Crosslab Events: High Tech Fashion (part one)

‘When Fashion meets Technology’ is the subtitle for this evening, packed with radical fashion sense. Organised by Crosslab Events, a platform for digital media, initiated by the Willem de Kooning Academy and Hogeschool Rotterdam.

Marina Toeters is a scientist and fashion designer, posting results of her work on http://www.by-wire.net/.
'Since the 1970s, there have hardly been any real innovations in textiles. Polyester was the last of a series of new materials for the fashion world to work with', she starts her speech.

‘However, development has not stopped’, Marina says, ‘it has just stayed within the borders of scientific research and has not yet found its way into mainstream fashion design.’She illustrates numerous examples, ranging from gruesome to fantastic, like:
 

‘The victimless leather jacket’ by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at the Tissue Culture & Art Project, which is seamlessly grown by using a combination of 3T3 mouse cells and human bone cells.

Bacteria killing garments, produced from threads that have been treated with silver, a natural bacteria resistant substance, makes for an ideal hospital attire. Marks and Spencer have already put out a pyama-variety for hospitalized with this kind of thread.

Hotmelting and ultrasonic welding are seemingly revolutionary techniques that have only begun to get some attention, while it has a significant higher lasting durablility and strength, compared to regular sowing. These techniques would also prove the need for sweatshops in third world countries to be redundant. Manual labour will increasingly be taken over by local mechanic labour, thus says Marina.

Digital photography has had its revolution some fifteen years back. You no longer needed expensive cameras and master complex development techniques to become a photographer. Marina Toeters foresees this happening with fashion as well, where personalized clothing will be produced in a local setting. We can only wait and see if she is right.

part 2