Diana Eng's inflatable dress

This is an older project, but still worth a reminder. Diana Eng, in collaboration with Emily Albinski, created this gorgeous dress way back in 2003, which ended up making its way on the cover of ID Magazine. The designers used this project to explore how they could use electronics to change the shape and color of a gown. The dress inflates to allow you to change it's shape. Pump up the back or the sides to change its silhouette.

The designers made no attempt to hide the electronics, rather, they exposed the spaghetti-ball of wires and components as the main aesthetic. This was a pretty outrageous design at the time. Since then, inflatable and shape-shifting garments have been a topic of exploration from designers such as Hussein Chalayan, Extra-Soft (XS) labs, Ying Gao, and Teresa Almeida.

The aesthetics of DIY

Leah Buechley's LilyPad developers kit provides a terrific platform for designers to prototype wearable projects. In a LilyPad Arduino workshop hosted in Austria, Buechley explores the aesthetics of wire insulation by wrapping conductive wire with beading and uses the collar to hide the larger electronic components.

What's important about this is that there are affordances already built into garments that are both functional and aesthetic. Buechley's exploring ways to seamlessly incorporate the electronic components and wires directly into the aesthetics of the fashion without compromising on function.

More explorations on the LilyPad Arduino flickr set.

Fractal: Living Jewelry by Philips

Philips Design has created yet another absolutely gorgeous wearable project for their Design Probes series called Fractal: Living Jewelry. Here's how they describe it:

"Fractal is a stunning, figure-hugging outfit consisting entirely of huge imitation jewels augmented by pulsing LEDs. By incorporating sensors that measure movement, excitement levels and proximity of others - and using this input to alter the intensity of its integrated lighting - Fractal essentially becomes an extension of the body. It also serves as a platform for exploring emotional sensing. Unlike a cut and sewn garment, Fractal is made using product materials and processes. This opens up the possibility of ‘Hybrid’ forms and new functionalities in the search for solutions in the spaces of traditional apparel functionality - thermal protection, structure and support, water resistance, providing modesty, flesh control, and the ever-changing style calendars."

The geometric aesthetics makes me think of Mashallah Design and Linda Kostowski's digitally printed fashion, which I posted a couple months ago. The garments use an unfolding polygon method to generate the textile patterns.

Additional design probes from Philips include the beautiful Bubelle Blush dress and probes that explore the skin as the electronic platform.

The LilyPad has arrived!

Alas! After waiting for a few weeks for the backorder to be filled, the LilyPad has finally arrived! It's a terrific platform for those interested in prototyping wearable concepts. It's light, thin, sew-ready, and comes with the basic components that you need to get started. I ordered the LilyPad developer's kit from SparkFun Electronics. I also ordered a few LilyPad XBee components, which allow you to connect your wearable projects wirelessly. Here's what the basic kit includes:

LilyPad Accelerometer

LilyPad Mainboard

LilyPad Bright White LED

LilyPad Button Board

LilyPad Buzzer

LilyPad Light Sensor

LilyPad Power Supply

LilyPad Temperature Sensor

LilyPad Tri-Color LED

LilyPad Vibration Motor

FTDI Basic Breakout

Mini USB Cable

1 spool of 234/34 Conductive Thread

Now, off to go experiment...

Automatically generating crochet patterns

Matt Gilbert, a grad student at Georgia Tech, created a program that automatically generates crochet patterns. Gilbert says that "this experimental work was inspired by the intimate historical ties between textiles and computation, as well as the propagation patterns of acoustics.

On one level, this project is an experiment in appropriating technology for mass production for the purposes of small-scale production, while maintaining a connection between the producer and the produced good. This is what [Gilbert] calls "augmented craft", as distinct from automated production. The computer plays a role, but it does not displace the person." source

Similarly Mashallah Design and Linda Kostowski created incredibly beautiful polygon textile patterns that are generated programmatically using computer 3D modeling. See Digitally printed fashion that I posted last month.

Exploring the effects of personal volume

Designers Einar, Castillñano and Anette Andersen, call their collective the Spatials. They collaborated on a project that explores private and personal spaces and how they are affected by our surroundings and emotions. In this exploration, the collar of the garment reacts to various sensor inputs that control the strings via air pumps. The response either hides or reveals the wearer while the strings consume more or less of the space surrounding her.

A similar project is Teresa Almeida's Space Dress, which provides personal space in public places that I wrote about last month. Check out the posting here.

View more on the project on Andersen's blog.