— 688 696 Celebration & Contemplation, 10th International Conference on Design & Emotion 27 — 30 September 2016, Amsterdam Introduction How could we forget a garment that evokes a memory even more beautiful than the events that actually happened? How could we fail to be moved by a garment that evokes our collective imagination, through the weaving of its intended use and sheer physical aesthetic? By applying the postulate that nostalgia is a common human emotion, we can affirm that it reaches our passions and as such, colours each person’s memories (Saint Augustin, trad. 1861). Should the emotion of “nostalgia” be included as a source of inspiration in creative curriculum in fashion design education? Nostalgia, etymology, definition and semantics The term “nostalgia” has Greek roots; it is actually made up of two combined words: nostos, “return”, and the suffix – algia (algos), meaning “pain, suffering”, and in its modern application means “a decline caused by the violent desire to return to one’s home country”. So the term “nostalgia” conveys a feeling of sadness, caused by being at a great distance from one’s native country. It also evokes a wish to return to the past, the melancholia of missing a thing, a state, a life that one has known or had, or that one has not known or had; much like an unsatisfied urge. (www.cntrl.fr) Recently, writer Milan Kundera has utilised this word in the sense of “the suffering of ignorance” in his novel entitled Ignorance, published in the year 2000: “You are far, and I do not know what you are becoming. My country is far, and I do not know what happens there.” The writer goes on to explain that, according to its Greek etymology, “the term nostalgia therefore is a suffering, caused by the unquenchable desire to return (to your country)”; however, by observing the regionalisms of various European languages, many nuances can be observed in each language’s semantics.1 Nostalgia in fashion design – to convey a far-away (native) country, a by-gone era Nostalgia is a recurring theme in the creative process of many fashion designers (Mollow, 2004). It seems obvious that nostalgia is a social phenomenon; clothing styles which imitate costumes of the past and popular films with nostalgic themes demonstrate that nostalgia can be experienced collectively. Davis (1979) explains that although nostalgia is a collective manifestation, it is also an emotion and that feeling Abstract Nostalgia is a recurring theme throughout the creative process of many fashion designers (Mollow, 2004). According to Tilburg, Sedikides & Wildschut (2015), nostalgia can particularly favour and encourage creativity. Thanks to their research on creativity and literature, based on a nostalgic daydream of the present and the future, they have come to the conclusion that nostalgia can be a very efficient tool to spur on a creative process. But how does nostalgia fuel a creative approach in fashion design? How does the past merge with the present to formulate fashion’s future? This phenomenon will be explored by using nostalgia as a starting point for the creative process of three designers, as well as for three of the author’s creative projects in fashion design: the 3D Tutu, the 3D dress and the mathDress. This research aims to concretely demonstrate how nostalgia can be applied in the conception of a garment collection for fashion design students or professionals, and how to gain a deeper insight on this emotion without losing one’s self in it, or feeling overwhelmed. Keywords Nostalgia, Inspiration, Fashion, Design, Creativity Nostalgia as inspiration for fashion design – Designing the present of future through nostalgia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Danielle Martin1 martin.danielle@uqam.ca 1Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 Milan Kundera further points out that because of its