twenty1f: fashion for the 21st century

Open Stitch removes artists from the comfort of their own environments, imposes constraints, and compels them to work among others. The action will be documented via live-streamed video. Following the production stage, the gallery space will be left in its raw, post-production state, and an installation of the work produced will be on display. A video montage of the production process will be projected as part of the installation.

Open Stitch was conceived and organized by Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria in collaboration with Jessie Cohan. Participating artists include Ayah Bdeir, Jessie Cohan, Barry Doss, Stephanie Anne Goldberg, George Hudacko, Selma Karaca, Ryan Kennedy, Miranti Kisdarjono, Katherine Moriwaki, David Quinn, Chris Sanders, Davina Semo, and Wikiwikicorp, a collective that includes Jean Barberis, Aya Kakeda and Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria.

September 7-13 Workshop
7 days, 56+ hours, 15 artists/designers working intensely and in restricted conditions to produce wearable creations with only the tools and materials provided to them. The project removes artists from the comfort of their own environments, imposes constraints, and compels them to work among others. The action will be documented via live-streamed video.
Open to the public every day from 12 to 6pm

September 14-30 Installation
The gallery space will be left in its raw, post-production state, and an installation of the work created will be on display. A video montage of the production process will also be projected.
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 12 to 6pm

September 21 & 28 at 7pm Open House Wednesdays
Two talks about Cultural Constraints and Social Identities relating to clothing and fashion. Speakers to be announced.

Saturday October 1st Runway show - Performance - Party
Opening with a short performance by the Glen Rumsey Dance Project, the evening features a staged showing of the garments produced by the participating artists, plus music, DJ and cocktails. 7pm - tickets $7 (including 1drink) - Runway show begins at 8pm

TAGS: none

posted by : katherine on 29 Aug 2005

Researchers at Clemson University are developing a water-repellant coating that can be used to produce clothes more resistant to dirt.

The coating - a polymer film mixed with silver nanoparticles - can be integrated into any fabric, including silk, polyester and cotton. In the long run, it can save time and money by reducing dry cleaning bills. It is also environmentally friendly.

“The coating doesn’t actually clean itself, but it does resist dirt much better than other fabric treatments,” explains research team member Phil Brown. “You will still need some water to rinse away dirt and stains, but cleaning will be quicker and less frequent.”

The researchers are also trying to engineer antimicrobial particles into the coating to repel strong odors such as sweat and even cigarette smoke.

Clothes made with the new coating could simply be sprayed clean or wiped with a damp cloth to remove the dirt. If desired, the fabric can still be cleaned by conventional means and put in the dry cleaner, without harming the coating.

Other possible applications include awning material for outdoor campers, fabrics for lawn furniture and convertible tops for cars. The coating could appear in consumer products within five years, the researcher estimates.

Via PhysOrg.

TAGS: cleaning, coating, fabric, material, nanotech

posted by : regine on 28 Aug 2005

Xiao Li Tan ’s Storytelling Wearables: An Alternative Autobiography explore storytelling and enable people to discover Xiao’s relatives and birth city through looking at the movie bag, examining the shell necklace, and by lifting the hidden pieces on the skirt.

The Portable Movie Bag shows images of Taishan in China. People can also learn about the stories of the artist’s relatives by lifting some fabric on the Peekaboo Portrait Skirt, and they can experience her childhood memory of shells through the glowing Mood Shell Necklace.

All the pieces are either powered by 3v battery, or self charged battery. They are portable and meant to be worn.

More pictures.

TAGS: bag, necklace, shirt, story

posted by : regine on 28 Aug 2005

Ben Pell’s Walldrobe Wearpaper is a series of thin leather panels that you hang on your wall as you would artwork. When you’re ready to get dressed, you take down your chosen pieces, affix a set of nickel-finished wire snaps to them, and you’re dressed! The system can produce a blouse, a shirt, a skirt, and a pair of shorts. Holes are punched into the leather to make it lighter and more comfortable, except where opacity is necessary for privacy.

“I was interested in looking at ways in which digital fabrication technologies–like the laser cutter or the mill–could be used to flesh out ideas about surface, graphics, and ornament,” says Pell.

Each Walldrobe kit comes with a CD-ROM containing AutoCAD files that direct your laser cutter to etch patterns for garments onto each of the 12 leather panels provided. Aside from the CD and deerskin leather panels, the kit includes snaps and a tool with which to punch holes in the leather.

The kits may be ordered from Pell through his company, PellOverton. A prototype of Walldrobe Wearpaper is also included in “Technology, Performance, Ornament,” an exhibit on view at New York City’s Urban Center Gallery until September 20.

Via Metropolis and ArchRecord.

TAGS: kit, leather, paper

posted by : regine on 28 Aug 2005

University of Tokyo researchers have created a flexible sensor net to make robot skin which gives machines the sense of touch.

The obvious first application has already been developed called Men’s SOM.

TAGS: Men's SOM, robot skin

posted by : karen on 28 Aug 2005

Instead of shopping for wedding rings, a couple can grow one together from their combined bone marrow.

Tattoos of your SO’s name and blood hanging around your neck in a vial are so yesterday. Instead a project by Tobbie Kerridge and Nikki Stott design researchers of the Royal Academy of Art in London is soliciting couples to start this trend in bio-jewelry.

TAGS: bio-jewelry, bone, RCA

posted by : karen on 26 Aug 2005

You send in your fingerprint, and Piaget will trace out your unique whorls in diamonds on a pendant or watch.

TAGS: bio-jewelry, fingerprints

posted by : karen on 26 Aug 2005

Stomatex is a material which replicates the way that the leaves of
plants transpire, made from thermo-insulating closed-cell foam materials such as Neoprene. It is used in the manufacture of garments and appliances where warmth and/or support may be a deciding factor but where comfort may be compromised by the unacceptable build-up of heat and perspiration in traditional closed-cell foam materials.

Stomatex is a high-performance fabric made from a lightweight, ultra- thin, non-porous polyester membrane that is weatherproof and highly breathable.
Stomatex uses a pattern of dome-shaped vapour chambers, each with a tiny pore in the centre. While resting, excess body heat and perspiration rise into the dome-shaped chambers and exit through the tiny pores at a controlled rate. The chambers flex and stretch with each movement of the body, causing excess heat and perspiration to be
pumped out of the small pores. This also allows cooler, drier air to enter from the outside. The unique pumping action of the vapour chambers increases and decreases with the user’s level of physical
activity. Stomatex is the only material that can maintain a perfect microclimate between the skin and the fabric at any level of physical activity, allowing it to be worn for long periods of time without overheating.

Stomatex has applications in many areas and industries, including sports & recreation, healthcare & therapy, footware, horticulture, fashion, etc.

TAGS: material

posted by : regine on 25 Aug 2005

Fashioning the Future is a visionary and creative exploration of where fashion and clothing are heading, the very first guide to the ‘future wardrobe’ and the digital culture making it possible.

From electro-textiles and biotech to smart fibres and nanotech, Fashioning The Future explores a spectrum of technologies that will inevitably impact on future fashion design. It is a far-reaching project that dares to imagine what fashion might look like in 10, 50, even 100 years’ time.

Ten major themes embrace all kinds of clothing, from `The Spray-On Dress’ to `The Talking T-Shirt’, `The Programmable Jacket’ and `The Glowing Ballgown’.

Mon 08 Aug - Fri 02 Sep 12:00 Digital Studio

Full Price : £1.50 Mon-Fri; £2.50 weekends.
Concession : £1 Mon-Fri; £1.50 weekends.
ICA Members : Free.

at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London

TAGS: exhibition

posted by : regine on 25 Aug 2005

This year the winning project of 2005: [the next idea] at Ars Electronica is Used Clothing by Martin Mairinger (Austria.)

Clothes are an expression of an individual’s identity. The way a person dresses is almost always directly connected to his/her lifestyle, worldview and self-image. OK, then why not use clothing even more intensely as a medium? And the Linz native proceeded to create “USED Clothing,” a concept for furnishing clothes with additional information.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) chip to which the wearer can save information about himself/herself is sewn into each garment. When the item of clothing—for instance, a jacket, pair of pants or T-shirt—is sold at a special second-hand shop, the buyer can access this information online and find out about the garment’s past.

The interests and personal philosophy of individuals with a preference for the same type of clothing often resemble one another. Accordingly, the second-hand interface node just might yield interesting hookups. The project’s long-term concept envisions the establishment of a community of registered users who take advantage of the second-hand shop’s offerings not only to acquire clothing but also to establish social contacts within the network of human beings connected to the shop.

TAGS: rfid

posted by : regine on 23 Aug 2005

Japanese company Digital Fashion Ltd. has developed a software that can instantly create a sewing pattern from an image of an article of clothing on a personal computer.

With the software, LookStailor X, making a pattern is about 10 times as efficient as the conventional method, which entails creating an actual prototype, making minor adjustments, and deciding on the pattern. A user will create an image of clothing using a 3-D mannequin on screen. Once the image is finished, the pattern will be created instantly.

Digital Fashion will sell the software to designers and pattern makers, as a way to compete against low-priced apparel made in China. LookStailor X will sell for 1.5 million yen and run under Windows XP.

According to Digital Fashion, software products are already available to create sewing patterns for underwear and swimwear and other clothing that stays close to the skin. The company says, however, that its software is the first to allow for the speedy creation of patterns for complex clothing that does not lie flat against the body.

via Nikkei.

TAGS: software

posted by : regine on 23 Aug 2005

Purchase from Amazon

by Sarah E. Braddock Clarke, Marie O’Mahony

Here is the key book on the key materials in art, design and shaping the environment in the 21st century. Building on the cult success of “Techno Textiles”, this is a new book featuring developments over the past decade. Highlighting advanced textiles in production and available to the designer, artist, architect and consumer today, it will be required reading for professionals, fashion and design aficionados and anyone prepared to be stimulated by and informed about the environment in which we now live.

TAGS: none

posted by : beverly on 21 Aug 2005

AwareFashion, by Richard Etter, Diana Grathwohl, Sigmund Homolya, are clothes that react to invisible communication technology in the surrounding and since most people wear mobile devices the system also enables the wearer to sense the presence of other people.

The AwareFashion shirt has sleeves that glow in the proximity of switched-on mobile phones. It features an antenna, a tiny circuit board, button cells and fiber optics woven into the cloth. The antenna detects radio waves of GSM mobiles. The circuit board processes the radio waves and converts them to light which travels through fiber optics to the end of the sleeves. There the light emits and indicates the presence of near mobiles.

The antenna and circuit are hidden in a detachable pocket and the fiber optics sewed in the cloth are used as fashion design elements. When a mobile is near, small light spots appear at the end of the sleeves. The color of the light can be chosen by the wearer, so he can match it to his style.

The team is currently developing an AwareFashion Item that detects WLAN.

TAGS: phone, reactive

posted by : regine on 21 Aug 2005

whiSpiral is a spiral-shaped shawl that carries whispers of your loved ones and explores how technology can enhance the way garments and accessories evoke memories of these relationships.

Circuitry integrated in the textile allows your friends to record audio messages at different points in a spiral-shaped shawl. These messages are whispered back each time you wrap the shawl around yourself, or by caressing different parts of the fabric.

Each of the 9 miniature audio recording modulescan store a 10 second message. The locations of the modules are made visible by exposing some of their electronic components on the exterior of the shawl, covered by a protective material resembling 3 white leaves. A microphone connector is denoted by a yellow leaf.

The whispers are released when sensors located in each audio module detect a soft caress or wrapping movement.

Developed by Elena Corchero and Stefan Agamanolis when working for the Human Connectedness group at Media Lab Europe.

TAGS: memories, voice recording

posted by : regine on 21 Aug 2005

Ange, designed by Danielle Wilde, is a bodily mounted series of “ribs” with electronic sensors that enable a user to play different sounds, including breathy notes, a gong, rushing water, drums and an oboe. The notes respond differently to pressures. The idea is to use the body as an interface and allow the user to metaphorically touch and “play” the body of the wearer.

The design is inspired by an 18th century engraving, Ange Anatomic by Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty.

Somewhat related:
Lamaze4 (”lamaze” is a breathing technique for pregnant women) is a musical instrument which makes human voice sounds. Player puts on the instrument which is like the stomach of a pregnant woman and pushes the buttons just like an accordion.

Via Japan Art.

TAGS: audio-physical, instrument, musical

posted by : regine on 21 Aug 2005