If you follow fashion from the point of view of an enthusiastic fashionista or influencer, you will probably think the industry mainly revolves around trends and endless runway shows, collections, presentations and assorted launches and events. Yet, while fashion is a very serious business, there is the possibility of turning the industry into something more positive, long-lasting and definitely less superficial, also thanks to creative minds with backgrounds in design.
Take, for example, Jessica Smarsch: her fascination for traditional textile-making processes and her interest in new technologies helped her developing in the last few years a software program connecting controlled body movements to graphic pattern generation.
Smarsch came up with a textile technique that turns these patterns into a dimensional fabrics, so, basically the raised patterns on the clothes in one of her earlier fashion collections were informed by body movements, data that were detected via a wireless armband and relayed through an Arduino circuit board. A software programme then visualised the movements as graphic patterns that could be downloaded as instructions for a loom.
Smarsch's research into mind-body connectivity has so far produced projects analysing how sensors can be employed to translate muscle use into costumes shapes and textile effects (and it's interesting to note that some of her investigations were inspired by studies on early societies and ritual performances that involved the use of literal symbols applied on ritual objects...so anthropology is another of those disciplines that can be inspiring for textile designers).
Smarsch's use of body movement as a design tool was initially a way to find a higher level of self-awareness, but, as the years passed, she applied her researchers to the medical field. So, three years ago, Smarsch started studying the effects on the mind and body of strokes and set to design textiles for stroke rehabilitation.
Her early studies produced a sensor shirt inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese principle that encourages to find beauty even in broken objects. Smarsch's first design consisted in a shirt that could track and communicate body movements, linked with an app that could also help taking note of a patient's progress.
But, more recently Smarsch's developed the "Connextyle" sensor shirt, a top with embedded sensors that register three kinds of movements and allow patients to mark their progress via a dedicated app. As patients recover, the exercises increase in complexity helping them to follow an intense rehabilitation process. Once the latter is over, the sensor embedded sleeves can be removed and replaced with kintsugi sleeves, so that the jacket can be transformed and help patients embracing their new body and celebrating their achievements.
Projects such as Smarsch's take years to be developed properly as designers must have access to grants and financial support to be able to concentrate on experiments that may involve a wide range of consultants and professionals.
In her case, for example, Smarsch enlisted collaborators going from professors in Life Sciences to care and nursing providers, medical device design companies, dancers and choreographers.
Smarsch's "Connextyle" will be featured in the event "Hello Humanity: Dutch Design for a holistic world" at Ventura Milano (21st - 26th April 2020), a showcase of creators who display an innovative, holistic and inclusive designs characterised by a trans-disciplinary and humanistic approach.
But it is clear that such showcases should start being featured also during fashion weeks: endless shows, exclusive parties and thousands of streetwear photographs can provide countless visually striking instant moments of fun on social media, but projects such as Smarsch's help stimulating thoughts and attempt to provide a clever solution for people recovering from an illness, confirming that design shouldn't just be about producing more objects, but about making us reconnect with what surrounds us, with the environment, with other people and with ourselves.
Would such projects generate any money in a fashion environment? They could certainly turn into collaborations between an established fashion brand and independent designers like Smarsch, and they would even offer a morale and confidence boost via style and elegance to those ones among us who may be going through hard times because of a health condition or a disease.
Comments