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pursued a PhD at Loughborough Design School, exploring how service design can be used to activate textile artisan communities to transition towards a sustainable future. Currently, Francesco is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), sponsored by Neal's Yard Remedies, investigating ways in which design activism can create counter-narratives towards sustainability in fashion.

This paper examines different types of value created by design research in the UK. Given the significant economic, social and environmental challenges we currently face, funding bodies and governments are increasingly concerned with assessing the value and impact of design research. The value generated by design research is not always clearly articulated by the academic community and understood by the public. With this in mind, this paper examines a sample of 67 projects that traverse conceptual, disciplinary and methodological boundaries representing the spread of contemporary design research in the UK. The paper presents an innovative 4-leaf value model that integrates different

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To counter the mainstream fashion system, which is proving unsustainable in terms of autonomous livelihoods, cultural heritage, social equality, and environmental stewardship, some designers are playing an activist role, challenging the status quo and activating positive change. With this in mind, we have embarked on an on-going research project aimed at exploring ways in which design activism can create counter-narratives towards sustainability in fashion. This paper explores these ideas through a case study focused on the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF). Through semi-structured interviews and a co-creation workshop, we mapped out examples of work undertaken by CSF members, and elicited their contribution to building a transformed fashion system. Hence, in this paper we articulate the diversity of roles, values, skills, and methods that fashion activists can adopt, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities for designers and researchers in transforming the fashion system towards sustainability.