Integrating eco-design into e-clothing development: an eco-design toolkit framework for e-clothing iterative design

As e-clothing development evolves rapidly, integrating sustainability into its design processes remains a major challenge. This study investigates how eco-design can be integrated throughout the e-clothing design and development process and the challenges that emerge at different stages of integration. Through a narrative review of academic and grey literature, integrated with semi-structured interviews with related experts in the e-clothing field, the research reflects on the interdisciplinary and iterative nature of e-clothing design, existing eco-design practices, and the limitations of current eco-design tools. It shows that while few eco-design strategies are discussed, their application for e-clothing remain limited. The overall eco-design integration into e-clothing workflows is challenged by early-stage uncertainty, textile and electronics integration conflicts, dual-sector regulatory misalignment, and communication gaps. The results suggest that sustainability considerations in e-clothing development span multiple stages and dimensions, and must be addressed through iterative, collaborative processes. Therefore, the paper presents a synthesized e-clothing workflow model with integrated eco-design intervention points and proposes corresponding eco-design toolkit, providing a methodological perspective that situates eco-design as a distributed, iterative practice evolving alongside e-clothing development.