TEXTILES FUTURES

Textiles futures is a number of “practice based” “designers” and “design-led researchers” from the “University of the Arts London” and “Central Saint Martins and Chelsea”. They consider the role of the designer in “how” “materials and textiles” can “enable a more sustainable future”. Through studying the “social, political and economic” factors of design they are able to visualise and “rethink the future” “beyond existing boundaries”, identifying the “future needs, desires and challenges” within “craft, science and technology”. Their research covers many different perspectives yet strongly uses “materiality as the starting point”. Findings have “shaped the thinking” of various “influential designers” when developing new concepts for “applications across fashion, architecture, product and industrial design”. Natsai Chieza, an MA Textiles Futures graduate, looks at the “potential” of “biofutures” in textiles design in “2075” in her “Design Fictions” project. Through much applied research into “synthetic biology and stem cell technology. Natsai explains that “we can now engineer additional, external organs to better” and sustain lives. The project therefore seems a natural technological progression of these concepts into the fashion and textiles industry, or does it… The resulting body adornment “surfaces” create “converging narratives” with the skin. Experiments with material processes like “flocking, laser cutting and moulding” with substances such as “silicone, glass, liquid plastics and wax” produce a range of exciting tactile facades that cover sections of the body. Each piece is individual in form and extends away from the body to produce original silhouettes that appear to have been naturally grown. Alongside these material visualisations, Natsai Chieza also took a “multidisciplinary approach” to her project concept. Work within the laboratory with “bacterial samples” allowed her to develop “three-dimensional living pieces”.

This combination of textile materiality and biology enables the project’s concept to be really thought provoking. The collection creates an introduction into what could be the future of textiles production. Ideas have the potential to move onto the creation of full garments and accessories that could fully grow from the skin through “tissue implants”.

This vision however comes with many ethical question and “implications”. Are we controlling too much of the world? Is genetic and biology modification a step too far? Our ever-changing desire for the new “IT” fabric or item of clothing, the highest quality, a bespoke, one-of-a-kind piece means that the role of the new designer is becoming an extremely challenging one. To reach these design desires exciting concepts like these need to be produced. It is hard not to be inspired by the amazing tactility and aesthetic of Chieza’s collection.

Even though the ethics of the project are questionable, environmental aspects of the textile pieces and their production could push the concept’s development. Much of textile production uses and depends on a great number of non-renewable resources, especially those used in the manufacture of synthetic fibres and fabrics which include coal and oil. Is the use of stem cells in textile production therefore a more sustainable and environmental conserving process that we may have no choice but to use in the future, by “2075”?

Emily Smith, a “2012” “BA Textiles design” graduate at “Chelsea College of Art and Design”, considers the “sustainability” and “durability” of design in her garment and jewellery collection. The work looks at personal “memories” and takes much inspiration from “old imagery”. “Colours” have been “extracted” to create “soft”, “subtle” palettes on the delicate “chiffon” fabrics. The collection is very conceptual and identifies different types of “memories” and how we store, collect and remember these experiences, “connecting” our “past to our present”. Emily looks at memories that “fade away” and seem quite “distant” as well as those that are presented at the “forefront” of our minds, the memories that we hold close and “preserve”. These differences are shown in the pieces through the contrasting textures of the “chiffon” and the “clear plastic resin jewellery”. Characteristics of both materials connect them to the type of memory they represent; the fluid “chiffon”, a “fading” memory and the robust “resin”, an “encapsulated” remembrance.

Emily Smith has questioned whether connecting clothing and accessories to personal experiences and therefore creating a “bond” and “attachment” with our “belongings” could be a solution to our materialistic “over consumption” in “fast fashion”. “Investing” “emotion” and “time” in designing and manufacture gives “meaning” to fabrics which would eliminate the want to “replace” and upgrade items so quickly. This therefore would give clothing a higher “durability”, reducing the scale of production and use of materials. I think that the narratives behind the work are really strong. The design concept would create really personal collections that would be individual and bespoke. Each designed piece would radiate personality yet I don’t think they would feel too revealing. Small connections with memories such as colour and texture would “attach” each piece to an experience for the wearer without fully communicating it to everyone. The idea of a hidden connection only makes the garments more personal. However, I think that it is difficult to see how such garments could be manufactured to compete with fast fashion today. The idea of more “durable” fashion is something that I think will take time to develop. A level of skill would be needed to produce garments and accessories to meet the concept and would consumers be willing to wait for personalised beauty of design? In the textile future, I hope so… 

 

Design Catwalk. (2011, June 20). Is Fashion ART? [Web log Post]. Retrieved from http://www.designcatwalk.com/design-fictions-posthumanity-in-the-age-of-synthetics/


Textile Futures (2011). NATSAI AUDREY CHIEZA. Retrieved from http://www.textilefutures.co.uk/graduates/2011-2/natsai-audrey-chieza/. 

Textiles Futures Research Centre (n.d). Textiles Futures Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.tfrc.org.uk. 

SokFok Studio (producer). (2012). Emily Smith - BA Textile Design 2012 [audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/49154538