When we get dressed every day, many of us have a choice in what we put on our bodies. We make decisions based on the situation: how we want to present ourselves to others, practical considerations on what we will encounter during the day, and generally how we want to look and feel. We like to exercise our individuality whenever possible, when these opportunities are reduced or taken from us, it might be said that we lose some of our sense of self, and thereby our wellbeing. We all have garments that we enjoy wearing and that we feel good in, why should that not be the case when in hospital? How can the re-design of the patient’s garments/supportive equipment, instead passively enhance recovery? How can better design be a route to a faster recov-ery and better health?

*Scenario 1 – Different Needs for Different Bodies.
What if the clothes that we are given to wear do more harm than good? If the cut of the garment or the supportive equipment, abrases on wounds, pulls out tubes or devices that required surgery to insert, impedes your medical treatment or simply does not fit your body. How can the cut and design of standardised patient garments/support equipment incorporate different types of needs for dif-ferent body types?
How can your design proposal offer comfort to the patient while giving necessary accessibility for treatments and procedures, thereby enhancing the healing process? Could the design of the garment incorporate a variety of openings? Where do the seams need to be? Does the garment need to be symmetrical? Should it be padded? How does it fasten? Can the patient do it themselves? How does it fit? Does it feel good to wear? Could the material be more healing? Is it adaptable to different body types? Is it viable in the current healthcare system?
The design and effect of the clothing can impact the patient journey to recovery in many ways. It is intended that your design solution can provide both physical expression and enhanced comfort to unspoken yet common patient needs.

*Scenario 2 – The Unspoken Garment Expression
Beyond the physical, there is also the emotional well-being that the patient clothing, or lack of, carries for the wearer. Being in hospital can be a vulnerable situation, emotional support and care can be provided in subtle ways. If one sensory faculty is inhibited, then the others compensate: smells, sounds, tactility or colours become emphasised for the wearer.
Consider the feeling: if the medical procedure has been fully described to you, but nobody tells you that you will be in bed semi-naked after surgery. Or that the fabric is scratchy to your hyper-sensitised experience of the world. Or the dirty white colour of the standardised underwear someone (many others) have worn, repulses you…
How do these subtle, unspoken garment expressions reflect on the patient’s recovery journey? Could the material be more healing? The design or cut more comfortable or protective to the body? How does it fit? How does it open and fasten? Is it too revealing? Can the patient put it on by them-selves? Could the colour or pattern be more appealing? Or concealing? Could there be different garment options according to different recovery situations and needs? Are there some garments that should not be shared? Is your design proposal viable in the current healthcare system?
The design and effect of the clothing can impact the patient journey to recovery in many ways. It is intended that your design solution can provide both physical expression and enhanced comfort to unspoken yet common patient needs.

Context for the students
Your stakeholders combine both Region H and SUMH (Youth With Disabilities). You will meet with members of SUMH, who will present to you some of their own personal experiences and insights with standardised clothing and medical equipment within the healthcare system both Denmark. Furthermore, you will meet with members from Region H who can offer another clinical perspective as well as reflections in relation to the solutions and limitations of inte-grating individual needs. Where quick fixes, scalability, hygiene and cost also add another dimension to the problem.
Within the guidelines of the assignment, and with these insights, you can steer the project according to your group’s expertise and motivations. Aligning with individual stakeholders whom you find to be most relevant for your projects direct, thereby implementing your fashion and textile skills in a collaborative design conversation.