Fashioning The Future: tomorrow’s wardrobe
Presentation synopsis by Suzanne Lee, during "Test_Lab: Fleshing Out."
New technologies are emerging which offer potentially exciting new
visions for textiles and fashion. Creative projects are embracing
technologies such as smart textiles, rapid manufacture, even
biotechnology. New materials and methods will challenge design,
manufacture, distribution and consumption. The notion of what a product
can be, how it is made, whom it is for and our relationship to it is
changing significantly. Designers are asking how technology can
entertain or provoke, connect or protect - how can we enhance people’s
experience of a product, their relationships with each other or the
world around them? Fashion has played little part so far in this
dialogue but potentially offers the opportunity to make ideas
mainstream and cause a shift in behaviour. This talk will map out some
key areas/projects and point to how tomorrow’s wardrobe may differ from
today’s.
Fleshing Out:
"Grow Your Own" Workshop
I will
be presenting the first steps in BioCouture, a project uniting fashion
and biotechnology using biocellulose to (ultimately) grow clothing. I
will discuss the research background and project issues showing early
material samples and a prototype garment. Though not subject to the
same ethical issues as other biotech projects it hopefully raises some
interesting questions with regard to the design, production and
consumption of textiles/fashion. This is the first public discussion of
the work in progress – an exhibition of the finished project will take
place later in 2007.
© Suzanne Lee 2006
