3. Circular Open Source Fashion

Research & Ideation

Tessellations, Collapsible Structures and Interlocking Modules.

1. Folds in Recurring Patterns Form the Tessellated Origami Sculptures by Goran Konjevod↗
2. Anna Kruhelska↗
3. Matija Cop↗
4. Camille Cortet↗
5. Karen Heshi↗
6. Creative Paper Cut Double Knit Stretch Fabric from Pinterest…
7. Micro Pneumatic Macro Structures by Christophe Barlieb↗
8. AA School of Architecture 2013 - Design Research Laboratory

Patterns within Nature

Images from Pinterest

1. Coral
2. Yellow Owl’s Clover Seed
3. Fish Skin
4. Red Cabbage
5. Snake Skin
6. Underside leaf structure of Victorian Amozonica plant
7. Four modular structures inspired by flower petals

I have always been fascinated by the natural forms within nature and always aim to harness their patterns and textures. I felt really inspired by this week and my process started straight away, browsing through projects and pinterest, observing patterns and techniques of motifs, tessellation and interlocking modules. I created two moodboards, one material based and another natural forms. This helped me visualise styles I liked as well as compare similarities between the two (pictured below). I was particularly drawn to Camille Cortet’s snake molting legwear and the papercut, stretch fabric I found on pinterest. The concept of using a single piece of fabric and simply cutting notches to add flexibility and style, really interested me. This lead me to consider ways I could use natural patterns to influence the texture, and notches to make it versatile through different garments.

Knitwear by Alex Page↗

I have always been inspired by my friend Alex's knitwear through the versality of her textiles. She takes one textile and manipluates it around parts of the body, making one piece applicable to lots of outfits. I thought about how I could follow this same concept but using one single piece of fabric, rather than metres of yarn. My aim was now to design something that was zero-waste and included interlocking modules.

The Process

This was my initial sketch and brainstorming. Here I considered the idea of using a pattern inspired by nature (in this case a Yellow Owl’s Clover Seed) and then working with cuts within the fabric to immitate individual strands. I also then thought about using interlocking pieces to make it seamless and adjustable.

Prototyping

My Prototyping and Planning.

I started with a paper prototype but this wasn't the most successful as I needed a lighter weight paper. I was concerned about what material I could use and then I found some perfect fabric in the scrap fabric drawer, white cotton and 100% silk. Now that I knew what material I was exerimenting with, I adapted my idea of using notches, to making a draw string. This would work much better with the lighter fabric and be much more practical.

MY AIMS:

• Only use one rectangle of fabric
• Have zero-waste
• Be seamless
• Be multi-purpose
• Use recycled fabric (bonus ✔︎)

The Process

For the pattern design, I worked with the flowing lines and craggy rocks of the Grand Canyon. I didn't want it to be a flat textile of straight lines, so I traced the rock formation and then hoped the flow of my textile would resemble that of the rocks. I did an initial drawing in Procreate and then vectorised it in Inkscape. I was struggling to make the textiles design in Inkspace, I couldn't find splitting tools etc. I then discovered if you export your vector as at .svg file, it can be imported into Rhino. This was really helpful because then I could use Rhino to use the Trim, TweenCurves and Mirror tools. It was also easier to be precise and make exact measurements within Rhino.

How I creating the designs within Rhino3D

The Prototypes

I used the process above to create five different prototypes exploring varied in strand sizes, shapes, orientations and design in general. See below, my series of prototypes. I had difficulty getting my head round sizing so my initial plans were way too big. This led to my five 30x20 rectangles that focused on sections with the most diversity.

I had never lasercut fabric before so this was really exciting and I found it really interesting. I cut five in cotton and then the best of those outcomes in silk (avoiding waste). I learnt the importance of the laser perameters and how they change with different fabric types e.g. with a fabric like silk, the speed is faster but slightly more powerful.

The prototyping was so important for me in understanding how the strands reacted and moved. The most successful outcomes were when the slits were closer together and not too long. The Silk was by far my favourite of the two fabrics. It's beautiful, light character reminded me of a snakes shed skin and it had the perfect flowyness I was hoping for. Below is my notebook page showing my thoughts, measurements and things to consider in my next steps.

The Final Process

Working to the measurements of my body, it took me a while to get my head round scaling up the design whilst adapting it to suit the results of my prototypes. After lots of playing around and manipulating, I came up with the idea of making the design symmetrical, starting out with the section I knew worked best. I used the point tool to ensure it was precise and then mirrored everything exactly. This provided a good base and once I saw the overall design, I could go in and edit sections that I thought needed to be sorter or less steep for example. It was important I was concise here, one strand too long and heavy could ruin the whole outcome.

Lasercutting

This was my process of lasercutting the final piece of fabric. I ironed the silk and then taped and weighed it down to make it as flat as possible. This was all very simple as I already knew the correct perameters.

The Final Outcome ¹

• Recycled Silk
• Zero-waste
• Seamless
• Versatile

Experimenting with Interlocking Modules

After making my final garment, I felt I hadn't explored the concept of zero-waste, interlocking modules enough. Although it isn't really my style... I wanted to make a prototype to explore it for myself and at least give it a go. I took inspiration from Surzhana Radnaeva.↗

Surzhana did not publish her document so I had the task of recreating her template. I first tried doing this within Inkscape, where I vectorised a screenshot using the Trace Bitmap tool. This created very thick, gaged lines that wouldn't be suitable for the lasercutter. I then imported this into Rhino3D and recreated the shapes and layout. It was important to be precise so I used the mirror and distance tool alot to ensure everything was exact and would fit together correctly.

I followed the same lasercutting process, ensuring the laser level was correct for the thickness of material and the perameters were correct.

Final Interlocking Modules Prototype. ²

I am really happy I gave interlocking modules a go. Although I only created a small sample, it really helped me understand the process and how I could consider it in the future. It also provided good practise for working within Rhino.

---

Fabrication files

---

1. File: Flat Textile Pattern (PDF) ↩

2. File: Interlocking Modules Pattern (PDF) ↩