Interwoven Responsibilities

Interwoven Responsibilities is a master's thesis co-authored by Pallavi Yadav and Anna Westerskov.

The thesis focuses on two interconnected concepts: compliance and care. Compliance refers to the formal systems of documentation, reporting, traceability, and verification required by sustainability regulation. Care refers to the often less visible practices through which organisations support people, materials, supplier relationships, and long-term environmental responsibility. While compliance can often be measured and documented, care frequently exists within everyday decisions, relationships, and organisational cultures.
Process

The project began with semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives from three Danish fashion organisations operating under the same evolving EU sustainability landscape. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed to identify recurring themes, tensions, and organisational approaches to sustainability, responsibility, and regulation.

As the analysis developed, we began exploring how these insights could be translated into a material form. Rather than treating weaving as a method of visualisation at the end of the project, it became part of the analytical process itself. Themes identified in the data were translated into colours, yarn qualities, weave structures, density, and spacing. Through a series of small-scale woven experiments, we tested how different material and structural choices could communicate concepts such as transparency, fragmentation, collaboration, resource allocation, and organisational care.

Neither of us came from a weaving background, which meant the process involved learning the craft while simultaneously developing the analytical framework. Working on a rigid heddle loom introduced practical constraints that shaped the outcomes. Decisions around tension, scale, material availability, and weaving structure required constant iteration and often led us to revisit earlier interpretations of the data.

The final textiles emerged through multiple cycles of coding, sketching, sampling, weaving, and reflection. Each woven piece represents a specific organisational case, while the overall methodology explores how material practice can be used as a form of analysis, allowing complex relationships and responsibilities within fashion value chains to be experienced in a tangible way.