Kate Goldsworthy
Course Director (Acting) MA Textile Futures, Central Saint Martins
PhD Student, Textiles Environment Design, Chelsea
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Southampton Row
London WC1B 4AP
Kate Goldsworthy is Course Director, MA Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins. Kate is a textile designer and researcher in the area of new finishing technologies, materials R&D and design for recycling. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she is currently completing a practice based PhD entitled; MonoFinishing: novel laser surface treatment of monomaterial synthetic textiles for recyclability.
PhD Project (2005 - 2011)
An exploration of ‘design for forward recycling' through laser finishing techniques for synthetic textiles
This research has sought to explore ‘mono-materiality' as a feature of ‘interim' textile products, developing new production and finishing techniques, specifically for the cycles of polyester fibre-recycling (a fibre representing over 50% of the global market).
Textile processing often creates barriers to these existing systems, by irreversibly mixing materials with different recycling needs. These complex hybrid materials designed in the ever-increasing drive for performance and functionality, leave a legacy of waste and prevent inclusion in recurrent fabrications. In an attempt to design for a future ‘closed-loop polyester economy', ways of forming and surfacing this synthetic material were explored which could facilitate production of complex, functional yet fully mono-material (and therefore recyclable) textiles.
