ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on fashion design that has the potential to enrich our social, environmental and cultural lives. In particular it looks at functional clothing, for the rapidly growing active ageing population, that enables wearers to engage in healthy exercise. The chapter reports on cross-disciplinary research in a case study concerned with the application of smart textiles and wearable electronics in clothing for walking. The 'Design for Ageing Well' collaborative research project, funded by the joint UK Research Councils under the New Dynamics of Ageing programme (NDA), provides that case study. This research demonstrates how clothing design can positively contribute to addressing problems associated with everyday life that are normally unfamiliar to mainstream fashion and educational design studies. This was the first study to use anthropometric data from the SizeUK survey to target the changing body shape of the 60-75-year-old age group.
