Disruption as a Generative Principle in Fashion Design: The ‘Elizabethan Sportswear’ Collections of Nabil Nayal

El-Nayal, Nabil (2018) Disruption as a Generative Principle in Fashion Design: The ‘Elizabethan Sportswear’ Collections of Nabil Nayal. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This thesis describes practice-based research on the process of disruption in fashion design. It documents a creative exploration of two clothing cultures, Renaissance dress and contemporary sportswear, that formed the basis for the development of six womenswear collections under the collective title: ‘Elizabethan Sportswear’. The collections were exhibited as seasonal presentations during international fashion weeks in London, Milan, and Paris between 2015 and 2018. Current understandings suggested that disruption could be used as a guiding principle in fashion design but existing theorisation of disruption had been limited to extreme situations in business, media and psychology. This thesis presents a first-draft theory of disruption in its application to fashion design. This theory breaks disruption down into a group of actions (abruption, corruption, eruption, interruption and irruption), and fields of activity (formal, cultural, chromatic and material). It posits that disruption always involves a break, and therefore is distinct from the process of distortion, but overlaps with transformative juxtapositions and transgressive design strategies. This theory has potential application within and outside the fields of art and design. Collage as a design medium that actively exploits disruptive processes was used in design development. The Deleuzian concepts of the virtual realm, becoming, and the notion of folding and unfolding, underpinned the practice-based explorations. A critical commentary on the collections shed light on the disruptive design process and the theorisation of disruption. The research contributes a discussion of historical referencing in contemporary fashion design from the point of view of the practitioner. This helps to distinguish historical referencing from historical evocation, and outlines the methods used to move from historical references to contemporary designs. Finally, the creative outcomes materialised in six seasonal collections of womenswear constitute a contribution to cultural knowledge. The development and presentation of the collections is documented and represented in the thesis and its appendices. This practice-based work was used to inform theory building through critical analysis, and it forms a set of evidence for the theorising of disruption.