From Design Decisions to Sustainable Development: Exploring Textile and Fashion Designers’ Challenges in the Portuguese Textile and Fashion Industry

Textile and fashion designers play a strategic role in sustainable development within the textile chain. Several studies highlight the decision-making role of designers, emphasizing how their choices influence the entire production sector. The aim of this research is to examine how design decisions within the Portuguese textile and fashion industry influence the implementation of sustainable development principles by exploring designers’ perceptions, practices, and the challenges they encounter throughout the design process. To achieve the proposed goal, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 designers from the industry. The collected data were qualitatively evaluated using NVivo software, highlighting the complexity of incorporating sustainability into the design process. The findings revealed that daily challenges are primarily related to fashion business models, greenwashing, limited knowledge of raw materials and finishing processes, cost constraints, lack of transparency and traceability in the supply chain, and low consumer awareness. By examining both the conceptual understanding and practical application of sustainability in the design process, this research provides strategic lines into designers’ decision-making processes, highlights barriers to sustainable practice, and underscores the importance of design education. The study contributes to academic debate and identifies opportunities for advancing sustainable practices and circularity in the textile and fashion industry, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDGs 9, 12, and 13, to transform the current industrial and consumption models.