Last Friday, I went (togehter with my colleague Niels) to the Smart Textiles Salon in Gent (Belgium). It was a workshop, were different prototypes were presented. What I really liked was the fact that it was a collection of initiatives from various backgrounds: very technical ones but also projects with a background in the arts).

A project, I liked very much was the one of Berit Greinke, called “SHHH…, Amplifying textiles”. She recently graduated from MA Textile Futures Course at St. Martins and presented in fact an adaptation of her MA project. The main idea behind her work is that it makes a connection between textiles and sound: a connection which isn’t very obvious. She made a machine which reads the charateristics of fabric and makes them auditorily perceptible.

Designer Milica Balubdzic came up with a new version of the traditional clothes hanger. She made a hanger out of aluminum which uses magnets for the affixing.

Source: PSFK

The Ralph Lauren Rugby brand launched  a “Make Your Own” iPhone application , by which consumers can create their own Rugby shirt directly from their iPhone, which  can now also be done through interactive store windows in select stores..

By using the application and the shop window, customers can customize a Rugby shirt  with patches and lettering,  buy it, email it, post it to Facebook or save it. But if you might wonder how you would look with that particular shirt, you can upload a photo and actually see how it fits you. And by shaking the application, you can change your skin tone ore later your haircut. Afterwards you can share it with others in a public gallery and even rate the creations of others.

On the interactive store windows, all of this can be done by touching the glass with your hand. This means you can customize a shirt at the store anytime day or night, without even going inside.

Source: PSFK, Ralph Lauren Rugby

Just 49 days until my birthday!! So if anyone wants to buy me the perfect birthday gift, check out the customization programme of Leica! I just customized my personal Leica M in just 9 steps and it looks like this …. unfortunately the price is also very impressive (4770 euros).

But as we all know: one has to pay for quality!!

I recently posted an item concerning the use of coffee beans as an ingredient for a new fabric. Guess what; you can combine your coffee fabric with a cloud of milky clothes.

According the Wall Street  Journal Online:

“Per Aage Sivertsen, winner of this spring’s Oslo Fashion Week designer award (Naløyet) in February and creative mind behind the Norwegian “eco-lux” brand FIN, plans to make part of next year’s spring/summer collection from a gauze-like fabric based 100% on milk proteins. Making fabric from milk frees up land that would otherwise have been used to grow cotton, a crop vilified for its intense water consumption and high pesticide use.”

Source: PSFK , Wall Street Journal Online

The city of Brussels is concentrating on all aspects of design during the month of September with exhibitions, conferences, private showings, film screenings, debates, visits to designers’ studios, flea market, city tours ….

An interesting workshop is : CUSTOMIZE IT  by RECYCLART

Do you feel like a new flashy colour for your bike, a customised logo on your  skateboard, to revamp the family scooter? Your home-made mode of transport is  really too ugly? Good news: bring them all with you. A team of artists and designers  will undertake their customisation. Share your creativity with them and create a  unique item that will be the envy of all. Finally, strike a pose and the Studio Marcel  will immortalise you together with your vehicle! Or just drop in to take a look and  have a bite to eat and something to drink on the terrace of the Recyclart bar!

Sunday 20th September, Recyclart, Brussels-Chapelle station, rue des Ursulines 25,  1000 Brussels – Info: 02 502 57 34 – www.recyclart.be. Open from 2 PM to 6 PM.