The intersection between hand-made and machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear took center stage in 2016 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute with the exhibition entitled "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology".
Fashion designers are indeed drawn to venturing into uncharted territories, embracing cutting-edge technologies, exploring unconventional textiles, and experimenting with novel techniques, including Artificial Intelligence.
Yet designers are also intrigued by craftsmanship and rediscovering the beauty that lies within authentic artisanal works. Making something by hand can also be compared to a sort of therapy, it is a process that sharpens the senses, enabling creative minds to stay focused and keeping their feet firmly on the ground. Besides, embracing the process of handcrafting offers a respite from our fast-paced digital existence, providing both mental and physical solace.
Known for their fascination with the future and pioneering technologies, Threeasfour took a leap into the digital world with their A/W 22 Haute Couture collection.
Collaborating with CG artist Shingo Everard, in that occasion they presented an all-digital lineup, with each design transformed into animated NFTs, in partnership with Dressx. Yet those digital creations maintained a tangible connection to the physical world, serving as replicas of existing Threeasfour garments. Besides, the virtual styles were actually developed using fabrics and other materials on a small wooden doll, and each design could be 3D-printed and brought into existence in the real world.
Threeasfour continued to explore this dichotomy in their A/W 23 collection, ensuring that every design featured in the lookbook possessed either a digital or a physical duplicate.
Collaborating with the digital fashion partner Placebo, the collection explored not only the contrast between these two realms but also the profound question of what constitutes reality and how we can develop the ability to discern truth.
The ability to distinguish between the real and the virtual is a critical skill that holds significant consequences in our lives that go beyond being able to differentiate between a dress that appears tangible but is, in fact, purely digital, and vice versa (think about being able to filter fake information about all sorts of issues, especially politics and elections…).
For example, an organdy dress adorned with light-filled tubes was actually real, even though it was actually less subtle and refined than other designs created in the '80s that incorporated LED lights; another notable piece featuring swirling fabric forming elegant spirals on the model's body, blurred the boundaries between the real and the digital and blended these two planes through a fabric base embellished with 3D-printed frills crafted in collaboration with designer Alessandro Zomparelli, using technology by Stratasys.
Technology added a dynamic layer to the sci-fi-inspired designs, showcased by Uni band members Charlotte Kemp Muhl and Jack James. However, beyond the dynamic element of speed and technological acceleration, the collection also explored the theme of protection.
This concept was embodied through handcrafted quilted motifs made in the designers' atelier in New York. A silver jacket looked like a sci-fi reinterpretation of Charles James' 1937 collarless padded evening jacket constructed in a series of quilted curves filled with down.
Charles James's construction techniques served as inspiration for other designs, both digital and physical, like a sculptural quilted coat and tops characterized by spiral seams.
James often included in his patterns variations on the circle and Threeasfour often do the same: some of the quilted motifs on their digital designs looked like combinations of James' iconic jacket and his use of the circle within a circle (also known as meta-circle, a very apt concept in the case of digital designs) that was employed in the American designer's famous four-leaf clover dress (the skirt's outer circle in that case was actually a square with curved edges, and the inner circle was the shape of an eclipse).
A pair of trousers featured padded motifs reminiscent of water cooled garments donned by astronauts, but also of the shape of the striped black vinyl design by Japanese Kansai Yamamoto for David Bowie's 1973 Aladdin Sane tour.
Fractals, geometry, and the abstract representation of the human form served as additional sources of inspiration throughout the collection. One standout piece was a coat constructed from a soft octagonal sculpture. A playful nod to the medical and scientific field emerged instead in the form of a bodysuit, adorned with hand-applied silicone dots that pointed at skin disorders or at human-animal mutations.
The collection incorporated a sustainable twist by repurposing kimonos and obis; popular pieces from previous seasons, such as the iconic circle bag, also made a return.
The metallic headdresses sparked instead a different connection with the past: reminiscent of an armadillo's armour, they evoked the avant-garde helmets seen in Germana Marucelli's groundbreaking 1968-69 "Alluminio" (Aluminum) collection, created in collaboration with artist Getulio Alviani.
Designs incorporating silver swirls and a silver armour that looked as if it were made of solid metal (but it was actually made of pliable materials), turned the attention towards the theme of the gynoid, a fascination for many designers throughout the decades.
These pieces raised a question: will creative minds ultimately be replaced by machines? Despite the remarkable advancements in technology, a combination of technical prowess and manual craftsmanship remains the key to success in all creative disciplines.
While Threeasfour did employ computer programs in their creative process, they refused to allow AI to dictate or generate the final results. Besides, the real collection was also produced manually.
In conclusion, these designs offer us the chance to ponder about reality and perception and the role of technology and craftsmanship in our ever-changing world. But for Threeasfour, this collection serves instead as another stepping stone towards an alternative career path to create futuristic costumes for compelling sci-fi narratives.
