1. Principles and practices¶
This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.
FashTech is the new fashion trend. Weaving technology into fashion is something I have always dreamed to accomplish, and with the help of FabAcademy, this dream doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.
Research¶
Smart Fabrics¶
Smart textiles also called electronic textiles, e-textiles, smart garments, and fabrics, have a digital component embedded in them. It can be a battery, a led, an electronic chip, or a sensor. The technology is incorporated into the fabric through various methods, such as conductive fibres or multilayer 3D printing (Ignasi Sayol). This opens a door to limitless oppurtunities as people could now wear technology and get an umatched experience.
The sound shirt is truly riveting, and helped inspire my final project idea.
Conductive Yarn¶
Highly conductive yarns also provide promise in enabling e-textiles, particularly as textile-embedded interconnects. Conductive yarns have been developed with conductivities ranging from 5 Ω/m to several kΩ/m. The conductive filaments/yarns with the best electrical properties are comprised in whole or in part of metallic fibers, with stainless steel being the most commonly used material. These conductive yarns are generally not insulated, and instead must be packaged in textiles such that they are only exposed in the desired areas. These yarns have been woven to form large electrodes which can measure biopotentials, sense strain, or detect touch events. Google’s Project Jacquard is an example of a commercial effort aiming to produce such yarns for use in textile-embedded touch interfaces for controlling external devices (ScienceDirect).
Initial Idea¶
The Sketch¶
The Description¶
I love fashion, and technology. And if 1 + 1 = 2, fashion technology is simply the answer to my question: what do I want to create?
Linked in the “Useful Links” section of this page is the inspiration for my project’s idea. Barbie’s A Fashion Fairytale has always been my favorite Barbie movie and the dress in the final moments of the movie is what truly inspired me to create my dress.
The idea mainly revolves around achieving an enhanced level of movement - some might even say exaggerated. The sleek design is something I always opt for. I decided to keep the underdress plain to emphasize on the moving scarf that coils around the body of the dress.
The movement of the scarf coiling around the body was inspired by my favorite animal - snakes - and choosing the idea of the scarf was due to my love for layering. I’ve always been in love with fashion and I decided to utilize this opportunity to explore what I can do for fashion with the help of technology.
Questions to be answered¶
- How will it be powered?
- Where and what will be the switch?
- Will it produce noise? If so, how will I eliminate it?
- How exactly will the movement be?
Updated Idea¶
[April 4, 2021]: I decided to switch up my idea to something that can welcome input.
The Description¶
The dress, when still, appears to be a plain silhouette; however, using motion sensors, it responds to motion by lighting up parts of the dress in pre-designed patterns.