Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

When Your Consumer is an Avatar: Fashion, From the Physical Runway to the Metaverse

Because of Coronavirus digitally advanced fashion presentations have become the norm during the last year. So the announcement that platform and social app IMVU was going to host a group fashion show in May didn't come as a surprise.

The event was streamed live on May 27-28 on IMVU's YouTube Channel and Instagram Live and featured seven emerging fashion designers, Collina Strada, Mowalola, Gypsy Sport, Freak City, Mimi Wade, My Mum Made It and BruceGlen in collaboration with creators from the IMVU community.

In an official press release IMVU Senior Director of Marketing, Lindsay Anne Aamodt, stated, "Being able to host a fashion show on our platform unlocks access to experiences for a wider group of diverse communities. We want to show everyone that it's easy for anyone to create unique fashions and market them on IMVU to make real money with the creator tools we provide."

The show - introduced by fashion icon Princess Gollum - was divided in two parts, Day One and Day Two, with designers presenting digital rooms built on the IMVU platform to debut pre-collections and other digital items that could never be created in real life.

For Day One Collina Strada developed a psychedelic environment populated by hybrid animal-flower-human creatures (designs developed by EsmeShaw, SecondHarvest, Pharmacist, MissC) that seemed to be a sort of evolution of the video game "Collinaland", created last November in occasion of the brand's pre-Fall 2021 collection.

BruceGlen opted for a runway show that took place in different settings and environments, from the tropical to the urban, and that featured multi-coloured designs and accessories (in this case there were three developer - Vues, iDezzBanks, Gaset); My Mum Made It's avatars (designed with YALLA) were a bit too reminiscent of Kim Kardashian while Mowalola's room and clothes (created in collaboration with Yannomi, Exif, and LaLov (Marta LaLov)) were inspired by clubs and raves.

For Day Two Freak City (with models by Roy, Kotimori, Gotlane) went for an environment suspended between a fashion show and a urban video game, with characters in clothes inspired by graffiti and popular culture - honourable mentions in this collection go to the dress with a digital print of US Vice-President Kamala Harris and to the "Pfreak" shirt based on the logo of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, more famous for its vaccine against Covid-19.

Mimi Wade combined a fairy tale in an enchanted wood environment with horror stories (the developers in this case were Lizzie Klein, Gad (Nathan Stewart) and Brats (Nicole)), while Gypsy Sport was probably the brand that featured the most diverse avatars (including blue and green skin aliens...) with the most fluid fashion poses (the creators in this case were Naitve, Ogi, GothicGarden and SeanOwenBlue). Even though the show took place in this metaphysical world, Gypsy Sport managed to connect it with reality via a design dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Now, if you'd had to judge the results of this experience from the point of view of a traditional fashion reviewer, you would easily dismiss the designs as unwearable and utterly unconvincing, a mind-boggling mess of bright, bold and colourful psychedelic atmospheres.

Yet in this case traditional reviews do not apply: the fashion items are indeed dedicated to the IMVU users - a community that has grown to include 7 million active users a month (the platform registered an increase in users because of the pandemic), most of them female or female-identifying, and quite young - aged from 18 to 24 - who like customising their avatars. 

All of the designers' digital creations became indeed available for purchase by IMVU players starting May 28 and it is this buy-now component dedicated to users of the virtual reality platform that sets a difference between this show and other digital shows seen in the last year.

Besides, additional exclusive items seen in these collections are auctioned as NFTs on IMVU's OpenSea marketplace. After purchase, the NFTs can then be modeled in the IMVU metaverse (it is worth remembering here that, as Collina Strada is a brand committed to sustainability and, worried about the energy consumption of NFTs, its NFTs will be sold on Hicetnunc, a less energy-intensive network).

So where is the strength of such an experiment? These metaverse shows may be confusing, chaotic and utterly incoherent for those who are not used to these platforms, but, while reflecting the complex times we're living in (and the need to escape to alternative worlds...), they also remind us that the future of fashion is not just physical but digital as well.

The collections presented on IMVU are indeed not profitable from a physical point of view, but they represent new possibilities of selling fashion pieces to a very different type of consumer.

IMVU users create personal avatars and dress them in clothes designed by creators, paying them with credits bought with real money. Shopping is indeed part of the IMVU experience, with the virtual store featuring 50 million items and registering millions of transactions a month (IMVU employs the cryptocurrency VCOIN that, built on blockchain technology, can be purchased, earned, and exchanged within the IMVU platform - it can be transferred off the platform into a user's Uphold account where it can then be transferred to cash). 

It becomes therefore very clear that there is potential to make some profits in the metaverse and the time may have come even for those real-life brands that never considered opting for digital designs to sit down and think more about the metaverse as another possibility for brand expansion. These spaces are indeed not perceived as threats that may lead to brand dilution as the designs created here in most cases can not exist in real life.   

Last by not least, there is a very important question to ask: how will fashion exhibitions change in future after this past year of digital runway shows and presentations? All this focus on digital fashion may indeed prompt museums organising fashion exhibitions to start integrating also sections dedicated to digital designs in their events and this may introduce in museum spaces not just virtual garments and accessories, but also the technology that goes behind their creaction (in the case of IMVU, think about the IMVU Studio Beta Creator tool that allows users to create innovative patterns, light and shadow effects and matte or shiny surfaces). 

A Glitch in the Matrix & The Strange Case of the KittyCorn: Vêtements Spring 2022

Runway shows are rebooting for the joy of those ones who missed the front row and, while Valentino and Saint Laurent will decamp to Venice in July and host their shows in the lagoon, other brands are currently trying to bridge the gap between digital and physical with mixed results.

The lookbook of Vetements' Spring 2022 collection features for example models standing against the default gray and white checkerboard that indicates transparent areas in Photoshop.

That was just the first reference to the digital world in this collection by brand cofounder Guram Gvasalia. The pandemic year has turned us into digital beings, half human and half virtual, perennially connected with other people via our screens, so Gvasalia used this inspiration for the prints included in the new collection of the Zurich-based brand.

The Spring 2022 collection features prints of coloured wires of the kind that form the veins and arteries of robots, and patterns representing the green rain code - comprising mirror images of half-width kana characters and Western Latin letters and numerals - from "The Matrix". 

The fourth film in the series will be released just before Christmas, so the collection with its green rain codes and tailored all-black outfits will be appreciated by the fans of the saga.

Silhouette-wise there weren't any big changes compared to previous collections as the emphasis was as usual on exaggerated shoulder lines, and the collection featured (again as usual) plenty of puffers and thigh high boots.

Any glitches in the system? Yes, some dilemmas regarding one cute print of a lilac or black unicorn cat accompanied by the words "Unicorn Hybrid 3000".

The lilac version of the cat is taken from the TurboSquid site by Shutterstock, a 3D model library ideal for game developers, news agencies, architects, visual effects studios and creative professionals. The 3D model used for this collection is the Kittycorn by Anko3d available on Turbosquid also in white with rainbow details (but not in black like the one included in this collection). The model can be currently purchased for $64.

This is essentially the same trick Guram's brother Demna played at Balenciaga when he included in the A/W 18 collection a bag with a picture of a cat and a dog taken from stock photo site Dreams Time. In that case you could download the image for free or you could buy the rights to use it.

In the previous post about Balenciaga's collection we wondered if it is possible to actually buy a stock photo, put it on a luxury item, and sell the latter at improbable prices. The first question in cases such as these ones is therefore did the fashion house in question actually buy the license for the images to be reproduced on designer clothes? (in these cases it should be a commercial license with extended copyrights for branded purposes).

In the case of the Kittycorn, was the author of the image told that the image created as a 3D model may be used as a print in a designer collection? (note: explicit rights clearances must be obtained from the owner of the depicted intellectual property as this is not a generic image of a cat, but an original artwork showing a hybrid animal in specific colour combinations). And what happens if a manufacturer of fake designer goods buys the same 3D model and license and starts printing it on its own garments and accessories? This "fake" may end up not being a fake because the manufacturer in question has purchased the licence like Vêtements did (well, if Vêtements actually did it - considering the black Kittycorn is not available on TurboSquid, so maybe Vêtements just copied this image?). 

Using a stock photo as in Balenciaga's case or a stock 3D model as in this case for a designer item seems to facilitate the process of producing perfectly legal fakes: if you copy a logo you are producing an illegal fake, but if you pay for the license for the same stock image a luxury fashion house has put on its garments and accessories, technically you are not producing an illegal copy of anything (after all, that image is not exclusive to that fashion house). 

It is annoying to think that a designer brand can not come up with something more original (the collection also features garments with the sentence "The Devil Doesn't Wear Prada", a quote from Tyler, The Creator?) and exclusive (if they liked the Kittycorn, they may have got in touch with the artist who created it and asked to create something unique for this collection), but can just buy a stock image/model and use it in its collections (even though it would be even more annoying if Vêtements hadn't actually paid for the licence but had merely recreated the Kittycorn). Oh well, who knows, maybe all these questions do not matter at all as, like Neo, living in a Matrix-like computer simulation of reality, fashion has just turned into a giant simulation, a place ruled by laziness where the main point is not producing innovative and original things, but just churning out pale copies of something existing in an infinitely more original real world. 

Dilemmas for Crypto Collectors: Commercial or Curated? NFTs or iNFTs?

The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) frenzy is getting to new levels: Rimowa, the LVMH-owned luggage brand, auctioned in May four digital artworks. For the occasion the luxury travel brand partenered with multidisciplinary design practice Nuova and created four images of a food cart, lamp, sound system and table integrating signature elements from the brand. The pieces are being auctioned on NFT marketplace Rarible and the proceeds will go to the creators of the artworks, while a portion will be donated to a charity focused on humanitarian issues.

Despite good intentions (trying their hand at interior design NFTs and donating part of the profits), the NFTs developed for this project look rather appalling. There are interior designers who went down the NFT path with brilliant results, while in this case Rimowa's NFTs, though accompanied by a grand title - "Blueprints from the Metaverse" - look like unconvincing combination of luggage with interior design pieces.

You would expect that the "metaverse" would indeed bring you something more extraordinary than a horrid glass table combined with a trolley handle, not to mention the mobile dinner service cart with compartments to store 18 serving trays, the result of a horrific and unlikely accident between a hard shell suitcase and an airline service trolley.  

The NFTs produced as the result of the partnership between former retail fashion director Nick Wooster and Vancouver-based apparel, personal care, and household essentials Consumer Commodity (CON-C) were also rather questionable.

In this case we have four versions (gold, silver, bronze and color - in limited editions of 50, 100, 300 and 500) of Wooster looking like a LEGO minifigure wearing Consumer Commodity apparel (that is glorified hoodies and sweat pants).

The NFTs, available on Open Sea and Rarible, and selling for $2,500 (gold version), $1,200 (silver), $900 (bronze) and $500 (color), pose some questions and doubts as they look too similar to LEGO minifigures and may represent a copyright issue as the famous Danish toy company may claim consumers may get confused and think this is an official collaboration.

So, if you're a designer, fashion house or company and want to release an NFT, you should research this field more and find some clever artists who may develop something more exclusive and extraordinary for you, as also suggested in yesterday's post. In much the same way, if you're a crypto collector, you'd better search for works by proper artists and leave behind all these trendy yet superficial projects that may soon lose their value.

To get some ideas, try Sotheby’s auction "Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale"(June 3-10). The sale puts in evidence the importance of a curator of this new tech field (a figure that maybe fashion and consumer brands jumping on the NFT bandwagon are underestimating).

This sale is co-curated by Sotheby's and London-based artist and pioneer in the crypto art and NFT space Robert Alice, better known for the landmark work "Portraits of a Mind (2019 -)", a global art project to decentralise Bitcoin's codebase into 40 fragments. The auction showcases some of the earliest, raw NFTs built on pre-Ethereum chains alongside newer, complex NFTs that showcase the cutting edge technical innovations, so there are both "old masters" and emerging crypto artists in this auction.

All the NFTs included in this sale are visually intriguing: "Visor" by Toronto-based artist Michah Dowbak aka Mad Dog Jones is a tribute to cyberpunk, combining Japanese animation and metropolitan settings. Part of Mad Dog Jones' 2019 Tokyo exhibition "AFTERL-IFE WORLD", "Visor" embodies the arist's passion for combining vibrant shades with backlighting.

"DRAGON!" by OseanWorld, one of the leading millennia creatives working natively across the digital spectrum, is also a combination of bright and bold visually exciting psychedelic worlds, intense clashes between art, design, fashion and social media, that trigger emotional responses into the viewer.

Inclused in Sotheby's auction there is also Kevin McCoy's "Quantum", minted on 2nd May 2014 21:27:34, probably the mostimportant work in the history of NFTs, a work that represents this radical new technology.

"Quantum" is a round octagon pulsating with colours going from purple and acid green to fluorescent yellow and blue. Endless and in perennial flux, "Quantum" is an elegant and minimalist visual expression of McCoy's background in music (McCoy developed his creative coding as a form of musical play while training at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the musician Pauline Oliveros). 

As the auction site highlights, McCoy's "Quantum" aesthetically calls to mind Sol LeWitt’s instruction-based art, Jasper John's Target Paintings, and the work of computer art pioneer John Whitney, while the mesmerising light source effect was inspired by the work of science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick (in the novel "VALIS", the main character sees history as a simultaneous event communicated through a mysterious pink light) and Stanislaw Lem.

One of the freshest and most technologically NFTs included in the auction is "To the Young Artists of Cyberspace" (2021) by Robert Alice in collaboration with synthetic media company Alethea.ai. This artwork introduces indeed the concept of a new token standard, the iNFT, that is the first intelligent, self-learning iNFT to be distributed for sale and public release.

Robert Alice offers indeed the possibility to his collectors to converse live with an iNFT: the work is a sort of living manifesto, delivered through a fictional digital Alice built using generic stock CGI models. Alice is therefore a 3D humanoid avatar that uses GPT-3 technology to communicate intelligently with its viewers. The basis for Alethea AI's proprietary AI model is the seed text written by Robert Alice. The seed text lives on the blockchain and acts as the basis for Alice’s identity. The iNFT has been coded with its own personality and will answer questions on the nature of itself ranging from the profound to the absurd. With each question asked, the artificial intelligence that sits behind the work will continue refining itself, so that from static, the manifesto turns into a dynamic document.

Technically speaking, the artwork poses new challenges when it comes to decentralised blockchains as the iNFT in its current form is built across a bridge of decentralized and centralized structures. On the decentralized side, the image, seed text and AI fingerprint of the character are hosted on Arweave; with the lip syncing, neural net and voice feed from centralised databases, such as Amazon and Google. This will likely mean that over time the intelligence of the NFT will slowly fade as the centralised databases disattach from the decentralized side, returning the artwork to its truly decentralized form, that of the image, seed text and character, a memorial to the first iNFT to be offered publicly for sale. From then on, both these decentralised elements and the portfolio of NFTs that constitute its historical documentation will take primacy, awaiting the ability for its intelligence to be resurrected on the creation of a fully decentralized structure for neural networks to exist on.

The artwork prompts us to wonder what will happen in future to visitors in a gallery and artworks - will they be able to interact with each other, will they develop intelligent relationships and maybe mutate forever the history of art? In the age of the intelligent art form, will we still be able to say that we "own" a work of art, or does that work of art become our companion if we can interact with it? 

Besides, will the work of art in question be able to progress, learn and develop? As the visitor to a museum of the future or the collector of this piece contribute to developing the conscience of the iNFT, do they become the creators of the iNFT together with the original artist? With each question asked, the artificial intelligence that sits behind the work will continue refining itself offering a tantalising glimmer of the future and making us realise that this field is moving faster than expected and that, while commercial and superficial "trendy" NFTs, will keep on being minted, they won't definitely last long as the attention will reshift on proper artworks by professional artists.

Lessons We Can learn from NFTs Auctions

Less than two months ago we wondered if Gucci was among the fashion houses ready to jump on the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon. After all, the fashion house had clearly showed an interest in virtual reality and video games releasing in March a pair of AR sneakers, and creating designs for Sims 4 and Pokémon Go 4, and avatars on the 3D social media app Zepeto. We didn't have to wait long for the answer as Gucci released this week its first NFT that is currently part of an auction at Christie's.

After Christie's auction of Beeple's purely digital work with a unique NFT set a record in March, selling at $69,346,250 USD, NFTs have multiplied, proliferating like mushrooms in different fields - from art and music to interior design. The popularity of NFTs proves that there is a cryto wealthy generation rising and those who are part of it do not see any obstacles in dealing with cryptocurrencies and crypto wallets.

But, in the case of fashion houses showing an interest in NFTs (and there are quite a few out there - Sydney-based fashion collectibles platform Neuno is developing for example NFTs for five luxury fashion houses), it proves that NFTs are not perceived as brand dilutive (after all, they exist in a different realm from your usual physical luxury pieces), and they are actually conceived as something prestigious (Gucci's NFT auctioned by Christie's also proves this point).

In May Christie's launched two new NFT sales - "Andy Warhol: Machine Made" and "Proof of Sovereignty". The former featured (it closed yesterday) five unique NFTs of digital works created by Warhol in the mid-1980s and recovered from obsolete floppy disks in 2014.

The five works - two self-portraits, his signature flower, and Campbell's soup can motifs, and a rendering of a single banana on a blue background - were created in a paint program on Warhol's Commodore Amiga personal computer in the mid-1980s and only existed as digital files unreadable by modern computers.

The works were turned into NFTs authorised and minted exclusively by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (in this case no other NFTs will be minted from these five digital works restored from Warhol’s originals, so this sale marked a rare opportunity for collectors). The most successful artwork was Campbell's Soup Can that went for USD 1,170,000, followed by a self-portrait that sold for USD 870,000. 

Proceeds from this sale, after any appropriate offsets for carbon emissions associated with the minting process, will benefit the Foundation and provide annual funding for The Andy Warhol Museum.

"Proof of Sovereignty" is instead a curated NFT sale by Lady PheOnix, a respected voice in the new media landscape. In this case the sale (on until June 3) brought together 20 artists, among them Nam June Paik, considered the grandfather of video art, Marguerite deCourcelle, also known as "Coin Artist", Joshua Davis, Claudia Hart, Lethabo Huma, Kesh, Tamiko Thiel, Jenny Holzer and Gerald Laing Estate.

Part of this auction, Gucci's first NFT is an artwork taken from "Aria", its latest fashion collection, launched in April with an eponymous film codirected by Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele and award-winning photographer and director Floria Sigismondi, and inspired by the theme of renewal after the shadow of winter has passed (a reference to seasons, but also to the dark times we went through during this year of pandemic).

The starting bid is $20,000, according to Christie's website, that describes this piece as marking "a historic moment for the storied brand", and the NFT as a work of art characterised by a "dream-like landscape and effervescent energy".

The purchase price for this lot can be paid in the cryptocurrency Ether and must be made via a digital wallet transfer of Ether to Christie's. Gucci will donate all its proceeds to UNICEF USA in support of UNICEF's participation in COVAX, an initiative aimed at ensuring global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

There are actually some lessons we can learn from these auctions: Warhol's NFTs were derived from original and previously unseen works by the Pop Art master; the other NFTs included in the second auction are also more original compared to Gucci's as they were created by proper artists who specialise in new media. Gucci's NFT is just a looped video (length: 00:04:05 minutes; resolution: 1152 x 1152 pixels), extracted from the "Aria" film presentation, as if the fashion house just wanted to release something as soon as possible to prove they were there before others.

The quickest way for a fashion house to release a non-fungible token is probably digitising a design or an extract from video, film or advertising campaign that already exist (and they naturally have a lot of archive materials). But you wish that fashion houses opting to go down the NFT path would maybe try and do something more extraordinary and unique, opting for example for exclusive collaborations with digital artists or for digital fashion designs with some unique features (think garments or accessories that can transform into something else). 

Christie's sale features for example some great examples going from RTFKT Studio's futuristic golden and purple sneakers created in collaboration with prominent shoe designer, Guy Marshall (behind the basketball phenom's first signature sneaker, the Kobe 1) to an exclusive artwork entitled "F473 (FATE)" by Coin Artist, the game designer and CEO of one of the earliest NFT game companies, Blockade Games.

This is not a static NFT that remains in a wallet on one network, but comes alive and it is accessible across Ethereum and the Polygon layer 2 Network. This NFT is essentially a foundation to spawn thousands of NFTs on Polygon that create a bespoke NFT collecting game that is unlocked only after the initial sale of the "F473" artwork. The spawned assets allow for temporarily altering the aesthetics of the core artwork, as well as altering the overall gameplay. The core of the experience centers around a physical painting, which contains a hand-painted private key giving access to a cryptocurrency prize that will be revealed upon the auction's conclusion. The purchaser of the NFT will also own and determine the fate of the physical painting.

So the first lesson to learn from these auctions is dedicated to fashion houses currently working on their own NFTs that should definitely create something more exclusive and original, possibly with artists who are knowledgeable in this field. 

Which brings us to the second consideration inspired from the fact that Gucci's NFT is an extract from the "Aria" film. If you're an artist working for a fashion company on a special project not linked with NFTs, for example a print for a collection, a film, runway props and advertising campaigns, always check the contract they have prepared for you and in case ask if they plan to create NFTs from any aspects of the project you're creating for them. If the answer is yes, make sure they add to your contract specific terms that regulate any possible NFTs derived from your work.

Looks like NFTs are just the tip of a much bigger iceberg as developing them will require new jobs and professions, some of them also linked to the legal aspects surrounding NFTs.

The NFT Aesthetics in a Digital & Physical World: Spotlight on MOY NFO

Since Christie's auction of Beeple's purely digital work with a unique NFT (non-fungible token) hit the headlines in March for selling at $69,346,250 USD, NFTs have become a constant obsession in different fields. The fashion industry showed an interest and so far there have been quite a few experiments with futuristic garments and accessories sold as highly collectible NFTs. Yet many of us still prefer owning a physical product and some labels are working on this aspect, among them there are also Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy, a transdisciplinary design duo out of Sydney, Australia.

With a background in engineering and digital design (Rob focuses on the code, operations and strategic running of the label, while Felicity concentrates on the arty aspects, leading the creative direction and product development sections of the label), the duo recently launched a new streetwear label called MOY NFO.

The two designers wanted to embrace NFTs, but were also looking at the possibilities of creating a physical product, so they came up with the Non Fungible Object (NFO). Consumers can buy on their site a physical product like a T-shirt, but they will find a QR embedded in the garment (on the front or the back of the design) that, when scanned, will open up a non-fungible token. Other people will be able to see on the OpenSea marketplace the digital garment purchased by a specific consumer, but that consumer will remain its sole owner.

Drop 1 - the first collection by MOY NFO - is just out and it is characterised by pastel colours and tech inspired prints. Through their drops, Harrison and Moy hope to explore the realm between digital and analogue and bridge the gap between NFTs and physical objects as they think this in-between space is where the future of fashion lies.

Can you introduce us to your label, MOY NFO?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: MOY NFO is a streetwear label which looks to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital. We have also implemented an NFT marketplace platform, the traditional ecommerce online store which is one of the first in fashion. We did a soft-launch around a month ago and we have had an amazing uptake in the fashion and crypto community. However, the idea has been bubbling around for about a year when Felicity did her menswear graduate collection featuring embroidered QR codes which linked through to code-based infrastructure.

This year there has been a lot of interest in NFTs, what fascinates you about NFTs and what do you think about all the auctions of arty NFTs that we have seen so far?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: We see NFTs as the future and a really exciting space for creativity! High auction prices have been good for the NFT community and have given a lot of agency back to artists. The high auction price of Beeple’s work "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" came from the fact that it was a collage of 5,000 individual artworks. It puts the final price into perspective when you think that the price per work was around $13,800. We have, however, seen a lot of celebrities cashing in on the NFT trend with poor quality artworks. If this continues there may be a dilution of the quality in the market and this may fuel more unsustainable hype.

How do you feel about the energy waste problem implied by the NFTs?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: The Energy waste problem with NFTs is something which we hope to change through our collections. Fashion, and fast fashion in particular, generates a huge amount of energy use and we know that garments have a lifespan before they need to be purchased again. With our digital/physical garments, consumers are able to keep the digital component of the piece long after the physical garment becomes unusable or broken. We have chosen the Ethereum Blockchain that uses a fraction of the energy which Bitcoin uses. In total, the whole Ethereum 2.0 system uses around 2.2 megawatts of energy which for a large system is a small amount of energy. We see this becoming a widely adopted technology across the community.

Can you tell us more about your NFO (Non-Fungible Object) concept?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: An NFO is a Non-Fungible Object. It is an object which exists simultaneously as a digital and physical form. We wanted to create the concept to find a space between the physical world and the digital world which was almost a grey area – an unexplored space! This became the backbone for our collection.

How does it work for a consumer who wants to purchase one of your products?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: Our online store, an integrated NFT marketplace, removes a lot of the jargon and apprehension for many fashion consumers to enter into the NFT/crypto space. When the consumer buys the NFO, they are purchasing both a physical and digital object at the same time. Our concept centres around garments existing in two forms and challenges the idea that a garment just has to be a physical object or a digital design. Choosing sizes and different garment types is all enabled through the online marketplace where NFTs are essentially set up like a traditional fashion store (S, M, L etc.). When the consumer completes the transaction, they are able to unlock shipping information which allows us to ship their garment anywhere in the world (as we know that the digital world is without borders).

Which currencies do you accept?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: Right now, we except ETH but in future we are looking to use USDC (US Dollar Coin) which is a crypto currency that is based off the US Dollar price, making it very easy for crypto currency newbies to understand its relative value.

Why are you trying to bridge the gap between physical and digital fashion, do you think that digital fashion can’t exist in a purely digital space, but needs the physical realm?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: Fashion is something deeply personal and a lived experience at the end of the day. Fabrics have drape, texture, and very visceral material qualities. The same goes to the political nature of fashion and how the body is perceived when wearing certain garments (e.g. wearing certain clothes in certain contexts). When coming up with our concept, we knew that the vast majority of people would have trouble interacting with digital only clothing, even though it is technically just clothing in a different form. We wanted to make digital fashion accessible with the aid of a real-world artefact – our NFO physical garments. We also wanted to bridge the gap between the mainstream and NFT communities as we saw that a lot of people struggled to see the value in NFT art. We wanted to provide an easy transition into what we see, and has been forecasted to be the future of our assets and design. We also see a trend going towards the digitisation of assets. We wanted to test this on clothing to see how we could integrate existing and emerging technologies to bring the physical world into the digital world.

What inspired Drop 1 and how many designs are included in the first drop?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: Drop 1 is a reflection of how the digital space allows for an anonymous existence as such. The crypto camo features QR codes which have been warped and shifted into a camo print. We wanted to integrate the streetwear culture which is more masculine with the more ethereal nature of the NFT aesthetic - think blurred gradients, chrome motifs and pastels. Our first drop contains 4 garments, all digitally printed and sewn in Melbourne. We are planning to release Drop 1.1 in a couple of weeks and are integrating some very interesting AR software into the designs. So stay tuned!

Which are the signature styles of this first drop?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: The shapes, colours, and overall aesthetic are all influenced by the synergy between the digital space and streetwear design. We are quite influenced by making clothing which anyone can wear and really embrace the fluidity of gender which streetwear evokes. We feature heavily pinks, purples, and greens in our Drop 1. We mirror these in our NFT animations. We focused on creating crisp yet ethereal designs with a futurist twist about them.

Would you make clothes for video game characters?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: Yes, it would be a great avenue for the future. However, right now we are focused on our NFOs.

In your opinion, what’s the future of NFTs?
Rob Harrison and Felicity Moy: It is hard to say as even a couple of years ago we would not have expected things like COVID-19, the rise of NFTs and high interest in crypto. We see NFTs being the best way to authenticate digital items – not just necessarily artworks. We also see this space as a extremely high growth area which will evolve in ways which we cannot even anticipate as legislation and general businesses catch up.

Body Morphing in Digital Spaces: "Otherworldly/Body Mutations", a Computational Body Architecture & Digital Fabrication Course + Online Exhibition @ The Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA), Beirut, Lebanon

The possibilities of changing not just our clothes or styles, but our bodies as well has turned into a constant obsession in the last few years. Those who can afford and want to push things further can turn to plastic surgery; most of us use instead clothes and accessories that can help us sculpting our bodies in the shape we desire.

But those ones equipped with advanced technical skills can introduce us to entirely new digital shapes and silhouettes best explored in virtual spaces. A group of students has just been doing that at the "Computational Body Architecture & Digital Fabrication" course, a new addition of Beirut's Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA).

Taught by French-Lebanese architect and fashion designer Maria-Thala Al-Aswad, who has been developing for ten years now studies and explorations in digital fabrication, the course attempts to bridge the gap betwen fashion and architecture in innovative ways.

To explore the main theme of the course - "Otherworldly/Body Mutations" - students of different disciplines, from fashion and film to architecture, teamed up in pair or in groups of three to ponder about physical and mental transformations. In just a few months they designed imaginary garments, hybrid constructions that reshape the body or that help it to adapt to the new life challenges ahead.

Some of them created biogarments, combinations of flora and fauna, and presented them in a digital space suspended between a gallery and a video game set ("Biogarment" by Ram Zein and Rayan Gholam); others moved from modern challenges that have had an impact on our minds and our mental health - from Coronavirus to the Beirut blast last August - to develop garments that represented the emotionally confused condition of the wearer and maybe mark a path towards a healing process ("Frénésie" by Lynn Khoury and Nour Mouawad).

Waste and the detritus of modern lives provided studies on materials resulting in body assemblages and textural clashes ("Detritus Consciousness" by Juliano Fakhry and Tia Bou Khalil), while the fascinating stages of the trasformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly led another team ("Trans-mue-tation" by Ghassan Beidoun and Juliette Osman) to wonder how to develop a series of designs, one containing the other. 

A study on the evolution/devolution of our back and curvature combined with three-dimensional surfaces found in everyday objects like egg boxes prompted others to experiment further with bumps and lumps ("The Growth" by Yara Saidy, Christelle Farhat and Maribel Nasr), while the architectures of Isaïe Bloch inspired an architect and fashion designer duo to find a way to integrate solid structure into delicate draping ("Processing-Decay" by Alexis Hajji and Jana Rizkallah).

All the projects were surprising and unexpected considering the short time the students had to develop them and the Coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns that kept them apart.

Their moodboards and presentations were also rich, at times incorporating fashion stories and pictures - from early futuristic images of flight attendants in Pucci's space bubble-shaped helmets to high-tech designs by Iris van Herpen, combined with vintage images of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

All the projects can now be viewed in an online exhibition in a virtual space on Frame VR where visitors can also meet and chat with each other or with the students.

What will it happen to the students' projects in future? Well, some of them may be scaled and resized to create jewelry, accessories or even assemblaged works of art, but the most important part of the project is the fact that the students worked together, discovering each other's modus operandi and techniques - learning from different disciplines and skills, from architecture and fashion to film, from stitching to developing algorithms and using Grasshopper. So, is a new body possible or is it possible to find new ways of fabricating it in a digital world? Probably yes, but what's more important is to do that in a collaborative and stimulating environment, as course leader Maria-Thala Al-Aswad explains us.

Can you introduce us to the course and tell us more about its genesis?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: The Computational Body Architecture & Digital Fabrication course aims to place the students' multi-disciplinary know-how and backgrounds in a specific context - "Body Architecture" - that is, the emerging body scale in architecture. The students explore in this course the potential of networking in parallel the fashion and architecture disciplines in a digital studio, in which they can use computer technologies and advanced manufacturing tools crossed with the methods of reflection and execution of couture to achieve 1:1 scale clothing prototypes.

Do you feel that the fashion and architecture connection has evolved in the last few years and, in case, does this course represent this evolution?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: Over the past two decades, a new relationship has emerged between architecture and fashion. It is no longer a theoretical link, or a resonance of style or form. The innovation is in a new discipline breaking the rules of the art of the two fields. Architects are making fashion through new digital technologies and architectural fabrication or construction. What is specific to architecture and fashion is materiality; otherwise, 3D animation designers do the job very well in term of imagination and 3D modeling, like in the "Avatar" movie in 2009, for example. The new research field is to transform these improbable forms and ideas into real wearables with new materials and production processes.

Is this the first time the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) in Beirut organises such a course?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: Yes, it is and it is also the first time it is organised in Lebanon and in the Middle East. I think ALBA is the best place to create such synergy between students from all the school departments. It is one of the rare places grouping schools of Architecture, Visual Arts, Decorative Arts, Cinema and Audiovisual Directing, Urban Planning, Fashion Design, English and French Writing. For this first edition of the course, we had students from the Architecture, Fashion, Cinema and Audiovisual Directing schools.

What prompted you to come up with this theme – "Otheworldly/Body Mutations"?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: This course is the result of 10 years of research and self-development in the field of "Body Architecture". Since my participation in the "Building Fashion" and "Post-McQueen Embryos" workshops organized by the AA visiting school in Paris, I never stopped researching about the idea of using architectural skills and logics and apply them to the human body and wearables. I explored many 3D tools and machines to create my own projects and became familiar with many processes and scenarios. Then I met the right persons at the right moment and in the right place and took the leap and wrote an educational syllabus. The pandemic accelerated the process as we collectively realised there is a need to change and revolutionize the wearables industry. After 2020, the "Otherworldly/Body Mutations" theme became almost obvious for me: the human body has faced several challenges, we have been through health, social and economic crises, in addition to the huge explosion of the port of Beirut, which was a specific challenge for Lebanese citizens.

In which ways do you think the “Otherworldly/Body Mutations” theme relates to our lives and times?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I have always kept in mind Michel Foucault’s words about living forms that can pass into each other, and that current species are undoubtedly the result of old transformations. The current circumstances, such as wearing masks or over-using thumbs to switch on smartphones, can accelerate and lead the mutation to future developments. We can expect, for example, more transformations in ears, jaws, hands and backs than other parts because of our new lifestyle and environment. For instance, our bodies' expressions might become exaggerated for a better communication with each other, since our mouths and noses are covered by masks.

Which were the challenges that these students had to face?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: With hindsight and now that the course is over, I would not view the challenges they had negatively. In life there's always a first time and I would rather describe these challenges as a succession of "firsts" for them and for me, in a very short time span. The total course sessions came to 26 hours (two hours a week), in which they had lectures, tutorials, project sessions and reviews, with no physical contact or access to the school workshops or even the cafeteria. While the lack of sociability affects the students' morale and therefore their creativity, there were also many positive aspects of distance learning, such hosting "online"’ international tutors and lecturers like Filippo Nassetti from MHOX Design, Aleksandar Bursac from Zaha Hadid Architects, and jury members like you, Anna Battista, as journalist and fashion critic, artist and engineer Horst Kiechle and up-and-coming Lebanese fashion designer Roni Helou. This was absolutely enriching and inspiring and the students felt encouraged and pushed forward. I would say that the prototyping part was the biggest challenge and was unaffordable for some projects, as there is a lack of materials and machines because of the economic crisis in the country. However, this pushed them to think about alternatives and find alternative solutions.

Which aspects of the fashion and architecture/digital experience do you think they found more engaging and which ones do you think they found more difficult?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: Generally, they are very comfortable when it comes to design, images, storytelling and beauty. What was new for them is to think in "constructible" terms. With this expression I mean adapting the design, exploring different methods and tools, thinking geometry, searching for materials and machines, and studying budgets.

In which ways did they surprise you?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: The distance learning and the interdisciplinary semantics generated some positive misunderstandings and therefore surprises. The most surprising moment for me was when a group of Architect and Audiovisual students came with a unique analysis of the ideal body or silhouette from Rei Kawakubo’s point of view, and how they used it in their 3D modeling and general concept. One other surprise is how another group expressed the psychological confusion people are going through because of the pandemic and the Beirut Blast in a very precise way, but, in turn, I could also detect this confusion in their own work and process. All these observations were very interesting and touching.

You put together a virtual exhibition collecting the end of the course works, can you tell us more about it?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: The online virtual exhibition is on display in a very minimalist space with positive summer vibes. We wanted to assemble the variety of approaches and processes of the students' projects in a simple and efficient way and make sure their work reached out to as many people as possible, so we used Frame VR. You can explore the exhibition space at this link. 

Most fashion shows moved to a digital space this past year because of Coronavirus, do you feel that the virtual reality exhibition organised for the students reflects this trend as well?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: Yes, of course, but the main difference between a digital fashion show and this virtual exhibition is the possibility of moving freely in the space around the 3D models instead of watching a digital animated video. The other advantage is the possibility of interacting and gathering with other visitors. People can talk to each other via microphones, see the presence of the others via webcams and use the chat window. This is therefore a fun experience. I think all these technologies became a necessity after the pandemic lockdowns. The crisis gave humanity a big push forward to invent tools that can help to keep our work, creativity and sociability as active as possible.

How long will the exhibition be available and is this a way for your students to reach out to other students and institutions and interact with them as well?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: The exhibition is online throughout the summer 2021 so students can, as you said, interact with visitors and use the space to show their work and even organize virtual events or interviews in the space.

What's in store for this course?
Maria-Thala Al-Aswad: I have many plans, themes and adaptations for this course, and I hope that this edition will be a starting point for many collaborations in the future. From my point of view, this was a very enriching experience that pushed forward my own thoughts and ideas and, hopefully, it will inspire me some future projects as well.

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues: Saint Laurent X Memphis Milano

They're called trends and they return every so many years, a bit like zombies in horror films. After all, fashion functions following a cyclical pattern and every so many years a specific trend - think about flared trousers or high-waisted jeans - comes back. But there is an inspiration in fashion that keeps on coming back every few years and that is verging towards saturation – the Memphis Milano collective.

In fact, let's admit it: rather than being just an inspiration, Memphis Milano is an irresistible addiction that spreads at different levels and in different contexts. You GOTTA love it.

After all, even the boxing ring in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" is not a real boxing ring, but a bed on which you can just roll, reminiscent of Memphis Milano's Masanori Umeda's Tawaraya Ring seating unit/bed, proving that there are correspondences between some of the objects in the game and famous interior design pieces.

If you use the design feature in the game and come up with some basic black and white vertical stripes you may even be able to customise the ring bed in the game and turn it into a basic version of the Memphis Milano design.

The Milan-based interior design group, that takes its name from Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again", operated between 1981 and 1987. The group attached an emotional value to everyday objects, transforming them into items capable of creating a new relationship between human beings and the domestic habitat surrounding them.

Bizarre, unpredictable and looking like toys thanks to their clashing patterns and colours, the function of Memphis Milano's table lamps, sofas and armchairs, fabrics, vases and teapots wasn't always so clear, but those bright and bold colour combinations and fun shapes turned these pieces from what conservative critics initially thought were tasteless displays of vulgarity, into cool, beautiful objects capable of standing the test of time.

And so at least ever two to five years, fashion jumps on the Memphis Milano bandwagon and designers produce collections inspired by the collective. 

Ten years ago the shapes of its vases and dishes reappeared in Dior's Autumn/Winter 2011-12 Haute Couture collection. Then it was the turn of footwear brand Sergio Rossi with its Spring/Summer 2013 collection with unmistakable graphic zigzag lines or black and white stripes broken by colourful elements reminiscent of Michele De Lucchi's tables and lamps, or by the contrasting shades and patterns of Nathalie Du Pasquier's porcelain vases and fruit bowls.

The pastel shades in Prada's A/W 2015 collection looked entirely lifted from Michele De Lucchi's Girmi prototypes, while Arthur Arbesser's Resort 2016 collection borrowed from Ettore Sottsass' works and Valentino's A/W 17 collection featured prints by Nathalie du Pasquier.

The latest designer to turn to Memphis Milano for inspiration was Saint Laurent's creative director Anthony Vaccarello. The reason why Memphis Milano is a constant inspiration is almost too easy to understand: the crazy textures, clashing colours and patterns, symbols of the optimism and ebullience of the '80s immediately put you in a good mood and, as Coronavirus brought a dark shadow on our lives, it is only natural for Vaccarello to look up at the collective for their energetic and dynamic prints.

This year the collective celebrates its 40th Anniversary, so, as part of the Saint Laurent Rive Droite project, Vaccarello created a capsule collection comprising two multicolored checkerboard hoodies, two dresses, one shirt and two pairs of sneakers.

The capsule is accompanied by an exhibition (until 23rd June) in both Saint Laurent Rive Droite stores in Paris (213 rue Saint Honoré) and Los Angeles (469 Rodeo Drive), that also include Ettore Sottsass' Carlton room divider, De Lucchi's Riviera chairs and Masanori Umeda's Tawaraya Ring seating.

Apart from the designs, the shops and Saint Laurent's site also offer a selection of ashtrays, vases, plates, glasses, decorations and textile accessories by Memphis Milano and a few books as well about the history and works of the collective.

And this is where you wonder if Saint Laurent is taking the piss out of consumers: all the items are marked as "Exclusive to Rive Droite", but of all the books available - Brigitte Fitoussi's "Memphis"; Barbara Radice's 1984 and 1986 editions of "Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design"; the catalogue of the 1991 exhibition at Musées de Marseille, "Memphis Céramique, Argent, Verre" and "Sottsass Associates" - only "Memphis Céramique, Argent, Verre" is very rare, while the others can still be found on a variety of sites including Amazon and eBay often at slightly more affordable prices than Saint Laurent's (yes, Fitoussi's 1998 edition may be out of print, but the 2002 edition si still available and usually it costs less than €40; at Saint Laurent what looks like the 1998 edition costs $195).

On Saint Laurent's site Radice's 1984 edition of "Memphis" is priced $275, but its price at vintage and rare book stores goes between €129 and €220); besides, only the first edition of "Sottsass Associates" is really worth over €300, reprints are worth €50-€60 and the edition available on Saint Laurent's site comes as $275 but we aren't told if that's a first edition.  

But there are discrepancies also for what regards some of the Memphis Milano pieces: Nathalie du Pasquier's "Onion" fruit bowl is priced $475 on Saint Laurent's site, on Yoox it costs €355; Maria Sanchez's "Squash" ashtray also seems to be slightly cheaper on Yoox. 

But Memphis Milano purists won't get annoyed at the prices, but at the description of some of the prints, such as the black pattern on fuchsia background used on the dresses and shirt.

Ettore Sottsass' iconic "Bacterio" print for Abet Laminati is described on Saint Laurent's site as "squiggle confetti" - was that an attempt at sanitising it to avoid any possible negative connection with illnesses and with Coronavirus in particular? Who knows.

Yet, if this was a genuine collaboration, they should have bothered at least calling the prints with their correct names, or maybe the collection is not aimed at Memphis Milano fans but at vapid influencers posting on Instagram their pictures in front of Ultrafragola, Ettore Sottsass' 1970 sinuous pink lamp-cum-mirror for Poltronova, finding it irresistibly cute and mainly using it as a prop, without even bothering to check who designed it.   

Hopefully, some of the original Memphis Milano designers will develop their own fashion collection at some point (what about T-shirts with their iconic pieces?), until then we will be "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues". Again and again. 

Hard & Soft Inspirations, Natural & Recycled Solutions

In September this year, the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Kasarmikatu 24, Helsinki) will open an exhibition entitled "Hope from Wood" (from 10th September 2021 to 9th January 2022). 

The multi-disciplinary event, curated by cultural journalist Minna Joenniemi, is set to look at wooden architecture from a unique perspective, taking into consideration the hope it inspires in people. Rather than just looking at a few buildings, the exhibition will cover a long time span, going from the early achievements of wood construction to the algorithmic architecture of the future, and it will explore them through human emotions - from hope to despair, from love to sadness - analysing at the same time the various emotions captured by wood in an era of climate crisis.

In Finnish the word "toivo", that is hope, is integrated in the name of more than 800 places with the name Toivola, villages, farms and houses - most of which are built of wood. Therefore, preserving wooden buildings is an act of love towards the local heritage, but also a way to react to climate change and get inspired to create more sustainable buildings (the use of wood reduces the carbon footprint in building construction).

Wood has increasingly begun to appear among the prize-winning entries in architectural competitions and in Finland it is the material of choice for schools and day-care centres and the hope is that in future it will be used also for high-rise residential blocks.

The exhibition will also include love letters to the architectural heritage, written by architecture professionals as well as the author Tommi Kinnunen, documentary filmmaker Virpi Suutari, and founder of Pelastetaan vanhat talot (Save the Old Houses) Pia Kuurma.

A smaller event - "Deciphering Roof-trusses – Exploring Medieval Wooden Structures" - in the exhibition hall will focus instead on structures from the Middle Ages. This is a fascinating theme that is rarely explored: roof trusses hidden beneath Medieval shingle roofs are rarely analysed, but they are extremely intriguing structures as they are masterly displays of construction skills, and they are tangible proof of the structural innovations that developed in Central Europe during Medieval times. They could easily be used as inspiration for other creative projects (textile design, knitwear and jewellery come to mind - think about how to recreate some of these effects with yarns or metals for example).

If you love design, but prefer materials with a soft consistency that are still sustainable, check out the Porífera vases by Margarida Pereira.

The name of the collection comes from the sponge species (from the Greek "πόρος", meaning vase and passage, and the Latin "fero", to bear). The first animals on Earth were poriferous and their shape was a vase or a cylinder-like, asymmetrical or radially symmetrical body, with an opening, the osculus, on the top (View this photo).

Pereira's vases (available from Copenhagen Studio Tableau) are made from repurposed sponges, collected from recycling centers in Copenhagen (the materials mainly come from waste from furniture) cut up in different pieces and handsewed in a variety of sizes so that each vase is unique (you can follow more about the designer's creative process on her Instagram page).

The collection challenges tactile expectations, between the visual sensation of softness and the fact that vases are usually hard to the touch (Pereira's vases have an epoxy coating interior so that they can contain water and accomodate flowers). The vases come in delicate pastel colours - light pink, baby blue and pale yellow - a palette partially inspired by corals (View this photo) and they are stitched in blue or red thread. Pereira's designs are a great example of something unwanted being upcycled into something new and desirable.

An Artist's Perspective on Waste: Spotlight on Gayle Chong Kwan

Waste is a significant global issue, but for some arists it is an inspiration to spark a conversation about environmental problems and to comment about pollution and consumption.

London-based artist Gayle Chong Kwan started exploring themes connected with waste around 2008: the artist is known for her works in which she reuses food waste - citrus peels, apple cores, banana skins, and other food remains and organic materials - in imaginative ways. Quite often she carves out of these materials buildings and cities in ruins (as she did for her project "Paris Remains", 2008) or recreates landscapes that she then photographs.

The discarded and recycled materials, crafted into mysterious and immersive environments have a surreal and mysterious quality about them: "Atlantis" (2014) is for example an enormous fantastical tourist resort created in miniature, carved out of clear and frosted plastic waste food packaging materials.

Chong Kwan used the same materials to recreate housing developments in China inspired by European themes, such as Thames Town in Shanghai, which is a replica of a traditional English town. In this case the materials were employed to create a form of reverse chinoiserie or "angloiserie", reflecting the changing relationship between the East and West.

Inspired by the growth of the intensive dairy industry on water, land use, CO2 emissions and biodiversity in New Zealand, Chong Kwan developed the installation "Wastescape: weaving landscapes of politics, dairy and waste" (2019). In this case she employed over six thousand used plastic milk bottles, collected from schools and communities to create stalactites and stalagmites of waste, a sculptural landscape that she installed at London's Hayward Gallery, but also in New Zealand, in the Auckland Harbour, in this case accompanied by a series of sculptural headdresses that invited visitors to think about he environmental effects of New Zealand's dairy industry through Maori weaving techniques.

The results of her explorations on waste are imaginative and scary as all the food waste and discarded elements push you to ponder about excess, the superfluous and the value of food waste and at how we are exploiting our natural sources, while stimulating a debate on the importance of reducing waste in order to lessen our impact on the environment. 

At the moment Chong Kwan has got a new exhibition, "Waste Archipelago" at Galleria Alberta Pane in Venice (until 24th July 2021), that also features her collages made of waste materials.

Last year the artist also worked on an online textile project entitled "Dream Tapestry: Social Sewing Session" that consisted in creating a communal tapestry of lockdown dreams during the COVID-19 Emergency.

Chong Kwan collected descriptions of dreams that people living in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, in the UK and the rest of the world had during lockdown. She has been embroidering these as hand sewn texts hidden in the inside seams and folds of clothes, to be exhibited online and in public. The clothes will eventually be donated to charity shops in Waltham Forest. So, who knows, in future Chong Kwan may consider moving from food and plastic waste onto textile waste as well.

Fashion Forensics: A Study on the Deterioration and Degradation of Polyurethane Coating in Garments

Yesterday we looked at plastic waste and microplastics. Let's continue the thread today with a forensic fashion study that takes into consideration the deterioration of polyurethane coated textiles to ponder a bit more about what our garments may release in the environment once we stop wearing them and dispose of them.

The study focuses on two pair of trousers by Calzedonia that we will call Exhibit A and B and that in the course of a few years (in the case of Exhibit A) or a few months (Exhibit B) showed visible signs of wear and tear.

Polyurethane coating gets scratched and comes off after a while and you can almost attempt an architectural comparison as in some cases it ends up looking like a wall or a building with paint peeling off.

As stated above, this study focuses on two pair of trousers, but polyurethane coating is common for other types of garments including skirts and jackets.

Pictures 2 and 4 in this post show the deterioration on a cheap polyurethane coated jacket. In this case the coating simply cracked and started peeling off, exactly like paint on a wall. The two photographs refer to the back of the jacket. But let's move onto a more detailed analysis of the two trousers.

Exhibit A

Description: Exhibit A refers to a polyurethane coated pair of trousers by Calzedonia.

Fit: They are characterised by a comfortable fit and they are not too tight. The style is more similar to that of a pair of trousers with a solid side zip and two invisible zips at the ankles.

Feel: The surface is pleasant to the touch, smooth and has a silky consistency imitating nappa leather.

Material: The label indicates the composition of the main textile for this product - 65% Viscose and 35% Polyester; the coating is 100% Polyurethane.

Labels/Warnings/Washing instructions: The label indicates the trousers were "Made in China". The washing instructions explain they should be handwashed. But the trousers were machine-washed at least once a week at 30°.

There is just one warning on the label that highlights that the colour of this product may transfer onto light-coloured materials; this never happened.

History: Bought around 6-7 years ago; worn regularly (at least for 25-30 weeks a year for 4-5 years).

Deterioration: After 4-5 years they started showing some signs of deterioration on the buttocks and crotch area, parts that are naturally exposed to frictions.

There are also some minor cuts around the ankles and two scratches in the polyurethane around the right thigh / knee. The polyurethane parts that peel off do have an elastic consistency, but they aren't sticky. They have the consistency of a film that, when pulled, easily breaks into smaller fragments.    

Storage: The trousers were stored in a plastic bag for the last two years; no further deterioration was noted.

Exhibit B

Description: Exhibit B refers to a polyurethane coated pair trousers by Calzedonia.

Fit: Tighter than the previous ones, they look more like leggings. The company seemed to have eliminated the zips in this case, probably to save money, and preferred to use a thick elastic around the waist.

Feel: The surface is soft, but porous, different from the previous trousers and maybe reminiscent of thick and cheap leather.

Material: The label indicates the composition of the main textile for this product - 90% Polyester (thicker compared to the viscose of Exhibit A) and 10% Elastane; the coating is 100% Polyurethane.

Labels/Warnings/Washing instructions: The label indicates the trousers were "Made in Sri Lanka". The washing instructions explain they should be washed inside out at 30°. The trousers were machine-washed at least once a week at 30°.

There is just one warning on the label that highlights the fact the colour of this product may transfer onto light-coloured materials; this never happened.

History: Bought around 3-4 years ago; they were worn regularly for just 24-30 weeks.

Deterioration: After 4-5 months the trousers started rapidly deteriorating: bubbles started forming on the buttocks and crotch areas and along one leg, as if the surface coating was separating from the fabric underneath.

Eventually one of the largest bubble around the crotch burst and the material – an elastic film – just peeled away. The same happened along the left leg in the area under a knee. The polyurethane parts that peel off have a high elasticity and they are a bit sticky; they have the consistency of rubber to the touch. Part of the waistband got unstiched (no picture of that as it doesn't really refer to polyurethane degradation). 

Storage: The trousers were stored in a plastic bag for the last two years; no further deterioration was noted.

Conclusions

It seems that the quality of this brand went down in just a few years' time: while Exhibit A lasted for a longer time even when it was machine washed, Exhibit B rapidly deteriorated and soon became unwearable. 

The main concern in the two cases is how to dispose of these items as both would release bits and pieces of polyurethane coating in the environment.

This experiment is supposed to encourage people to look more closely at materials and read labels in depth before buying a product. You can try this experiment at home and play at being a fashion detective with any item by any brand. So before throwing out something (from a garment to an accessory like a pair of shoes) consider keeping it to make a comparison with the next piece you may be buying.

It would actually be worth doing a "Fashion Forensics" exhibition with items by different brands collected by people all over the world. Such an exhibition would definitely teach a lot to visitors about manufacturing, textiles and deterioration/degradation of materials and it would prompt us all to start thinking more about what happens to a garment when we stop wearing it and just throw it away.