Collaborations for Remake: Participation in Practice
Creators: name: English, Julia
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 330315
subject: Textile and fashion design
classificationCode: 330310
subject: Interaction and experience design
classificationCode: 401413
subject: Textile technology

description: Textile waste is a problem for businesses that aim for more sustainable practices, particularly when they do not want to resell or donate these unwanted materials in their current form. One option is to turn them into new products via remake, a term used to encompass processes such as remanufacturing and upcycling. Despite fashion having a long history of material reuse among service providers and in domestic settings, brands that utilise remake to create products have only appeared in the last few decades. Research into these businesses is still emerging, and it has primarily focused on general sourcing and production. 
While collaboration is often acknowledged within discussions of remaking, it has seldom been closely examined. This thesis argues that existing research does not provide sufficient understanding of how remake collaborations operate within the fashion industry.

Consequently, this study asks: What can we learn from the inner workings of remake collaborations occurring within the fashion and textile industry, and how can this knowledge enable more participation by potential actors? 

Using methods such as mapping, object analysis, and interviews, this research examines remake collaborations occurring among Australian businesses. A total of 38 cases of remake collaborations are studied throughout the research, with each involving an actor who provides the material, the Material Provider, and an actor who remakes the material, the Remaker. Nine of these collaborations were explored in more detail through six semi-structured interviews with Remakers, with these interviews being edited and disseminated as a podcast during the research project.

The research findings reveal that the collaboration process is comprised of five phases, starting with Building Awareness of each other and materials, before Instigating Collaboration, then Remaking Materials, with the resulting products moving through Retailing &amp; Marketing, and the collaboration potentially then looping back through the phase of Managing Remnants which may in turn spark more collaborations. Actor involvement across these phases showed different patterns, resulting in the proposal of three models to capture how a Material Provider might choose to participate: as the Giver of materials, the Sponsor of the collaboration, or the Client of the Remaker. By participating in these models, Material Providers were suggested as primarily engaging the Remaker in services for either transferring materials, or transformation of materials via remake.

Recognising that the ways in which materials were transferred and transformed through the collaboration was key, the study then examined how Remakers approached material selection, design development and remaking methods. Extending existing categorisations of remaking, eight remaking methods were identified as being tied to the ways Remakers contribute their skills, ability to use equipment, and willingness for remaking. These methods encompass more diverse practices and skills than have previously been identified, inviting participation in remaking from a wider range actors beyond just traditional fashion production. Grouping the different remaking methods into how they may transform the unwanted materials and products, offered links between the problems with materials and the potential methods actors may use. Further analysis showed that collaborations are influenced by how actors shape their remaking repertoire, as they applied specific tactics to direct their acceptance of materials and design development processes. Assessing how actors employ these tactics led to the proposal of four different strategies for approaching remake collaborations: Limited Edition Product Collaboration, Remake Brand Collaboration, Long-term Collaborative Partnership, and Remaking Design Collaborator. These strategies are discussed as offering different dynamics and future potential for how remake collaborations might be established within the fashion system. The approaches Remakers take in these tactics and strategies capture relationships with materials and design, and these may have application beyond just fashion. For example, they might be applied to other design fields who seek to develop remake outcomes, such as product design, jewellery and other creative areas, as these strategies speak to the ways that actors approach sourcing unwanted waste materials and developing products.

To conclude, a blueprint is developed to connect the various research findings and offer a useful tool for navigating remake collaborations. This blueprint outlines how actors might choose to participate in remake collaboration practices, including strategies and tactics they might use for developing remake products, as well as methods and associated transformations that they may employ when remaking materials. In drawing together these findings, a range of key implications are provided for both practitioners, researchers, industry and government, to support remaking practices and collaborations moving forward. These include recommendations for businesses identify their own waste streams and take initiative in instigating collaborations, calls for active consideration of Remaker criteria when investigating future textile sorting systems, emphasis on the need for government to establish clearer boundaries around material ownership and recognition of the potential of diverse remaking methods to be developed into various specialised remaking practices. Through this study, a deeper understanding of remake collaborations is established, providing clearer pathways to enable more actors to strategically participate.