By incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles, which they call 3DKnITS.
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Smart Textiles
Ganit Goldstein is a computation textile and 3D fashion designer specializing in the development of smart fabric systems. Her work primarily focuses on developing customized apparel utilizing parametric modeling and digital simulations, and programmable textiles using body scans and multimaterial 3D printing.
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Ganit Golstein's Computational Textile Designs
Textiles that open, close, or change based on heat, light, or movement.
Tech used:
- Shape-memory materials
- Sensors
- Soft robotics
Fabric behaves like a living system, not just clothing.
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Ganit Golstein's Computational Textile Designs
Algiknit is a biomaterials company combining science and design into textile production. Their team of designers and scientists are developing sustainable textile fiber, using kelp, to combat pollution and harmful waste in the fashion industry.
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Algiknit
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Making clothes using living organisms is fundamentally changing how Iris van Herpenthinks about materials. One of her most recent designs, a dress covered in glowing algae from her Sympoiesis collection, exemplifies Van Herpen's latest focus: biomaterials.
Bio Design
Ying Gao returns with a series of robotic clothes using shards of kaleidoscopic mirrors that flutter on their own. She pieces these broken pieces of soft mirrors together using medical cotton gauze refined with 18-carat gold finishing and sews them onto the garments. The electronic components, engineered by Simon Laroche, make these mirrors move, completing the robotic clothes. It may be the first time Ying Gao has used mirrors for her robotic clothes.
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Ying Gao's Robotic Clothing
Using heat waves to the user’s benefit may be a reason behind making the EcoFlow Power Hat. It’s the manufacturer’s summer cap that has hidden solar panels around it so that users can power up their smartphones and devices as they walk in the heat. The fashion technology allows for solar charging on the go since panels encircle the Power Hat. EcoFlow says that it’s made of lightweight material to avoid lugging around extra weight.
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Ecoflow solar-charged hat
"Wearables have emerged as an increasingly promising interactive platform, imbuing the body with always-available computational capabilities. This unlocks a wide range of applications, including information access, health, fitness, and fashion. Unlike previous platforms, wearable electronics require structural conformity, must be comfortable and should be soft, elastic, and aesthetically appealing. We introduce ElectroDermis, a fabrication system that simplifies the creation of wearable electronics that are comfortable, elastic, and fully untethered."
Electrodermis: Fully Untethered, Stretchable, and Highly-Customizable Electronic Bandages
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Emotional Clothing responds to the wearer's changes in stress levels
The system relies on lasers to carbonise parts of the wool, forming conductive pathways surrounded by insulating un-carbonised portions of wool. "WoolTech is still in early development, with Khan prototyping a torch and circuit board. But if it can scale, the promising bio-based design could help tackle issues of e-waste and lower demand for mined metals. Interestingly, it was the UK's mounting wool waste that first prompted Khan to find a new use for the material.
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WoolTech by Hinna Khan
Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht has a vision for a world in which people stop telling themselves little lies about their emotions — and she believes high-tech fashion is the key.
Her creations, which combine digital technology with haute couture, play with social norms and aim to engineer a cold-turkey solution to our dearest deceptions, she told AFP on the sidelines of Milan Fashion Week.
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Robotic fashion: Wear your heartbeat on your sleeve