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Fashion and ‘the digital’
As designers and design researchers, we learned a lot through making Phem. For example, we learned we didn’t need to wait for a new technology to be developed in order for us to play with augmented reality (AR) or colour-changing fabrics in fashion. We also discovered an exciting design space that allowed us to explore the crossovers of digital and physical materials—for example, blending video animations with furry fabrics textures and other materials (it is truly magical with transparent materials).
There’s still so much to find out in terms of designing with ‘the digital’ as an expressive material. Phem was just a small step. Here are more questions we have:
Is adding a digital layer to our clothing actually a good idea in terms of sustainability?
How is femininity expressed through technological/digital aesthetics?
How are other fashion designers using digital materials in their process? Here are just a few examples we love: Amber Jae Slooten, Kailu Guan, Marga Weimans, Atacac, Magic Fabric Blog and Normals Apparel
What words best describe these fabrics and the digital phenomena we’re working with?
Do wearing garments with a digital component bring us closer or further away from each other?….closer or further away from the delights and craft of fashion?
What do you think? If you’re interested in continuing this conversation, please reach out!
Contact us at hello@phem.design
Also, we’ve written a lot about this…
Below is a list of related academic publications surrounding the design explorations for Phem. Phem was produced as part of a larger design research initiative exploring dynamic and responsive materials at Philips Lighting Research and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands from 2015-2019. It is part of ArcInTexETN, funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions grant agreement No. 642328
2020
2019
Alternative Presents for Dynamic Fabric
Angella Mackey, Ron Wakkary, Stephan Wensveen, Annika Hupfeld, and Oscar Tomico. 2020. Alternative Presents for Dynamic Fabric. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’20), 351–364. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3357236.3395447
Wearing Digital Shimmers: A fashion-centric approach to wearable technology
Mackey, A., Wensveen, S., Wakkary, R., Hupfeld, A., & Tomico, O. (2019). Wearing Digital Shimmers: A fashion-centric approach to wearable technology. In Proceedings of the Conference on Research Through Design. Delft, Netherlands: Delft University of Technology. Available: https://figshare.com/articles/Wearing_Digital_Shimmers_A_fashion-centric_approach_to_wearable_technology/7855862
Satisfying a Conversation with Materials for Dynamic Fabric
Angella Mackey, Ron Wakkary, Stephan Wensveen, Annika Hupfeld, and Oscar Tomico. 2019. Satisfying a Conversation with Materials for Dynamic Fabrics. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’19), 1047–1058. https://doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3322371
2017
“Can I Wear This?” Blending Clothing and Digital Expression
Mackey, A., Wakkary, R., Wensveen, S., & Tomico, O. 2017 Dec 18. “Can I Wear This?” Blending Clothing and Digital Expression by Wearing Dynamic Fabric. International Journal of Design [Online] 11:3. Available: http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2872
Day-to-day speculation: Designing and wearing dynamic fabric.
Mackey, A., Wakkary, R., Wensveen, S., Tomico, O., & Hengeveld, B. (2017). Day-to-day speculation: Designing and wearing dynamic fabric. In Proceedings of the Conference on Research Through Design (pp. 439-454). Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh. Available: https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/day-to-day-speculation-designing-and-wearing-dynamic-fabric
2016
Futuring fashion from everyday life
Harrison, L., & Mackey, A. (2016). Futuring fashion from everyday life. In N. Spurling & L. Kuijer (Eds.), Everyday futures: Essay collection (pp. 16-22). Lancaster, UK: Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University. Available: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/everydayfutures/files/2016/08/harrison_mackey.pdf