A Conscious Fashion Design Process

So what is Conscious Design? What does that mean?

Conscious design is ethical, sustainable, organic, animal-friendly, planet friendly. It takes into consideration the social, environmental and financial impact. It is the idea of caring about where your fashion comes from, how much energy and resources went into them, and who made them. It's a process of respecting the planet and all those involved in creating said fashion. Yes, it's true that it's easier said than done; however, as we know from watching many new support systems and resources, brands can reach a conscious design goal. The more companies, brands, and consumers start looking at the world (and design) more consciously, the better off our planet will be.

The Conscious Apparel Design & Development process is broken down into 5 phases, with a deep-dive of each phase. Considering circularity, ethics and sustainable practices and key targets to reach at each step along the way.

Regardless of your role in the Design & Development process, we created this handy process checklist and a live working document for you to use in your own process. Together we will be working through challenges, celebrating successes while discovering and providing the most valuable tools available to implement.


As you start your journey of consciously designing, I invite you to become an ifd Insider to access our Conscious Design in Fashion online workshop.  Led by ifd Coach & Author of Conscious Design, Ian Peterman.  The workshop includes five sessions that cover the critical pillars of Ian's design methods. This community platform is free and open to all, simply create a log in profile and gain access to exclusive content, community network and other tools & resources.