The Tripod Approach: A Systematic and Structured Framework to Designing Applied Textiles

The term ‘next to my skin’ is frequently used as a way to describe the close bonds between human beings and textiles. It is also widely accepted within the broad field of textile professionals that textile attributes related to emotional value – for example hand, look and drape – can be a make-and-break decision for a company. However textile design research has shown that experience of emotional value is closely connected to fabric perception, and much literature suggests that textiles are experienced by a combination of sensory evaluation and memory associations. This paper introduces the Tripod Approach as a framework that can support designing the stimuli, which can lead to personal experiences of emotional value in relation to applied textiles. It can be used to access the relevant level of entry in the textile design process focusing on appropriate design parameters, and support designing the textile as part of an overall context.