In the last two posts, we looked at a fashion collection and at costumes that use technologically advanced fabrics or a set of magnets integrated in the garments to trigger a transformation of some kind, a fashion metamorphosis. But fashion designers and creators who come up with these solutions and can be considered also inventors, can take a unique and innovative system or a technology that they have developed to the next stage by patenting it.
Obtaining a patent, especially a worldwide one is not easy, but it can represent a great achievement and lead to further collaborations with other industries and sectors.
In previous posts we looked at patent pioneers such as polymath Loïe Fuller and Italian footwear designer Salvatore Ferragamo. As you may remember, Ferragamo registered over 360 patents between 1927 and 1964, that referred to shoes and shoe parts as well.
In 1968, Pierre Cardin invented instead a synthetic fabric dubbed "Cardine" that featured a three-dimensional pattern. The fabric made with heat-moulded bonded Dynel (a copolymer of acrylonitrile and vinyl chloride and the trade name for a type of synthetic material used in fiber reinforced plastic composite materials, especially for marine applications) that could be pre-shaped or sewn to couture standards. Cardin's uncrushable pre-formed designs made with this material incorporated decorative three-dimensional geometric patterns that would go back to their original shape even after the garment was washed.
The company kept on patenting designs till Cardin's death in 2020, one of the latest (USD904502S1; Download USD904502_Pierre Cardin), refers to an ornamental design for spectacles and it is actually based on a previous patent/design.
Like Cardin, also Donatella Versace patented an ornamental design for eyeglasses for her company (USD675245S1; Download USD675245_Versace), but also several other items, including perfume bottles (such as USD695126S1; Download USD695126_Versace), several pieces of interior design (from a sofa to an armchair and a table) and footwear soles (USD882229S1; Download USD882229_Versace).
Giorgio Armani also patented a few items and procedures, including the ornamental design for a bag (USD821744S1; Download USD821744_Armani), men's trousers with variable fit (ITMI20022786A1) and the actual procedure to make a pair of trousers (ITMI20011636A1). In the history of fashion, women proved to be consistent inventors: the smartest was Bonnie Cashin who registered several patents for ensembles under her name with the US office as early as 1940, some of them for coats, skirt suits and dresses with her trademark kiss lock pckets (for example USD157566S; Download USD157566_BCashin; or USD157567S; Download USD157567_BCashin).
Some patents include drawings and images, others only text, and, in some cases, they show the meticulous and complex research behind the invention.
In Thursday's post we mentioned a patent by Italian fashion designer and artist Cinzia Ruggeri regarding a dark fabric, leather or hide with a layer of microencapsulated liquid crystals of cholesteric nature (Download US4510188_CRuggeri).
"The main object of the present invention is that of providing a fabric in which the chromatic effect is variable with the environmental conditions," the section regarding the objects and summary of this invention explained.
"A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a fabric whose color, either totally or in some predetermined parts thereof, varies with varying the temperatures or upon varying the visual angle under which the fabric is observed." The text then becomes very technical, providing also detailed liquid crystal compositions that change colours at different temperatures.
Ruggeri's research focused on textiles that changed colour as they changed temperature, and recently there has been a research that has developed further the possibilities of reactive textiles.
In February this year, a team from the Multifunctional Materials Design research group at Aalto University in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cambridge, developed reactive textiles which respond to changes in temperature and change shape when heated.
The new fabrics move from Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) developed in the 1980s. This smart material that can respond to heat, light, or other stimuli, has so far been used as thin films in soft robotics. Although LCEs have been made into fibres, so far they haven't been made into textiles.
Researchers used instead LCE yarns to make woven fabric using conventional textile crafting techniques and tested how they behaved. The team wove LCE yarn in different patterns to make plain fabric, satin, twill, and a weft rib fabric. They made two versions of each pattern using either a soft or stiff LCE yarn, and tested the response of the fabric to heat from an infrared lamp. All of the LCE fabrics contracted as they warmed up, though the exact response differed from pattern to pattern. The changes were reversible – the patterns relaxed back to their original shape as their temperature dropped.
The team also combined LCE yarns with linen and nylon in a radial pattern to weave a circle that would lift itself into a cone when heated. Heating the pattern caused the LCE yarn to contract, pulling the cloth up into a cone. As it cooled, the cone relaxed back into a flat circle.
The new finding would offer new possibilities as this material could be applied for adjustable aesthetics or used for other applications such as monitoring health, improve thermal insulation and provide new tools for managing room acoustics and interior design.
In between collections, capsules, collaborations, promotions and social media, fashion designers nowadays may not have a lot of time to experiment and find innovative and patentable materials, systems and designs. But it is important to experiment and develop ambitious ideas to create something unique, opening in this way also new research paths for those who will come after.
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