The designs driven by empathy do not start with the object, but it initiates with the taste of the individual. The designs do not start with the surface but with the experiences. In Absent Findings, empathy is not perceived as an emotion; it is perceived as a technique. It teaches the shaping of garments, selection of materials, and expected way of clothing to co-exist with the body, but not to dictate on the body. These empathetic designs initiate with the observation of individuals who move around, their posture, walk, reach, and even pause.
It acknowledges that the bodies are not mannequins but the living systems which are influenced by the routine, emotion, climate, and memory. In this regard, clothing is reactive instead of declarative. It listens to it before it speaks.
The emphasis of this philosophy becomes less on spectacles. Empathetic design does not require the perception of a garment, but how it will be experienced. Does it enable the body to relax? Is it open to change, brings change in attitude, in step, in situation. Findings does not provide answers to such questions; instead, it uses softened silhouettes, flexible forms and materials that react to use instead of opposing it.
Things that are deliberately held back also show empathy. No insistence on hard tailoring, no overabundance of embellishment, no performance requirement. This absence is deliberate. It allows the space in which the identity of the wearer can be free to exist. Dressing is not dictatorial, but providing support, which showcases a system in which life is allowed to take its natural course. The key aspect of this approach is the choice of material. The kinds of fabrics chosen are not only based on the durability of the fabrics, but also on their aging, and man-body interactions. Stock in dead cotton, linen, denim, they are selected because of their sincerity. They fold, relax, and count time. By so doing, they admit that wear is positive evidence rather than damage.
Empathy in clothing; a solution of permanence
Empathy in this context implies being comfortable with impermanence and making things with this consideration. Empathy can also involve respecting context when designing. Climate, culture, and routine are not final thoughts, but begin with them. Clothes are designed to travel within the spaces and times, without being reinvented. This is the reason why Absent Findings is not subscribing to seasonal urgency. Empathy has the wisdom to realize that life does not restart after every few months, and clothing is not expected to either.
This approach has a humility which is quiet. The designer moves aside to allow the wearer to move forward. The clothes do not need to be validated through attention; they get meaning through use. It lapses into routine, and with the wearer, it repeats and does not astonish. Finally, to be an empathetic designer is to recognize that clothes are personal. It is applied to the body, bears the personal items, receives the gesture and motion. Absent Findings is mindful of this intimacy. The outcome is clothing that seems not to be so much like an assertion but rather realization of clothes that are versatile, supportive and silently indicate with the movements of ordinary living.
