Donna Sgro | University of Technology Sydney (original) (raw)

Papers by Donna Sgro

Transformation is embedded in the growth of an organism, while fashion, highly responsive to chan... more Transformation is embedded in the growth of an organism, while fashion, highly responsive to changing social and physical environments, rides the current of flux like a dreamer wandering through darkness. Through my fashion practice, attempts are made to reflect upon, expand and make possible inroads into the translation of this creative movement, from inspiration to mixed garment and textile outcomes. This involves engaging the imagination of possible futures, new approaches, and unknown outcomes, through mixed material expressions. Translating the life cycle of an organism, which is highly adaptive, evolutionary and responsive, this work forms part of my PhD study, “Metamorphoric Fashion”, being undertaken at RMIT University, Melbourne. Using a practice-led research methodology, which draws upon mixed creative methods, my research attempts to engage with the uncovering of imaginative potentials of fashion and textile processes. The concept of transformation leads this investigation, and initially a study of butterfly metamorphosis was undertaken. This involved “fashion-designer-becoming-lepidopterist”, and engaged a movement between the ordinarily disparate worlds of ecology and creative practice. Using mediums of photography and drawing, a series of transitions were recorded in which the organism underwent both transitional and metamorphic change. Through these methods, meditations on relationships between nature-culture become possible, as thinking about ecology enters the creative process. Through drawing, a series of stylizations developed which recorded the imaginative thinking time, line by line. My particular fashion practice is in the process of transformation and diversification, reflecting the nature of the metamorphic phenomenon, and the particular interpretations of the butterfly study that an individual approach enables. Aiming to uncover the ways in which the practice is able to accommodate these transformations, forms part of this study. Why this might be important for fashion practice more generally perhaps, is because it identifies a type of practice that Shapeshifting Conference: Auckland University of Technology 14-‐16 April 2014

Journal of textile design, research and practice, Nov 1, 2013

ABSTRACT MAKE.SHIFT Concepts is a Sydney-based collaborative research practice combining textile ... more ABSTRACT MAKE.SHIFT Concepts is a Sydney-based collaborative research practice combining textile practitioner Armando Chant, fashion practitioner Donna Sgro, and design architect Olivier Solente. Through the practice, the designers explore transdisciplinary crossings between fashion, textiles, art, and architecture. Each designer brings a particular expertise to the practice, which when combined is expanded into something new. MAKE.SHIFT Concepts have produced two bodies of work for exhibition, CONSTRUCTIONS and TRANSITIONS. The designer interview is conducted in the form of a conversation between the three individuals, who discuss and evaluate the complex interactions that occur in the process of producing creative work between disciplines, and the establishment of a working practice focused on process. The research practice asks the following questions: How can transdisciplinary practitioners develop a collaborative practice that explores potentialities, and what types of outcomes may result? How may these outcomes expand the disciplinary practices out of which they arise? CONSTRUCTIONS was the first exhibition of collaborative work from MAKE.SHIFT Concepts. This exhibition was installed at the Damien Minton Annex Space, in Redfern, October 29-November 4, 2012. This exhibition included a series of works including hanging fabric, garments, and sculptures, together with projected image. TRANSITIONS was the second exhibition of collaborative work from MAKE.SHIFT Concepts. This exhibition was installed at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne, March 26–31, as part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program. This exhibition included a series of outcomes, including hanging garments, wood and metal sculptures, and a fashion film.

This creative practice research was conducted as part of my PhD by project at RMIT University. Th... more This creative practice research was conducted as part of my PhD by project at RMIT University. The values embedded in practices of fashion design are becoming better understood through research that is based in creative practice and undertaken by practitioners. In my experience as a fashion designer, the separation of design and pattern cutting in my practice impacted creativity in the cut of garments. This research aimed to expand creativity through pattern cutting by challenging this separation formed through my tacit knowing in practice. A metaphoric strategy was explored to adapt new methods for design from a study of butterfly metamorphosis. In this study, research <em>for</em> design was undertaken using mixed methods including growing butterflies, documentation, drawing and text-based analysis from a variety of disciplines on the subjects of butterflies and metamorphosis. Generative metaphors developed from this study of butterfly metamorphosis provided an alterna...

In my research, metamorphosis is used as a conceptual analogy to explore how change occurs in the... more In my research, metamorphosis is used as a conceptual analogy to explore how change occurs in the process of making fashion garments. This research forms part of my PhD by project, Metamorphoric Fashion: A Transformative Practice, undertaken at RMIT University. Metamorphosis is understood as a process of change through which something undergoes a complete trans-form-ation. Change is acknowledged to be a defining characteristic of fashion, yet is rarely theorized from the perspective of the practitioner engaged with processes of materialization. Within the context of fashion and design studies, fashion practitioner research is under-represented, and the understanding of what fashion practitioner knowledge is, lacks solidarity. For emerging fashion practitioner researchers this is complex, however, represents unique opportunities for individual contributions to be made to the development of creative research practice within the discipline and more broadly; to consider what is shared and what is different within creative practice research. To make research through fashion practice, I have used metamorphosis as an analogic structure as a strategy to develop criticality; in order to be able to develop reflection, identification and articulation of the experience of making fashion. In this paper I propose the concept of fashioning evolution to describe how change is experienced as an ongoing generative condition within fashion making practices, which are actively shaped in the process of making garments

Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 2013

Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 2020

Material engagement in fashion and textile design practice using pattern cutting is an overlooked... more Material engagement in fashion and textile design practice using pattern cutting is an overlooked aspect of creative development in the design of garments. This creative practice research is based in my artisanal practice of fashion and textile design, which involves designing and making garments through all stages of development by hand. Material engagement describes the relationship between materials and their handling by practitioners. This complex relationship connects the intentions of the practitioner and their embodied interactions with what materials afford through their handling. Research in the practice of creative pattern cutting is concerned with identifying how creativity occurs through pattern cutting. However, the criticality of material engagement in the pattern cutting process has been minimally expanded upon by fashion designers. In my research, I have identified that material engagement is foregrounded through questioning the conventional Donna Sgro is a fashion and textiles practitioner and Lecturer in Fashion and Textiles Design in the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She has lectured across fashion and textiles design and interdisciplinary design at UTS since 2009. Donna is interested in practice-based research using interdisciplinary methods spanning the natural sciences and fashion and textile design. Donna.

This paper was presented at "Making Research|Researching Making" Creative Practice Conference, Aarhus, Denmark. 10-12 September 2015.

MAKE.SHIFT Concepts is a Sydney-based collaborative research practice combining textile practitio... more MAKE.SHIFT Concepts is a Sydney-based
collaborative research practice combining textile
practitioner Armando Chant, fashion practitioner Donna
Sgro, and design architect Olivier Solente. Through the
practice, the designers explore transdisciplinary crossings
between fashion, textiles, art, and architecture. Each
designer brings a particular expertise to the practice,
which when combined is expanded into something new.
MAKE.SHIFT Concepts have produced two bodies of
work for exhibition, CONSTRUCTIONS and TRANSITIONS .
The designer interview is conducted in the form of a
conversation between the three individuals, who discuss
and evaluate the complex interactions that occur in the
process of producing creative work between disciplines,
and the establishment of a working practice focused
on process. The research practice asks the following
questions: How can transdisciplinary practitioners develop
a collaborative practice that explores potentialities, and
what types of outcomes may result? How may these
outcomes expand the disciplinary practices out of which
they arise? CONSTRUCTIONS was the first exhibition
of collaborative work from MAKE.SHIFT Concepts. This
exhibition was installed at the Damien Minton Annex Space, in
Redfern, October 29 – November 4, 2012. This exhibition included a series of works including hanging fabric, garments, and sculptures, together with projected image . TRANSITIONS was the second exhibition of collaborative work from MAKE.SHIFT Concepts. This exhibition was installed at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne, March 26 – 31, as part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program. This exhibition included a series of outcomes, including hanging garments, wood and metal sculptures, and a fashion film.

Using a practice-led research methodology, which draws upon mixed creative methods, my research attempts to engage with the uncovering of imaginative potentials of fashion and textile processes. The concept of transformation leads this investigation, and initially a study of butterfly metamorphosis was undertaken. This involved “fashion-designer-becoming-lepidopterist”, and engaged a movement between the ordinarily disparate worlds of ecology and creative practice. Using mediums of photography and drawing, a series of transitions were recorded in which the organism underwent both transitional and metamorphic change. Through these
methods, meditations on relationships between nature-culture become possible, as thinking about ecology enters the creative process. Through drawing, a series of stylizations developed which recorded the imaginative thinking time, line by line.

My particular fashion practice is in the process of transformation and diversification, reflecting the nature of the metamorphic phenomenon, and the particular interpretations of the butterfly study that an individual approach enables. Aiming to uncover the ways in which the practice is able to accommodate these transformations, forms part of this study. Why this might be important for fashion
practice more generally perhaps, is because it identifies a type of practice that attempts to evolve itself, to become something it does not yet know. The research aims to capture this state of becoming, and the perpetual sense of movement.

Journal of textile design, research and practice, Nov 1, 2013

Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 2013

Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 2020

This paper was presented at "Making Research|Researching Making" Creative Practice Conference, Aarhus, Denmark. 10-12 September 2015.