Designing Circular Fashion-Tech Systems

This open access book examines how interdisciplinary methods, emerging technologies, and material innovation can support the digital and sustainable transition of the fashion and textile industry through a design-driven yet interdisciplinary methodology. By conceptualizing the interdisciplinary research laboratory as a socio-technical infrastructure, it presents a series of vertical experimental pilots that exemplify the Circular Fashion-Tech Design approach. The volume explores the role of artificial intelligence in supporting circular design practices, alongside new models of mass personalization enabled by digital workflows that integrate 3D body scanning, parametric design, and virtual garment simulation. It further investigates strategies for transforming pre-consumer textile waste into valuable circular resources, highlighting innovative approaches to material recovery and valorization. Particular attention is devoted to additive manufacturing processes, ranging from fiber characterization to the development of 3D-printed fashion accessories, as well as to biofabrication experiments employing bacterial cellulose as a sustainable material alternative. The book also discusses Digital Product Passports and circular supply-chain data frameworks as enabling infrastructures for transparency, traceability, and informed decision-making. It concludes by outlining future directions for Circular Fashion-Tech Design, positioning design as a strategic driver for integrating zero-waste principles and data-driven governance into research, education, and industrial innovation.