Last week we looked at sustainable projects that may change the fashion industry and provide innovative ideas when it comes to the design and manufacturing stages. Fashion Scout presented during the latest edition of London Fashion Week (that was mostly digital due to the Coronavirus pandemic), a project by Studio Adaptive Skins that explores these themes.
This textile architecture studio based in Arnhem, The Netherlands, was founded in 2018 by Jef Montes who has a passion for responsive materials.
Since founding his studio, rather than thinking merely about fashion design, Montes started developing yarns and textiles before moving onto the actual garments.
In 2019 Studio Adaptive Skins joined the Re-FREAM network, a project aimed at rethinking the production process of fashion. In this context Montes developed the main concept for a unique collection entitled "Tailored by Weather".
The main idea was creating adaptive yarns with unique mechanical components that allowed the smart filaments to change their shape and deform when exposed to weather conditions, a concept inspired by biomimicry and the possibility of turning 2D elemental forms into complex 3D shapes.
Montes developed a research with the Aitex Material Technology Institute in Alcoy/Valencia and the Wood K Plus research institute, at the Johannes Kepler Institute in Linz.
Experiments about recycling plastic from the sea (rPET, and also PLA bioplastics), melt coating and dip coating production processes were carried out to create the Adaptive Archi-Filament.
Montes' project partners then collaborated with Empa, the federal material science laboratories in St. Gallen, that helped lab testing and sharing valuable yarn improvement information and the first high performing filament prototypes were developed at the TextielLab in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
The result was the "Marinero" collection, consisting in a series of variations on the same theme: the simple tunic-like dresses are produced with one woven square created with unique yarns such as the Adaptive Archi-Filament A+B (designed by Jef Montes & produced in collaboration with Aitex and Wood K Plus); Rpet (recycled plastic waste from the sea); PLA (Bioplastic) and seacell silk yarns dyed with algae pigment. All woven and knitted materials were produced at the TextielLab.
The garments were then displayed on dummies and left under rain, heavy wind and drought on the rooftop of a chemistry laboratory. The weather conditions sculpted and moulded the pieces, radically transforming them.
Some dramatically shrunk, others expanded in certain areas, deformed, and mutated their shape. Horizontally woven and vertical nylon filaments were distorted showing a new flexibility and infinite variations. It was an organic and unpredictable process, reminiscent in a way of early experiments such as Hussein Chalayan's graduate collection (1993) made with fabric the designer buried in a friend’s garden with some rusted iron pieces.
In that case Chalayan explored the concepts of change and decay, while in this project Montes plays with the possibility of continuously transforming the same garment. Yet there is something similar between the two designers: both went through a long process to get the desired results.
The experiments for Montes' designs lasted 6 months and the designer acted like a scientist, taking pictures, writing reports on the samples, observing and recording the changes that he then proceeded to publish as an open source research on his site. The main purpose behind "Marinero" is creating a collection of garments that adapt and grow with the wearer.
Coronavirus didn't stop Montes' research: the pandemic actually prompted him to realise that change is needed in the industry as soon as possible and pushed him to go forward in his researches about innovative and sustainable materials to pursue positive changes.
But there’s more behind this project: the final goal for Montes is to offer the Adaptive Archi-Filament as a commercial product in 2022. This material may prove useful not just for fashion designers but for interior designers as well, as proved by the "Marinero" lamp that Montes has designed and that is already available to buy from Studio Adaptive Skins' store.