DESIGN 289 a dschool advanced elective

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OverviewFashion is one of the largest and most impactful industries in the world. It employs, pollutes and touches human lives and planetary systems at a scale that is hard to fathom. In Redress we will explore and prototype in the spaces between fashion, sustainability and emerging (and vernacular) technologies. We will negotiate more than-human collaborations to investigate our impacts on human and more-than-human worlds. This course offers an immersive, hands-on exploration into the realm of biomaterials, where fashion not only meets the aesthetic and functional needs of people but also aligns with the principles of environmental stewardship and symbiosis with the Earth.
Course DetailsDESIGN 289 | Winter 2025 | 4 Units | Tue, Thu 4:30-5:50 | d.school

Redress is a new advanced elective being offered by the d.school. As an elective it is open to students across Stanford. There are no explicit prerequisites, but as an advanced interdisciplinary course we are looking for students who have a certain level of prior experience that they can bring to the group and who have well formed interests that motivate their pursuit of growth and learning.  

This course is a selective, hands-on, design-led class at the intersection of sustainability, apparel, and material innovation. By the end of the course student teams will have developed research- and experimentation-based proposals for new-to-the-world ideas. These design proposals will respond to a pressing challenge facing humans, technology, ecosystems, and planetary systems with proof-of-concept prototypes.

Student Application ProcessApplication 2025

DEADLINE: 5:00PM PST, January 6, 2025

Including:
  • Prior Experience
  • Research Interest 
  • Portfolio



As new transdisciplinary studio course, students will be collaborating across disciplines and representing Stanford. A successful Redress student likely has many of the following qualities: 

  • Systems thinking: skilled at mapping stakeholders, causal relationships and the potential for unintended consequences
  • Creative problem solving: curious, innovative thinking rooted in the “why”
  • Hands-on, Experimental Mindset: a foundation of technical skills and material literacy that allows purposeful trial and error
  • Adaptability: resilient in the face of ambiguity and set-backs, cultivates a growth mindset
  • Motivated: bias for action, pulls resources, agency in learning, impact oriented
Course LeadChar McCurdy is a pioneer of applying natural carbon sequestration to fashion (A. Bolton, 2024). Her work with 3.1 Phillip Lim was recently added to the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art after showing in the 2024 Costume Institute Show “Sleeping Beauties.” Previously she served as an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where she also received her graduate degree. She joined the Stanford d.school in January of 2024 where she supports the Design degree program by teaching Design 1, Design 101, Design 162A/B and now Design 289: Redress Biomaterials and the Future of Fashion. 
Prospective Course PartnersWe welcome collaboration inquiries


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