The process of making adaptive and responsive wearables on the scale of the body hasoften been a process where designers use off-the-shelf parts or hand-crafted electronics to fabricategarments. However, recent research has shown the importance of emergence in the process of making.Second Skins is a multistakeholder exploration into the creation of those garments where the designersand engineers work together throughout the design process so that opportunities and challengesemerge with all stakeholders present in the process. This research serves as a case study into thecreation of adaptive caring garments for sustainable wardrobes from a multistakeholder designteam. The team created a garment that can customize the colors, patterns, structures, and otherproperties dynamically. A reflection on the multi-stakeholder process unpacks the process to explorethe challenges and opportunities in adaptable e-textiles.
In the Dutch armed forces clothing sizes are determined using 3D body scans. To evaluate if the predicted size based on the scan analysis matches the best fit, 35 male soldiers fitted a combat jacket and combat pants. It was shown that the predicted jacket size was slightly too large. Therefore, an adjustment was proposed. The predicted and preferred pant size matched rather well. We further investigated discrepancies between predicted and preferred sizes using virtual fitting analysis. Colour maps showing the difference between garment and body circumference illustrated that some soldiers selected a garment size that was obviously too small or too large. In order to minimize the effect of personal preference and maximize standardize ease, we recommend to maintain the current size prediction (with minor corrections for jackets) and use virtual fitting selectively as a control measure.
Personalization, production on-demand, and flexible manufacture facilities are growing within the European apparel sector, supported by national and regional public policy. These developments seem to embody a much waited “paradigm shift” in the fashion industry; a shift from global to local scale, from quantity to quality and from standard products to personalized services. Such values, however, are far from new, and scholars have already pointed out the similarities between emerging and pre-industrial systems of production and consumption. This article argues that in order to understand current developments in historical context, we should return to the process of industrialization of the apparel industry during the turn from the 19th to the 20th C, taking into account aspects of production as much as mediation and consumption. With this aim in mind, the article traces the rise of ready-made garments in the Netherlands and northwest Europe, and the associated decline in custom- and home-made garments in the region. Although available statistical data is insufficient to accurately map these phenomena, secondary sources suggest that both processes were not simultaneous and therefore there was not a straightforward substitution of custom- and home-made clothing by ready-mades. While availability and trade of mass-produced ready-mades was escalating since the early 19th C, it was not until mid 20th C that custom- and home-made clothing declined among the middle class. In this study, such a gap is explained by a steady increase in the amount of clothes acquired per person: an expanding culture of consumption during the period under consideration may have enabled these different systems to flourish all together. A parallelism of the findings above with current developments suggests that we should not regard emergent industrial formats as substitutionary of established ones, but as complementary. We may then reevaluate to what extent does the rise of the flexible factory enable a “revolution”, a shift from a problematic present to a contrasting and desirable future. This historical overview indicates that, on the contrary, emerging product-service-systems manufacturing personalized garments on-demand must be considered in relation to – and in coexistence with- traditional industrial models.
MULTIFILE
Lymphedema is one of the most poorly understood, relatively underestimated and least researched complications of cancer, or its treatment. Lymphedema is a chronic condition that causes abnormal build up of fluid under the skin resulting in painful swelling, commonly in the arms and legs. Limpressive Compression Garments have designed and conceptualised an active and smart compression sleeve that integrates pioneering smart materials and sensor technology to be used to treat and evaluate lymphedema. The Limpressive garments can be used as a research tool while replacing existing compression sleeves and pneumatic compression apparatus. There is currently no product on the market that is integrating both the actuator and sensor technology to treat, let alone quantify lymphedema. It is thus imperative that the Limpressive Compression Garments team are allowed the opportunity through funding to investigate the feasibility of the technology and its integration into healthcare, the business structures and processes needed to enter and be successful in the marketplace and the value to both the consumer and to the organisations dedicated to developing a greater understanding of the disease. Limpressive will complete an extensive and detailed business plan and a complete product design by the end of the Take-off Phase. The business plan and complete product design will be complemented by a proof of function prototype.
