Alumni
mw. Dr. I. Maldini (Irene)
ResearcherIrene Maldini, PhD. is researcher at the research group Fashion & Technology, Center for Applied Research Create-IT at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Research
Her research focuses on the quantity of clothing produced and consumed, its growth, and the environmental challenges associated with it. Moreover, it analyses the effect of design strategies aimed at reducing the “clothing mountain”, with emphasis on personalized products and do-it-yourself activities. So far, this research has indicated that these strategies do not have the desired effect. Contrary to what is expected, they do not help in reducing demand, partly because people’s clothing consumption habits follow a different logic to what designers and design researchers tend to assume. Therefore, the study offers an alternative perspective on clothing consumption building on the systemic nature of the wardrobe. This perspective explains that clothing demand rarely follows a logic of replacement: we do not usually buy new garments to replace discarded ones. The dynamics of the wardrobe are far more complex than that. Therefore, producing more meaningful or durable clothes tends to increase, rather than decrease, the size of the clothing mountain.
Motivation
Having worked as an industrial designer independently and for different industries after her graduation, Irene started questioning the environmental effects of her own design practice. The search for answers to these questions led her to slowly shift her professional activities to design education and academic research. Since 2010 and through her research, she’s been trying to find ways for design knowledge to help confronting consumerism, this research is still ongoing.
Current teaching activities
Examiner of master theses at Master Fashion Enterprise Creation (MFEC, AMFI). Coach for Fashion Management graduation projects at Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI). Supervisor pre-master and master theses at MA Design Cultures (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).
Education
Irene graduated in 2001 as a Product Designer at the EUCD/UdelaR (Uruguay) and in 2012 at the MA Design Cultures (cum laude) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In November 2019, she successfully defended her multidisciplinary PhD thesis entitled: “Can design confront consumerism? A critical study of clothing volumes, personalization, and the wardrobe” under supervision of Prof. Hein Daanen (VU Amsterdam), Prof. Pieter Jan Stappers (TU Delft), and Dr. Javier Gimeno-Martinez (VU Amsterdam).
Previous activities
In 2012/2013 Irene was an Embedded Researcher for Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at Waag Society, where she conducted an ethnography of digital makers at the FabLab Amsterdam and reflected on the environmental implications of digital DIY. Before moving to the Netherlands, Irene was Assistant Professor at the EUCD/UdelaR in Uruguay, where she guided a teaching team responsible for the design projects of bachelor students in the last year of their studies. She also worked as a product designer for 15 years, in design studios like TOC and Design Inverso (in Uruguay and Brazil) and developing her own (conceptual) design projects.
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Assessments in the design studio: self-reflecting on MDD (AUAS) methods
Maldini, I., Nelson, P., Geurts, P., & Ferri, G. (2022). Assessments in the design studio: self-reflecting on MDD (AUAS) methods. Paper presented at Research & Education in Design Conference '22 , Lisbon, Portugal.
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Dress and the city
Maldini, I., Iran, S., Laitala, K., Vittersø, G., Jestratijevic, I., Amaral, M., & Vladimirova, K. (2021). Dress and the city: a comparative study of clothing and textiles environmental policy in five European cities. In H. Schnitzer, & S. Braunegg (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th European roundtable on sustainable consumption and production (pp. 364-384). [178] Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz. https://doi.org/10.3217/978-3-85125-842-4-19
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Making sustainability work
Bogers, L., Kloppenburg, I., Maldini, I., Nachtigall, T., Oskamp, O., Vlaanderen, A., de Wit, A., van Woerden, A., van Zeijl, M., Niederer, S. (Ed.), & de Gaetano, C. (Ed.) (2021). Making sustainability work: critical making in collaboration with nature. Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
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The Amsterdam Doughnut
Maldini, I. (2021). The Amsterdam Doughnut: moving towards “strong sustainable consumption” policy?. Paper presented at 4th PLATE 2021 Virtual Conference, Limmerick, Ireland. https://ulir.ul.ie/handle/10344/10228
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Can design confront consumerism?
Maldini, I. (2019). Can design confront consumerism? a critical study of clothing volumes, personalisation, and the wardrobe. https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/can-design-confront-consumerism-a-critical-study-of-clothing-volu
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From speed to volume: reframing clothing production and consumption for an environmentally sound apparel sector
Maldini, I. (2019). From speed to volume: reframing clothing production and consumption for an environmentally sound apparel sector. In PLATE, Product Lifetimes and the Environment conference proceedings TU Berlin.
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Assessing the impact of design strategies on clothing lifetimes, usage and volumes
Maldini, I., Stappers, P. J., Gimeno-Martinez, J. C., & Daanen, H. A. M. (2019). Assessing the impact of design strategies on clothing lifetimes, usage and volumes: the case of product personalisation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 210, 1414-1424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.056
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The wardrobe as a system: exploring clothing consumption through design fiction
Maldini, I., & Stappers, P. J. (2019). The wardrobe as a system: exploring clothing consumption through design fiction. Journal of Design Research , 17(1), 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1504/JDR.2019.102229
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From “things of imitation” to “devices of differentiation”
Maldini, I., & Manz, R. L. (2018). From “things of imitation” to “devices of differentiation”: uncovering a paradoxical history of clothing (1950–2015). Fashion Theory - Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 22(1), 69-84. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2017.1316577
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Measuring the Dutch clothing mountain
Maldini, I., Duncker, L., Bregman, L., Piltz, G., Duscha, L., Cunningham, G., Vooges, M., Grevinga, T., Tap, R., & van Balgooi, F. (2017). Measuring the Dutch clothing mountain: data for sustainability-oriented studies and actions in the apparel sector. PublishingLab.
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On paradigm shifts and industrial revolutions
Maldini, I. (2017). On paradigm shifts and industrial revolutions: tracing prevalent dressmaking practices and apparel production systems in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe (1850-2016). In IFFTI Conference 2017: Breaking the Fashion Rules (pp. 99-109). Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
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Reducing clothing production volumes by design
Maldini, I., & Balkenende, R. (2017). Reducing clothing production volumes by design: a critical review of sustainable fashion strategies. In C. Bakker, & R. Mugge (Eds.), PLATE: Product lifetimes and the environment. Conference proceedings of PLATE 2017, 8-10 November 2017, Delft, the Netherlands (pp. 233-237). Technische Universiteit Delft.
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Attachment, Durability and the Environmental Impact of Digital DIY
Maldini, I. (2016). Attachment, Durability and the Environmental Impact of Digital DIY. The Design Journal, 19(1), 141-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2016.1085213
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The perfect dress and its making
Maldini, I., & Manz, R. (2016). The perfect dress and its making: a comparative study of the sartorial practices of Amsterdam women (1950s-2010s). In Proceedings of the ICDHS conference, Taipei, Taiwan (Vol. 10, pp. 157-161).
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Design and the Global Structures of Common Difference: The Extinction of the SUN in Uruguay
Maldini, I. (2014). Design and the Global Structures of Common Difference: The Extinction of the SUN in Uruguay. DESIGN AND CULTURE, 6(1), 111-124. https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/design-and-the-global-structures-of-common-difference-the-extinct