Voice pattern knitting

Magdalena Kohler and Hanna Wiesener are exploring the intersection between communication and fashion through their voice knitting collection TRIKOTON. The garments visualize the human voice in a dot-matrix-type knitted pattern creating a new aesthetics of speech pattern that is directly integrated into the textile of the garment. To generate the pattern, Kohler and Wiesener hacked a 1970s mechanical machine to make it interactive and produce the patterns. Here's how they describe how it works:

"The scheme of pattern cards of old, mechanical knitting machines was used for an audio data program, realised in processing. Now the frequency band of a spoken message is converted into a binary code for knitting patterns. [W]e used 4 microcontroller and 24 small engines in order to imitate a pattern card that could be directly controlled by the voice signals via a computer."

I would love to get my hands on one of these. More info about this project at trikoton.com.

Light as texture

Fashion designer Hamish Morrow is exploring light as pattern and texture. Video is projected onto an all-white dress that creates this gorgeous illuminating pattern that changes and animates.

The dress is completely impractical, but it demonstrates the effect that a dynamically changing pattern can have on the mood, historical connotations, and emotion associated with the garment.

More on Morrow here.

Light as body ornamentation

Designer Kyeok Kim’s is exploring new forms of generating body ornamentation including objects that leave decorative imprints on the skin, jewelry that prints decorative traces on the skin, and stringy textures that create ornamental silhouettes.

One of his recent explorations includes a collection of jewelry that projects patterns onto the wearer's skin called Aurora. Here's how Kim describes it: "‘Aurora’ creates patterns of light on the body as ornamentation, extending the ornamented space around the body and restyling its decorative silhouette by motion. ‘Aurora’ highlights the relationship between different pieces of jewellery, by its nature the pieces interact with the another. To operate the decorative light, one must gently move the ring (containing a magnet) towards the main jewellery piece."

Pattern-changing swimsuits

Textile designer Yun Ding has created Aqua Chameleon, a line of delicate-looking swimwear printed with smart pigments such as thermochromatic and photochromatic ink that change patterns based on certain conditions. The patterns gradually shift from a geometric print into a decorative pattern by reacting to temperature, sunlight, or water conditions. These "swim costumes" challenge our notion of how a garment should function aesthetically by adding dynamically changing patterns based on the changing environment around us and displaying it back for all to see.

For more color-changing projects, check out Angel Chang's color-changing fashion line, or Joshua Hupper's AlphaMicron project that I posted earlier.

Video dress aimed to hit the market

Future-thinking fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and Swarovski have created a dress that is covered in leds. It's one of the few attempts I've seen at creating an illuminating garment that is actually quite beautiful. The dress is made of two layers, the under layer is covered with a matrix of leds and the outer layer is used to diffuse the light making it seem soft and blended together.

The dress is also not just another conceptual exploration. The designers will be making it available in Japanese markets from fall and winter seasons in this year. (source)

Read additional postings on Chalayan.

Diana Eng's inflatable dress

This is an older project, but still worth a reminder. Diana Eng, in collaboration with Emily Albinski, created this gorgeous dress way back in 2003, which ended up making its way on the cover of ID Magazine. The designers used this project to explore how they could use electronics to change the shape and color of a gown. The dress inflates to allow you to change it's shape. Pump up the back or the sides to change its silhouette.

The designers made no attempt to hide the electronics, rather, they exposed the spaghetti-ball of wires and components as the main aesthetic. This was a pretty outrageous design at the time. Since then, inflatable and shape-shifting garments have been a topic of exploration from designers such as Hussein Chalayan, Extra-Soft (XS) labs, Ying Gao, and Teresa Almeida.