2019

Materials: Silk Organza, Wood, and  Duralar 

Course: E.couture: Architecture, Fashion + Sustainability (view information here)

Instructors: Niccolo Casas (view profile here) and Ludovico Lombardi (view profile here)

Collaborator: Devyanshi Arya (view profile here)

Models: Lauren English (view profile here)

Produced as the final project for the 2-week intensive RISD summer course, E.couture: Architecture, Fashion, + Sustainability. 

Taught by visiting faculty members Ludovico Lombardi of LDVC and Zaha-Hadid Architects, London and architect Niccolo Casas of The Bartlett, London this class offered a focused investigation into the emerging discipline generated by architecture, engineering and fashion through the study of  designers such as Zaha Hadid and Iris Van Herpen. The tools and software taught in the class include: Maya, Laser Cutting, and 3D printing.

For this project we were Inspired by the mesmerizing effect of Iris Van Herpen’s Collection Shift Souls (see Moodboard below). To emulate this effect we employed laser cutting and layering of materials to create the design. The layering of the material reminded us of topographical maps, and this became our thematic source of inspiration. 

Our initial design was created by drawing 3 organic shapes around the body in Maya and then employing animation tools to generate the forms in-between these shapes (see video below). We then manually refined these generated forms. Upon viewing the garment from different perspectives, we found the top view to resonate most with our vision of a topographical map. This lead us to flip the design so that the top view would be seen from the front when worn (see image below). 

The curves generated in Maya were then imported into Rhino 6.0 and adobe illustrator to generate laser cutting files. 

Using these files we tested a variety of materials (see material explorations below) before deciding to use silk organza, wood, and duralar.