BUILDING THE FUTURE OF FASHION The title of this article could also have been: Building IS the future of fashion, since we find that collaborations with architects are resulting in the most innovative fashion designs right now, not just in terms of shape, but also in terms of construction. For instance, this shoe by Zaha Hadid for United Nude does not just reflect the same futuristic style as her buildings; it is also the first shoe in history that employs rotational moulding, which is the only way to create the seamless result. One of the main reasons why we now see so
Zaha Hadid for United Nude
many architects creating innovative fashion products, is that the technologies involved – such as 3D printing and generative design -were used in and developed further in architecture before they came to apparel and footwear. And not being hindered by any conventional knowledge of how a shoe or garment is supposed to be constructed, architects come to new solutions that people from the industry would not have thought of or would not have dared to do. At the same time, the absence of certain knowledge is also the problem with some of the collaborations between fashion designers and architects: often, traditional constructions have to be added to make up for discomfort created by these new architectural shapes or materials. For instance, in the Zaha Hadid shoe we find a conventionally made inner shoe, which is still stitched from leather, to make the hard outer shell wearable. So, in many collaborative footwear projects the architect does what he or she usually does: designing the façade and the skeleton, whereas the footwear designer becomes the interior designer. For now, the limitations of 3D printing – usually resulting in a rigid structure - often create the need for a separate inner shoe. With the technology maturing, allowing for multi material printing, this distinction between inside and outside will fade away again, allowing to print an entire, wearable shoe in one go. By that time, collaborations between with architects will hopefully have helped shoe designers to gather enough knowledge of new technologies to be able to think outside the box, without creating designs that also feel like one.
Zaha Hadid ‘s design for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University which will be finished in August 2013
Iris van Herpen & Philip Beesley
Iris van Herpen & Philip Beesley
Michael Hansmeyer
Collaborations between designers and architects in apparel mostly lead to innovation in materials. Laser cutting for instance, allows for new kinds of lace, mesh and knits or for hightech ‘unnatural’ kinds of fur. For a mainstream market though, 3D printed fabrics, like the one architect Francis Bitonti made for Dita von Teese, are still way too expensive and often not comfortable enough. For now, 3D printing is only competitive for small hardware, such as buckles and beads. We find the 3D printed work by architect Michael Hansmeyer very inspiring for that. Once we can print quickly in multiple materials, such decoration will be incorporated in manufacturing and not attached after, like the rhinestones on Von Teese’s dress that have clearly been glued on by hand.
Philip Beesley
Francis Bitonti for Dita von Teese
close up - Francis Bitonti
Francis Bitonti for Katie Gallagher
Francis Bitonti for Katie Gallagher
Iris van Herpen & Philip Beesley
Philip Beesley
Another area that could benefit greatly from collaborations between fashion and architecture is of course shopping! Everybody talks about how shopping in brick and mortar stores should now become an experience, rather than a convenience, but there are still few examples of what such entertainment could be like. However, we feel such cross-discipline collaborations could connect or even merge product and interior in stunning ways, such as the installations and clothing made by Philip Beesley and Iris van Herpen. We also find architects using fabrics for innovative interactive solutions, such as Tomas Saraceno’s installation ‘In Orbit’ at Kunstsammlung Nordrein-Westfalen that makes visitors levitate 25 meters above Michael Hansmeyer
the ground in a specially developed net. Once technologies such as 3D printing are becoming more affordable and you could just regrind any product to powder in order to print something new, we can just build stores as empty spaces that can change with the merchandise. How wonderful would it be if columns like the ones designed by Michael Hansmeyer were used as ephemeral interior architecture for a shopping mall rather than just shown in a ‘look-but –please-do-not-touch’ museum environment?
Tomas Saraceno
Tomas Saraceno
Tomas Saraceno