CRISTINA DAN
FORM FOLLOWS FEELING
Cristina is a pioneer contextual fashion designer, researcher, lecturer and social entrepreneur with a strong vision on the circular clothing of tomorrow and the added value it will bring to our everyday lives. The unique mix of skills in leadership, design thinking, circular economy and biomimicry has led her to create a more conscious and sustainable design, as she believes that design has an added value to the world apart from aesthetics.
Besides her design work at SOLVE, she conducts research in Circular Design, and delivers workshops, lectures and keynotes.
FOUNDER AND LEAD AT
SOLVE is an award winning multi-disciplinary social innovation studio in design and sustainability where she creates products that she wished existed, as she believes that design has an added value to the world, apart from aesthetics.
With a focus on circular fashion, she works with design thinking, new technology, and circular economy to co-design sustainable social innovations.
WORK WITH CRISTINA:
WORKSHOPS, LECTURES, KEYNOTES
Cristina continuously challenges people to think differently about designing our world, trough workshops, lectures or keynotes that are based on her experience and work through SOLVE, her social innovation studio in design and sustainability. She is the perfect public speaker to inspire your audience and stimulate their imagination in order to design a sustainable future.
REFASHION CIRCULAR DESIGN STRATEGY
LECTURE & WORKSHOP – Coming soon
CIRCULAR FASHION DESIGN
LECTURE – 1.5h to 5h
CO-DESIGNING OUR WORLD: CIRCULAR DESIGN
KEYNOTE 20-35 min
SUSTAINABILITY 101
INTERDISCIPLINARY INTRODUCTORY COURSE– 1.5h to 5h
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION TRAINEESHIP
PROGRAMME – 2 months
“Design has an added value to the world, apart from aesthetics.”
Cristina is a pioneer contextual fashion designer, researcher, and lecturer in circular fashion design with a strong vision on the circular clothing of tomorrow and the added value it will bring to our everyday lives. She is also the founder of SOLVE, a social innovation studio in design and sustainability. Throughout her career she has designed three multifunctional circular design systems. In 2016 she created the world’s first circular and multifunctional fashion collection – Omdanne.
In 2018 she launched S-bags, a modular co-creation system for accessories and in 2022 she introduced Refashion – a zero-waste circular design strategy for garments.
Since 2023 she is a partner in Circular Lab, a central hub for the circular economy in
Switzerland, where she conducts research on circular fashion in an interdisciplinary setting with the goal of scaling Refashion at industry level by means of AI.
Her work has been published in reputable international research journals, books, and online publications such as Forbes or Designboom, and in 2019 she was awarded the Silver A’ Design Award in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design Category by the International Design Academy in Italy.
Solve Studio was founded in 2016. It stands for clothes that last beyond seasons and this is done through multifunctionality, co-design and a novel approach to garment design and manufacturing. Cristina’s focus is to attain circular results with the fashion collections that
she makes, which are inherently the results of the research that she conducts in the area.
Cristina was trained at VIA Design University in Denmark, has an MA in Leadership for Sustainability from Malmö University in Sweden, with a background also in circular economy and biomimicry. She is one of the founders of the Sustainable Business Design & Entrepreneurship HUB, a learning hub for sustainable innovations within the fashion & lifestyle industry dedicated to students and teachers at VIA Design University.
Form follows feeling.
PUBLICATIONS
- Chapter Dan, C. and Østergaard, T. (in press). From vision to practice in Design Educations for Sustainable Development and Circular Economy. In R. T. Clausen & A. L. Bang (Eds.). Building Better Business – Designing New Futures: New Sustainable Path in Design and Business Education. Denmark: Frydenlund Academic.
- Dan, C. in A’ Design Award & Competition (2019). Winner Designs 2018-2019, Award Winning Product Design. Designer Press.
- Dan, C. (2017). Clothing that creates zero-waste while discouraging consumption through user-participatory design: Omdanne. Paper presented at Circular Economy International Conference, Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus BSS University, Herning, Denmark.
Conferences, exhibitions & awards
2024 / Circle of Water. Textiles in Flux / Exhibitor / Textilmuseum St. Gallen / ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND
2024 / EU Open House / Exhibitor / The Delegation of the European Union to the United States / WASHINGTON, USA
2023 / Reset the Trend / Speaker / The European Commission / ANTWERP, BELGIUM
2023 / Romanian Design Week / Exhibitor / Main Exhibition, Piata Amzei / BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
2022 / Circular Talk / Speaker / Lund University, Circle Centre Lund; Collect and Affect / LUND, SWEDEN
2021 / Circular Fashion: Making the Fashion Industry Sustainable / Speaker / Fashion and Textile Museum / LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
2020 / International Good Design Exhibition / Exhibitor / Museo del Design MOOD / ITALY
2019 / A’ Design Award / Silver in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design Category / International Design Academy / COMO, ITALY
2019 / Changemakers in Retail Conference / Speaker / Retail Trends Media / UTRECHT , THE NETHERLANDS
2019 / FashionTech Works / Residency / 1 week / United Fashion EU, Creative Europe Programme; FlandersDCforFashion / ANTWERP, BELGIUM
2019 / Conscious Fashion Week / Speaker / AARHUS, DENMARK
2019 / Romanian Design Week / Exhibitor / Main Exhibition, BCR building / BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
2019 / Lund University – The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics / Speaker / LUND, SWEDEN
2019 / VIA Professors Circular Competency Course / Speaker / VIA University / HERNING, DENMARK
2018 / Future of Fashion & Technology / Exhibitor / MAS Museum Antwerp / With Jasna Rok, Marina Toeters, Maartje Dijkstra / ANTWERP, BELGIUM
2018 / Unleash Your Sustainable Thinking / Speaker / Storm / MALMÖ, SWEDEN
2017 / Circular Economy International Conference / Speaker / Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus University / DENMARK
2016 / Sylab / Residency / 12 months / IKAST, DENMARK
2016 / Sustainability in Fashion / Speaker / Dansk Mode & Textil / DENMARK
2016 / VIA University Teacher’s Conference on Sustainability / Speaker / VIA University / DENMARK
In the press
Cristina Dan
Contextual Fashion Designer and Researcher in Circular Design