Background

The whole design process is based on Double diamond model, developed by Design Council UK in 2005. Through divergent thinking and convergent thinking, we identified the issues and formulated problem definition in the first diamond process, including “discover” and “define” stages. We brainstormed a large variety of problems all around the world in different scales and narrowed them down based on the variability and interest. The solutions are further defined in “develop” and “deliver” stages. Through article research, stakeholder interviews, experts consultation with designers, biologists and chemists, and ideas sharing in public, we explored the uncover techniques and concepts, and converged by experimenting and value proposition. Our whole process was iterative with continuous tests and refinements.

Fig 1. Double diamond design approach

Desk research

According to the desk research, the value chain of textile industry starts from the design stage. Based on the textile design, the product is manufactured from the raw materials production, which is further formed into fabric and yarn. With those materials, textile products are finally manufactured and sold in the market. Unfortunately, normally, the products end up in the trash bin after use. The transportation connects through the whole traditional value chain in textile industry, which also causes greenhouse gas emission and energy waste.

Fig 2. Value chain of textile industry

Stakeholder research

With the basic knowledge of textile value chain, we aimed to conduct stakeholder research to uncover the understanding of stakeholders and textile industry.

Based on the value chain of textile industry, we identified the relevant stakeholders. The stakeholders were mapped based on the power and transition ability of sustainable thinking they have in textile industry. As a result, fashion companies that possess higher sustainability awareness, defined based on the yearly sustainability report provided from the companies, are the key players in textile industry, which are defined as the primary stakeholders in our project.

Based on the stakeholder map, we decided to conduct expert consultations with fashion companies as our primary stakeholder. At the same time, we also took secondary stakeholders, including natural dyed textile studio, local residents of textile manufacturing area and textile manufacturing factories, into consideration. Through stakeholder interviews, we aimed to understand the situation of textile industry better and uncover deep pains, gains and desires of stakeholders.

Fig 3. Stakeholders mapping based on power and transition

Fig 4. Stakeholders mapping

In order to uncover deep insights to build a solid basement for innovative product design direction, we conducted stakeholder research through structured and thematic interviews.

An interview is a conversation where questions are asked to obtain information and learn from the stakeholders. In design research, interviews usually take place in the context of the user. We used both structured and thematic forms in our interviews. In structured interview, the questions posed by the interviewer have been created and followed through the process. On the other hand, we also did thematic interviews and let the discussion flow more freely with the interviewees delivered interesting opinions.

• Marimekko
• Finlayson
• Pure waste

• Natural dyed textile studio, Osem
• Local residents of textile manufacturing area
• Textile manufacturing factory in Bangladesh

After collecting those data from interviews and expert consultations, the data were evaluated into knowledge, based on affinity mapping, to understand the pains, gains and desires in textile industry. Opportunity questions were further brainstormed to solve the problems.

Fig 5 & 6. Stakeholder research data analysis approach

Based on the information that we collected from the interviews and expert consultations, we found out that overall, the mindset of stakeholders in the textile industry are conservative due to the profits oriented business, no matter manufacturing factories or fashion companies. Therefore, the environmental pollution, especially the water pollution generating form the textile dyeing process can’t be avoided. Local people need to purify water with alum before drinking, and sometimes it doesn't help if the water is totally polluted. If the basic things are not fulfilled, how would the local people living in textile manufacturing area dream of bigger dreams?

On the other hand, when fashion design companies with higher environmental awareness step in to improve the textile industry, including the labor rights, safe working environment and environmental friendly manufacturing process, they also face challenges between profits and environmental protection. Moreover, the efficiency and effectiveness of the regulation from fashion companies to manufacturing factories is relatively low due to the remote monitoring.

Furthermore, the raw material production is also a water consuming and land harmgin process. Nowadays, growing organic materials is a trend to protect the nature; however, it makes the fabrics become really expensive.

Fig 7, 8, 9 & 10 Interviews with different stakeholders

Fig 11. Interview quotes

Insights of Stakeholder Research

According to the findings that we found, there are three main pain points in the textile industry. First, the serious water pollution impact towards local people living in manufacturing are. 10–50% dye loss dues to the inefficiency of the dyeing process, which escape from conventional wastewater treatment processes and persist in the environment for a long time, as they are slow to degrade in nature. Second, low visible improvement in raw material production and unethical process of silk extrusion from cocoons. Third, low remote regulation efficiency and effectiveness from fashion companies to textile manufacturing factories. To provide gain creators and pain relievers, we proposed a value proposition to solve the problems that we found from the stakeholder research.

Fig 12 & 13. Insights of the stakeholder research

Value Proposition

A value proposition is a promise of value delivery towards customers for providing gain creators and pain relievers. SILKOLOR is there to provide gain creators and pain relievers based on the insights from the stakeholder research. SILKOLOR is an environmental friendly and energy efficient way of producing dyed silk fibers, which speeds up the transition of a brand to sustainable actions and further promotes visible contribution and brand reputation. Moreover, thanks to the local self-sufficiency of colored fibers manufacture process, SILKOLOR helps fashion companies build transparency and well-regulation in supply chain.

Fig 14. Value proposition of SILKOLOR

Solution

Benchmarking

Many challenges still prevent properly commercializing the production of silk protein. The industry has seen several contenders, but only recently one potential company close to scaling up their production enough has emerged: Bolt Threads [1]. The property of supercontraction in the silk seems to necessitate blending the silk yarn with other materials, such as cellulose or wool. Regular silk from silkworms is already expensive material with the price ranging between $60-100 per kilogram, but Bolt Threads have yet to optimize the production, which keeps the cost of their silk above $100 per kilogram.

Thus, there are many obstacles to prevent large scale production of silk, and we expect that our product of pre-dyed silk fiber would prove even more problematic due to different properties of the material and take well over a decade to properly enter the market with our products. Likewise, genetically engineering silk worms to produce colored silk have posed difficulties, in which limited success has been accomplished with managing to produce green fluorescent silk [2]. Additionally, mutant strains of silk worms and feeding mulberry leaves containing dyestuff have been successful ways to produce natural colored silks. Therefore, our team has decided to concentrate further on the fusion proteins with colorful chromoproteins combined with cellulose or keratin binding domain.

Major issues with using natural dyes in comparison to synthetic dyes are numerous. The challenges of natural dyes matching textile industry’s expectations and requirements include economical price range, wide range of hues and reliable colorfastness [4]. This also may be why synthetic biology and engineered microorganisms could have an important role to shift towards more sustainable production, as some of the reasons for the costliness of natural dyes is their extraction from their source, producing and applying them to textiles [5]. The most common dyeing techniques include exhaust dyeing, continuous dyeing and printing, but it is yet unclear what sort of technique would be most compatible with our bacteria-produced dyestuff.

Similar goal of utilizing genetically engineered E. coli bacteria has been successfully conducted before, but usually the approach has been different. For example, production of precursor of indigo in E. coli has allowed researchers to circumvent the conventional polluting steps of indigo dyeing by removing the need for both chemical synthesis and also the bleaching stage in fasting the textile [6]. Thus, our dyeing solution may hold great potential due to the cellulose and binding domain that may remove the need for polluting mordants and reduce the excessive use of water.

Value & Synthetic Biology Circular Economy

Thanks to synthetic biology, we used chromoproteins and combined with spider silk inside E. coli to provide an alternative process of dyed silk fibers. The raw material and fiber dyeing process are combined into a single step, which can be local produced and well-regulated. Since there is no need for transportation between the raw material production and fiber dyeing step, it reduces the carbon footprint, which makes the process more environmentally friendly. With SILKOLOR, we visioned the traditional linear textile value chain can be better-shaped into a more ethical one and generates circular economy.

Fig 15. SILKOLOR - Harmony of business and environment to textile dyeing