3. Circular Open Source Fashion¶
Research & Ideation¶
For this week's assignment we have to design a garment that's made out of modules, it must be circular and sustainable, and open source. But let's start from the beginning, what does the concept of Circular and Open Source mean?
Circular fashion¶
For what I understand about circularity in design, it is a way of thinking about products, systems and services in a manner that, not only the waste and pollution is minimum or inexistent, but also long lasting, which includes thinking about materials, repairability, recycling, and reuse. Circular Design makes us think not only on the final product, but every step in the process, from the conception to the final manufacturing.
How can we apply the concept of circularity in fashion? This too is a way of thinking that tries to use the garments as long as possible, through strategies like reuse, recycling, repair, resell and regeneration. Again we must think of every step of the process to make it sustainable and efficient.
Open Source¶
Open Source is a concept that started with software and it meant that the source code was available to the public, so everyone could use and modify, and sometimes also publish the results. There are many different kind of licenses that grant rights on modifying, distribution and responsible use of the project. This mentality starts the conversation about open colaboration which has helped bring different points of view and contexts for colaboration around the world. Nowadays the concept doesn't apply to only software, as we can now share the source files for almost everything, and manufacture it locally. In fashion design it is possible to find and share patterns for clothing, recipes for biomaterials, manufacturing data, and even tutorials on how to produce your own clothes.
Here we can see two great examples of Open Source projects, the first one Materiom is an online database of recipes for biomaterials and such. The second example, RepRap is an Open source 3D printed which revolutionized the way we 3D print since the early 2000s.
References & Inspiration¶
Now that we have defined this important concepts, let's begin with the modular design for the garment. The first iteration i did was based on harmonic design and golden ratio design, with the books authored by Adam Jetlow and Scott Olsen respectively. These books try to find design and mathematical patterns in nature, so I thought it was the best way to start.
I wanted to work with circles interlocked with tabs and trying to create some kind of floral pattern with the interlocking of these circles. The first test was made with the circular tabs inside of the big circle, so, when interlocked with another one, we'd have two full circles inside the big one. I did a test with paper on the laser cutter.
The laser cutter we have at the lab is a Xtool F1 Ultra which has 2 lasers, one diode for general purpose engraving and cutting, and a fiber one which is used for metal engraving and cutting. We will mostly use this laser throughout the Fabricademy as it allows us to use several diferent materials. The software interface is very user friendly and the machine very safe. But let's start with the begining.
Laser cutting¶
What is a laser? In simple words it is a very focused and powerful light beam that can, and will, cut through different materials and also, with the propper parameters, score the surface of said materials. There are two main parameters for using the laser: Power and Speed, and the combination of this parameters will let us do this operations. A lot of power, and a slow speed will allow us to cut the material, most of the time, and a combination of high speed and little power will most likely score the surface of the material without cutting. How we combine this two parameters will depend on the material we are using. If we go through the proper combination of parameters, and the result is not what we wanted, we can always add more passes, which is the times the process is done over again until we get the desired result.
Design Process¶
I designed the pieces using Autodesk Fusion 360 as it can export the sketches as .dxf so they can be used on the laser cutting software. The first paper prototye was unsuccesful as the hole in the tab was too small for the piece to go through, so i got back to the drawing table.
The second drawing was succesful, first I cut it in paper, and then it was prototyped on the discarded denim we collected, the pattern was precisely what I was looking for, but unfortunatelly the link was very fragile, so the whole configuration had to be redesigned.
Back to the drawing board, I came up with a pattern that resembles flowers, so I first prototyped it in paper, and really liked it. The next step was to laser cut it in denim and press it so it is flat. But a new problem was found, we need a third piece of the puzzle in order to join each of the flower modules.
It was important for the 3rd part to be interlocking in 2 dimensions, so we could not only have linear joints, but also being able to create squares. Having designed the third part it was time for the final prototyping laser cut so we could have interlocking the modules between each other.
Voila! You can check and download the pattern on the Open Source Circular Fashion platform clicking here.