFDCE model and improve its accuracy by conducting case studies in similar contexts and possibly extending it to related fashion contexts (e.g., design schools, small fashion companies), maybe examining how the ‘mandate’ of the

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designer is created. Additionally, it would be relevant to investigate how to best train and prepare fashion designers for the challenges and new roles ahead and how organizational structures of fashion companies can be adjusted to best support a shift towards a CE.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Hope Witmer, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Organization and Director, Leadership for Sustainability Master Program, Malm€o University, for providing valuable guidance and comments. Moreover, some of this research was conducted as part of a master thesis written in cooper- ation with Julian M€uhlmeier, M.A. in Leadership and Organization, so thank you Julian for your contribution. We would also like to thank all the 15 participants of this study for the time they dedicated and rich insights; thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figure 2.

The ORFDCE model (Organizational Roles of Fashion Designers for Circular Economy) developed by the authors based on the findings and analysis of the research.

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Biographies

M. Cristina Dan, Contextual Fashion Designer, Lecturer, Researcher and the founder of SOLVE, an innovation studio in design and sustainability. She designed in 2016 the world's first circular and multi- functional fashion collection – Omdanne. She is also an assisting teacher at Malm€o University, Sweden, within the Leadership for Sustainability master’s programme.

Thomas Østergaard, Associate Professor, VIA Design, Innovation &

Entrepreneurship, Denmark. Thomas is part of both the Research Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Development and the Research Centre for Creative Industries and Sustainable Development at VIA. In 2019 he was an Affiliated Researcher at ELISAVA.

ORCID

M. Cristina Dan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2149-8181 Thomas Østergaard http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3143-8016

Address for correspondence

M. Cristina Dan, Urban Studies, Malmo University, Malm€ o, Sweden.€ Email:hello@solve.studio