Social Textiles - On interactive & social textiles, mass customisation and social media

Open Softwear

Katrien — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:07:33 +0000

Open Softwear is a book about fashion and technology: more precisely about Arduino boards, conductive fabric, resistive thread, soft buttons, LEDs, and some other things and can be downloaded here.

Great video on the Open Garments project

Katrien — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:58:10 +0000

Just want to share a video that tells you everything you need to know about the Open Garments research project, where we are working on.

DIYcouture

Katrien — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:59:13 +0000

The London-based label DIYcouture launched its debut collection DIYC.

DIYC is not the average clothing collection. Instead of buying a finished garment, one purchases a book containing a set of instructions to make that particular garment yourself.

Their message:

“Inspired by the thousands of invisible pairs of hands around the globe that make the clothes we buy, DIYcouture hopes to inspire people to turn off their screens and get up to their elbows in the 3-dimensional world of creation. It supports the slow revolution. Helping people to produce garments that are precious, rather than disposable, this is the antithesis of fast-fashion.”

Reknit

Katrien — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:37:05 +0000

ReKnit - a project by Haik Avanian - allows people to send old sweaters to the artist’s mom. She unravels and knits them back into a specified article of the month. In the month of January, submitted sweaters will be re-knitted into scarves. So you choose send in your old sweater, choose the type of scarf you want, pay a fee Site visitors can also vote on what should be selected as the next month’s item.

Source: PSFK

Virtual fitting room

Katrien — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:49:30 +0000

Tobi.com has launched a virtual fitting room that users can access from their home. Augmented reality will help in answering the most important question: “how will this look on me?” Just by using a printed marker and a webcam, users can try items on and motion sensors are used to rate styles with the wave of a hand. They can also post pictures immediately to Facebook in order to see what friends think or when you just need that second opinion.

Source: Considerate clothing

Arrived!!

Katrien — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:28:37 +0000

Design your own rug!

Katrien — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:23:08 +0000

Bemz is a company that specialises in slip cover for a lot of IKEA sofas and chairs. I love them, since they recently added my type of IKEA sofa in their assortment. Just a while ago, I ordered some fabric samples and I must say … it won’t take that long before I place my order.

Next to the fabulous slip covers, they also have a very interesting blog. And it’s thanks to this that I got to know these two sites that give you the opportunity to design your own rug. So check out Rug Designer or Rug Couture and start creating your own rug!

LFLECT

Katrien — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:44:06 +0000

Warm and safe! Lost Value s has a range of accessories from hats to scarves for sale that are hand crafted with Scottish wool from the Highlands and reflective yarn.

Source: Fashioning Technology

How to

Priscilla — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:07:14 +0000

If you always wondered how a sewing machine works. Last night, I came across this visualisation. Interesting and hypnotising, I kept staring at it for 5 minutes.

By Bits & Pieces

Smart Textiles Salon 2009 - part 1

Katrien — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:24:39 +0000

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.