We live in challenging times and Coronavirus forced us to postpone some of our projects or change our plans. Yet there have also been quite a few creative minds who took this time to ponder about the future and create new narratives about human biological adaptability.
French-Lebanese architect Maria-Thala Al-Aswad has focused for example on a research on anatomy that led her to consider how the human body survived throughout the ages, passing through wars, regimes, revolutions and currently through a pandemic that has dramatically changed our lives.
These studies led her to develop a design - that she dubbed the "REPTILIAN_Post-Iconic Corset" - inspired by the power of transmutation. The corset fits into the slow and zero-waste fashion category as it is 3D printed by additive fabrication technology using biodegradable white Polylactic Acid PLA filament derived from cornstarch as a renewable resource.
The design brings back to mind modern reinterpretations of corsets developed with hard materials or incorporating geometrical forms, from Jean-Paul Gaultier's conic breasts corset and Thierry Mugler's robotic bustiers to Issey Miyake's striking breastplate or Alexander McQueen's transparent neck-to-hips bustier (S/S 1996 collection) or his moulded leather body corset (S/S 1999 collection).
Yet Maria-Thala Al-Aswad's design releases the human body rather than trapping it and mutates it. The body becomes part of the design, combining itself with the animal forms that inspired the surfaces of this highly complex 3D sculpted piece. Reuniting science and technology with fashion, the experimental corset makes you think about alien bodies and modern interpretations of legendary monsters à la Medusa, opening the path to Al-Aswad's pieces also to other applications and fields, including costume design.
Can introduce yourself and your practice to our readers?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I am an architect and I graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais in Paris. In 2013, I co-founded Les Architectes Workshop firm in Paris with Hicham Bou Akl. We work on architectural and urban planning projects in Switzerland, France and Lebanon. In parallel with my architectural career, I maintain a continuous production of computational fashion design. This discipline is a living and concrete laboratory of permanent reflection on matter and signs. It is there that I make all my wildest ideas and dreams come true and develop my conceptual experiments. Currently, I am preparing for a multidisciplinary course on digital garments and body spatial extensions for the Spring 2021 term in Beirut, targeting architecture, interior design and fashion design students.
How long have you been focusing on the fashion + architecture + technology connection and how many projects did you develop along these lines?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I discovered computational design and digital fabrication techniques in 2009 in the "Digital Knowledge" program founded by Philippe Morel from EZCT and Christian Girard during my master's program in Malaquais. I worked on a project called "Blooming Surface", an installation of a parametric metallic surface. I started applying the process on fashion in 2011, after taking part in the "Building Fashion" workshop with my project "Play-Back" in which I used 3D-simulation combined with low-tech production, and the "Post-McQueen Embryos" workshop in 2012, with my project "K-Non", a combination between digital fabrication and traditional couture craftsmanship. Both workshops were organized by the Architectural Association, AA Visiting School at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I recently worked on a project called "QubQab", in which I use 3D-printing and CNC manufacturing robots for the reproduction of the traditional handmade wooden clogs that date back to the time of the Ottoman Empire. I am currently working on a bags collection called "GooSooBaaG" combining techniques of manual wood sculpting and computational modeling.
Can you tell us more about the corset and what inspired it?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: The "REPTILIAN_Post-Iconic Corset" represents the transmutation of the human body. I wanted to reconsider the representation of human nature by exploring new technologies and new parameters of the "posthuman" mutation process. I have worked on superposing multiple biological layers of skins and shells, including the human body as an inseparable part of the design. The textures are transferred onto the body and sculpted in a complex 3D modeling process. The corset is 3D-printed by additive fabrication technology using biodegradable white Polylactic Acid PLA filament derived from cornstarch as a renewable resource. The design materializes the rigidity of PLA into an organic texture shaping the human female body in detail and highlights the properties of the object such as weight, opacity and fusion with the body, hinting also at Baroque sculptures.
Designers who became famous for their corsets or sculpted silhouettes, such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, but also Thierry Mugler, come to mind when I look at your corset. Which designers - or architects and architectural movements - have you been researching while working on this project?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I am fascinated by Jean-Paul Gaultier's iconic "Corset Conique" from the early '90s. I wanted to recapture the idea of releasing the female body, by bringing it back to its biological aesthetic combined with the ancestral culture of using other skin specimens to redefine visual or thermal properties. I have always loved the imbricated printed skins and leathers used by Alexander McQueen as 3D-reliefs. In general, I am inspired by the "Biomorphism" movement in Architecture and Art which, I believe, is the origin of the fusion between fashion design and architecture today.
Do you conceive the corset as a wearable piece or a sculpture or maybe as an armor, after all who doesn't need an armour these days...
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: Yes, indeed, we do need armors and masks to survive 2020. Someone asked me if the design is related to the 4th of August blast in Beirut, since it looks like a ripped body and I have personally sustained wounds from that blast. While I developed this project before the event, I love the fact that people are connecting it with a traumatic experience and to a way to survive after it. I conceive the "REPTILIAN_Post-Iconic Corset" as a sort of Haute Couture wearable piece; the choice of the rigid material to amplify the body’s expression and hide its reality can be perceived as a Mannerist sculpture. The proportions of the corset were conceived to limit the movement and at the same time to maintain a certain flexibility of the body, this explains the reptilian body language of the model.
Technically speaking, which were the most challenging aspects of this piece?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: For the design part, I had a very specific vision of the result since the beginning; the variation was only in the computational solutions to reach this result. The most challenging part was the production. The constraints were the available materials and machines to 3D-print this very detailed design with undefined edges. There was a lot of back and forth with the FabLab, accompanied with printing of samples, digital modifications and a few concessions from both sides.
Is there a fashion designer you'd like to collaborate with one day?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: For me as an architect, digital design and fabrication have no limits or scales; if you can model a pavilion, you can model a vase. I am open to all kinds of collaborations; I think multidisciplinary projects are the most innovative, especially when the contributors' visions match. I would love to collaborate with emergent fashion designers to develop a new way of thinking the garments of tomorrow.
Do you have any special plans for the future, for example will the corset be exhibited anywhere?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I have many plans and projects for the future and the idea of an exhibition is not excluded, I am just waiting for the right moment and the right place!
Image credits for this post
Digital design: Maria-Thala AL-ASWAD
Photography: ©RainTree
Model: LeaTpole
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