TvH My Craft
. My Craft .
At the beginning of the Minor I found it hard to give my craft a name, at first I was sure it was Fashion design, though I’m more on the art side of fashion, than designing a fashion collection and I want to integrate technology in the garments. I think my craft is best defined as Fashion tech or Cyber couture.
As a designer my focus lies on integrating interactive technology in garments and accessories, for the propose of entertainment. I want to create garments and textiles for performance and sound artists, installations of wearable art (where the pieces interact with each other or their environment) and critical pieces with concepts about health, life and ethics. The interactive technology I’m talking about will be for instance; lights reacting to sound, moving textiles activated by the wearers movement or embroidered speakers which are controlled by the wearers magnetic glove.
I want to create my own designs, as unique pieces and in small collections. I also offer my services as a fashion designer, to help other designers and artists create quality garments and textiles with integrated technology. Because a lot of Fashion tech is made without much knowledge about garment construction, fashion design or textile techniques. For me the quality of material, construction and fit are key for an outstanding design and I focus on these parts a lot, next to the quality of the design of course.
I want to create garments with integrated technology which are more fashionable, so not only focussing on the function of the technology and putting it on the body, but integrating it in a design for the body.
For creating my designs I want to combine traditional textile and tailoring techniques, with the integration of technology. I love creating textiles and I want to see what is possible with these traditional techniques like knitting, crocheting and lace making with technology like lights, actuators and handmade speakers.
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Presentation For fashion the traditional way of presenting your newest creations is a fashion show. It started in the 1800’s when Parisian Couture Salons showed their new collection to their clientele by having models parade around the Salon in the newest costumes. The fashion show has seen some shifts of change happening over the centuries, but the concept is still very much the same, models walk back and forth to present a garment. Though there are designers using other ways to present a collection, by using film like Garath Pugh or a performance like Rick Owens Step dancers. Though this is sporadic and they fall back into the norm with the following show.
Next to the shows there is the Lookbook, basically a portfolio for a specific product or collection, not an entire body of work. Personally really like the way Monique van Heist presents her continuous collection hellofashion. Van Heist also photographs her clients in their daily lives while wearing the clothes from hellofashion, instead of using professional models who fake a character, look or lifestyle.
For a brand or designer the internet is very important, of course most people are connected to the internet most of the time, so social media is one of the biggest platforms to bring the awareness to a brand, new developments etc. Some of the bigger labels also choose to stream their fashion shows, so more people are able to enjoy the spectacle live like they are part of the elite few with an invitation.
Selling online is a great way to get you product in the world, a lot of smaller collections are only available online. It saves the hassle of finding stores or boutiques to sell your wares and making sure they are stocked in a proper way. It’s can also be used to prevent overproduction, by working on demand. There are a lot of advantages for using the internet to advertise and sell products. One of the key things why people prefer to go to a store is to see, feel or fit a garment and for the so called ‘experience’ this is one of the key things brands need to keep in mind with being online, how to present the brand and products enticingly, how to create this experience.
This is all very generally spoken. So how do I want to present my work? Well this is something I’m still figuring out, for wearable technology the concept of presenting a garment in a fashion show is widely adopted.
Which often is the wrong platform, but this really depends on what the purpose of the garment is and how the technology is triggered for it to work on a runway. So an exhibition with either live models or mannequins has my preference. Other work will be for performance and sound artists, so these designs will be presented within their performance.
As for my online presence, in the future I want to have a website filled with videos of my work, I really like videos to portrait a project. And of course use social media, mainly Facebook and platforms like Pintrest to share my process, thoughts and even more pictures and videos.
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Borders Technology will become more integrated in our clothing, ranging from interactive garments for entertainment, to functional garments which can monitor/support our health or act a protection for potentially dangerous situations like in traffic or hazardous working environments.
I do think at some point there will be a societal shift to wanting less technology, going back to nature, but technology has made our lives much easier and will certainly not vanish from our daily needs.
Where do my borders lie? On the practical side, well I’m restricted to my own knowledge. Of electronics, techniques and the people I know.
Another border will be determent by ethics. For instance what are the consequences of integrating technology in a garment? With ethics in mind I think I will focus on using sensors with live output, so it doesn’t need to store data. If in any case data needs to be stored I would prefer it to stay on the garment to make sure the user stays owner of the stored data.
