The fashion industry has shown great interest in innovative technologies in the last ten years or so that have resulted in garments and accessories incorporating specific technologies or made with new materials and, more recently, in a fascination with virtual models and digital influencers.
The latest institution to join the tech trend is the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum in Getaria, Spain, with a dedicated course that will start next month (from 13th October - you can get further information about it here). The course will include 6 sessions divided between the Kutxa Kultur Moda workshop space in Tabakalera, San Sebastian, and the Balenciaga Museum.
Taught by artist, educator and creative technologist, Paola Guimerans, who studied Design and Technology at the Parsons School of Design, New York, the course will focus on the methodologies and techniques and the digital tools required to create wearable projects.
The main concept behind the course is to teach the participants how to use specific techniques, but also how to incorporate them into a fashion design without risking of making the latter look unwearable or simply outlandish.
The first class will look at basic techniques and digital manufacturing applied to textiles and wearable technology with the introduction to the construction of flexible circuits and to the LilyPad Arduino platform for the creation of interactive clothing accessories. The second lecture will focus on wearable textile sensors (for example potentiometers, pressure and tilt sensors) and the way they allow us to gather data via clothes.
People who are into new materials shouldn't miss the third stage of the course since it will offer a focus on nitinol and thermochromatic dyes and how they can be incorporated into a design.
The discourse on materials will continue with a lecture on prototyping with a 3D printing collaboration with Material ConneXion Bilbao. The latter was founded in 2015 and it is part of a more important network specialising in the search for and consultancy on innovative and sustainable materials, and on transformation processes. Founded in 1997 in New York, with its first library of physical materials, Material ConneXion quickly spread to seven locations in the United States, Asia and Europe. Today it manages the biggest materials library in the world, with more than 7,000 references (Material ConneXion Bilbao currently has a selection of more than 1,000 materials which continues to grow and update).
The course at the Balenciaga Museum will close with two last phases in which the participants will turn into makers and will design and produce a garment or accessory with the techniques they have learnt.
Who knows, maybe the late couturier may have like the idea of linking his craftsmanship to technology: Balenciaga was indeed well-know for his architectural constructions that hid some great technical skills, as revealed also in an exhibition that took place at London's V&A earlier this year in which his designs were analysed via X-rays to show the hidden structural and technical details behind his creations.
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