Design Proposal

The way tecnology is used in fashion is increasing as designers are starting to become more aware of new media. Using technology available to them within their designs allow designers to create garments as well as simple designs electronically. The aim of this project is to explore and research into the ideas that have already been touched up on in the fashion industry under the category of technology. This project is also way of presenting the gap between the world of emerging technologies, fashion and consumer electronics. the ways in which fashion is developing not only in terms of the garments but also the way in which they are presented and revealed to

the world. The main context of this brief is to show the development in technology. Usually this is portrayed through the idea of gaming, social media and electronic everyday devices. I have chosen to explore the fashion context of fashionable technology. The idea behind the brief is to show how new media is being used more and more in not only gaming, advertising and movies but also in fashion. The methods and processes that will be used to present the final outcome will be a mixture of photography and animation using photoshop and after effects along side some chromakey experiments.

ResearchWhen researching into the themes of futuristic fashion and fashionable technology I came across many aspects that have now been developed and cre-ated. These consisted of wearable technology and smart fabrics to CAD used in fashion.

My main inspiration and influence for this brief was Hussein Chaya-lan - A fashion designer who uses technology within his designs to incorporate the the idea of cy-borgs and animatronic fashion. His work not only consist of elec-tronically designed garments but he also makes his presentation of the garments very futuristic and new media based.

Another big influence to my project is the idea of holographic fashion. Burberry, Forever 21 and Stefan Eckert are three of the first companies to provide us with

Research

When researching into the themes of the future of fashion and fashionable technology I came across many aspects that have now been developed and created. These consisted of wearable technology and smart fabrics to CAD used in fashion. The level of influence taken from technology is increasing as some designers have created holographic fashion shows which takes the runway to a whole new dimention of creativity. Companies and brands such as Burberry, Forever21 and Stefan Eckert are three of many that haved used this feature in their fashion shows.

Hussein Chayalan

Another inspiration and influence for this brief was Hussein Chayalan - A fashion designer who uses technology within his designs to incorporate the the idea of cyborgs and animatronic fashion. His showcases included ‘Afterwords’ which explores the notion of ‘wearable, portable architecture’ in which furniture literally transforms itself into garments; ‘Airborne’ - bringing the latest LED technology to fashion design with a spectacular dress consisting of Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights; ‘Before Minus Now’ a dress made of materials used in aircraft construction which changes shape by remote control and ‘Readings’ a dress comprising of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light. His work not only consist of electronically designed garments but he also makes his presentation of the garments very futuristic and new media based. Chayalan definiteley challenges existing designs and will be part of the future of technological fashion.

CAD for Fashion

Computer aided Design is usually used in the process of desiging things like furniture and packaging. However, Optitex is a company that use it in combination with fashion and pattern cutting. OptiTex develops innovative, user-friendly 2D and 3D CAD software for all cut-fabric and fashion-related industries. This would be the step after the initial idea for my animation, as the concept of my animation is to create the drawings of garments using new media, so drawing them straight on to a specific program that will be made to draw fashion illustrations.

DressUp

Another new media form of fashion pattern making/ drawing that I came across during this research was a software called DressUp, it is a three-dimensional draping system that allows designers to create digital sketches of a garment on a real dress form. The system consists of a dress form, motion-tracking cutting and adding tools, custom software, and a display for viewing your digital design.

Methods

The methods that I have chosen to use in the portrayal of the idea of futuristic use of technology in fashion is through photographs and a small stop frame animation that has also been edited in After effects. The main message that my animation is going to portray is how fashion designers can pitch their ideas to clients.

Through my research I was influenced by Hussein Chayalan’s ‘Airborne’ piece, with light reflected garments. As my idea is to show how future clients can view designs and fabrics before agreeing to the final outcome I have decided to create a mock up design for a light dress. My mini animation shows the viewer a new dimention of fashion drawings. I will also be showing how designers can use technology to show how their garments can be made using different fabrics and different patterns.

The processes I have to go through to create this animation starts of with me taking photos of the model in a rotating movement. I have one this by putting together the photos to create a stop frame movement. The initial idea would be that designers will use green as their basic colour so that they could use chromakey to change the patterns. Using the green dress I have added some moving patterns which represent the idea of smart fabrics as well as showing the pattern itself.

Devolpment

As I started to create my animation I came across many problems which has restricted me from presenting my concept to its fullest. For example, I needed the stop frame animation to be able to key in a pattern for not only the dress but the background as well, but because the model was wearing a green dress I could not use chromakey to do this to the white backgrount. However, I managed to make the piece work by having the background completely white opposed to the black in the first half of the animation.

The drawing part of the motion graphic piece I have created was made through the development process of when I drew the dress in photoshop. I then drew the dress again in after effects to build up the narrative. The build up of the dress then continues on to show it light up.

Artefact

After I researched into the area of futuristic representations of fashion I have decided to base my final artefact on how designers could present their ideas to clients and buyers. I have come up with two concepts; the general idea is that the designer would draw their designs on to a mannequin using the software that has been discovered called dress up. It will then be put through software that then adds patterns and details to the garment, which will then be represented on a 360-rotating model. The second part of the artifact is a digital way of creating designs and drawings of the garment. Instead of drawing the garment in an analogue format this is a way in which fashion designers could keep fashion up to date with technology.

I feel that my two end products are very basic final outcomes; I could develop these pieces by adding intricate details to the representations such as different modification options as well as the colour options and pattern options. I could do this by masking in different dress shapes to the model as she rotates. I could also maybe get a better outcome from a filming the model rotating instead of the stop motion clip.