Creative Design: Undergraduate

Prairie Fire

---

Abstract

The purpose was to design a group of apparel inspired by a context from our department’s 150-year history at a land-grant college. When comparing current and historic photos of the land I saw changes to the landscape from open grasslands to populations of invasive tree species. This change inspired me to research the regional environment and its changes over the past 150 years. Prairie burning replicates the effects of natural lightning fires to maintain prairie ecosystems. Of particular interest were organic burn trials and their curvilinear charred paths which led to experimenting with Liu’s (2016) use of seam allowance as decorative edges that also reduced material waste. The decorative edges were burned to represent prairie fires as past and current methods of land management.

Keywords: environmental change, organic burn, zero waste design, climate

How to Cite:

Hill, M. & Haar, S., (2022) “Prairie Fire”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13730