Connecting the dots

new-aesthetic: Styleblaster - an automated surveillance fashion...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:01:45 +0100

Styleblaster - an automated surveillance fashion blog.

“To answer the changing times, we introduce Styleblaster, a realtime account of what people in Williamsburg are wearing. Unlike a typical streetstyle blog, Styleblaster documents all — the visiting fashion plates, the hipsters and have-nots, the native Polish and Italian proud who have for years called this neighborhood home. And above all — the dapper salarymen and businesswomen who stand to inherit the area.

“Situated a block from the hellmouth of the Bedford “L” subway train, our camera aims down the street, capturing Williamsburg on the hoof. Moments after a person enters into the frame, the camera snaps, sending its image onto our blog. For the online fashion browser, a boon: the blog updates in realtime, showcasing each new image as quick as it can be appraised. Online viewers can watch a live feed, peruse a recent history of images, or compare shots over the days and weeks as FW-2012 blossoms into SS-2013.”

We Can't Know What the Future Will Bring | Fashion - WSJ.com

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 04:40:14 +0100

We Can't Know What the Future Will Bring | Fashion - WSJ.com:

William Gibson on the future of fashion.

new-aesthetic: hautepop: One step down the catwalk for Google...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 03:41:00 +0200

new-aesthetic:

hautepop:

One step down the catwalk for Google Glass; a giant leap for branding?

A couple of months ago, I claimed that Google Glass was irrelevant to fashion:

Ten years down the line when there are 500 different styles of face-mounted display screen and its varied forms aren’t trying to claim any relationship to function – *then* Google Glass may have a chance to be something about fashion. Or when the technology’s reverse-mounted into vintage sunglass frames. Or maybe fashion is parasitic on other sets of referents: maybe Google Glass will only be able to be fashion when to wear a pair is to be making a visual reference to sci-fi movies of the 1980s, or Taiwanese street style blogs, or a glimmer of a 2014 revival in the pre-fall collections of 2023 — that is, when wearing a pair of Google Glasses ceases to be mostly about “Oh my god I’m wearing a pair of Google Glasses”.

But fashion is a fickle (and fast-moving) mistress, and yesterday Diane von Furstenberg sent models down the catwalk at New York Fashion Week wearing… Google Glasses.

[…]

(via Dan W)

Fashion 2.0 | Connecting With Consumers Through Wearable Devices | BoF – The Business of Fashion

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:42:07 +0200

Fashion 2.0 | Connecting With Consumers Through Wearable Devices | BoF – The Business of Fashion

Fashion 2.0 | Commerce That’s Curated Just for You | BoF – The Business of Fashion

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:36:19 +0200

Fashion 2.0 | Commerce That’s Curated Just for You | BoF – The Business of Fashion:

The thesis is now done and deliverd, but the research continues…

“In a detailed blog post last month, leading movie subscription service Netflix, known for having one of the world’s most effective personal recommendation engines, revealed a remarkable statistic. “We have adapted our personalisation algorithms… in such a way that now 75 percent of what people watch is from some sort of recommendation,” wrote Xavier Amatriain and Justin Basilico, who work in the company’s personalisation science and engineering department.”

The Cutting Class: Wedding Cliches at Comme des Garcons

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:24:57 +0200

The Cutting Class: Wedding Cliches at Comme des Garcons:

I can’t even begin to explain how much I love this collection, and how significant and powerful it is to me.

I JUST WANT TO CUDDLE WITH REI KAWAKUBO

The headpiece in its original form - the one posted here so many times before - died. A freak accident with a rebel sewing machine, don’t ask. I had to declare it dead yesterday, and make a new one (which is probably the… 7th version or something?). Worked late and almost had a breakdown, but good news is that I actually like the new headpiece -which is a completely different design - better. Also, it dialogues better with the other pieces in the series. Will post pictures soon.

thecuttingclass:

Comme des Garçons, SS12.

Rei Kawakubo and the team at Comme des Garçons were able to tread a careful line in the exploration of female wedding gowns for the Spring-Summer 2012 collection. They gave us all the right clues to know that this collection was all about bridal wear…

Twin object: done, documented.

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:37:23 +0200

Twin object: done, documented.

Process pictures for the Analog Connection for Couples Device...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:28:00 +0200

Organza layer for the breather unit

Process pictures for the Analog Connection for Couples Device (working title, not sure if I’ll keep it).

Sharing something has always been a token of intimacy between couples. Be it a small locket containing a loved one’s hairlock, commitment rings or passwords for social networks, having a tangible representation of commitment is an ancient practice that has, evidently, changed considerably throughout history.

Concurrently, the dynamics of relationships have also changed profoundly. The budding discussions on traditional gender roles, heteronormativity, reproductive rights, gender identity and sexuality begin to be discussed within sociocultural and political spheres, traditional notions of what constitutes a romantic relationship begin to shift accordingly, slowly creating space for a more diverse perception of human intimacy.

This object was designed as a ritualistic tool, aimed at reconnecting with your partner by the end of each day. The object keeps two people closely boung together, as equals, while sharing a breathing device. Not enough to suffocate one another, but close enough to offer a (perhaps too) intense moment of intimacy.

In an era of instant communications, where couples can send each other emails and SMS messages throughout the day, will an object like this become a way of creating reconnecting within the real world, a personal space known only to the two people within it?

First tests for the object for couples. At this stage I was...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:42:00 +0200

First tests for the object for couples. At this stage I was still uncertain on how I would create a tangible representation of intimacy in the object. You can see in the last picture that I was making loops so that the couple could embrace each other.

I was just reading a few papers on intimacy and relationships and it just struck me that ALL, and I...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:28:00 +0200

I was just reading a few papers on intimacy and relationships and it just struck me that ALL, and I mean ALL OF THEM, whilst claiming to have carried out experiments on “a wide range of relationship categories” or a “wide range of backgrounds”, described their subjects as heterosexual, white, middle class people in monogamous relationships (and, I suppose one can also assume, gender-normative).

Wide range, really?

Science and academia are indeed terribly biased.

A very serious photo of one of the headpiece’s last tests,...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:36:00 +0200

A very serious photo of one of the headpiece’s last tests, just before sewing the lining and topstitching. If you manage to ignore my face, you can see that the chest part has changed. In the final version it closes right under the armpits with pressure buttons, so the headpiece stays on firmly.

"And they are the generations who are constantly told via mass media that only losers feel pain, that..."

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:16:00 +0200

“And they are the generations who are constantly told via mass media that only losers feel pain, that the good life is a life without difficulties. They are constantly told that the only peace and happiness they can have will come to them through rugged individualism, through a focus on meeting self-centered needs.”

- bell hooks, “Where we Stand”, p.81.

"[…] it’s creepy because it seems designed to eliminate all the parts of life that are effectively..."

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:46:46 +0200

“

[…] it’s creepy because it seems designed to eliminate all the parts of life that are effectively games of chance. It’s designed to make you 100 percent efficient — and therefore about half as happy.

[…] There is a weird sense in which this technology treats everything unintended as if it is unwelcome: It is fundamentally opposed to the idea of figuring anything out for yourself. It advances the notion that we are entitled to a noncorporeal, completely nonpersonal presence we talk to like a person (“Where’s the music section?”) so we don’t have to expend the mental energy to suffer the indignity and inconvenience of potentially taking a wrong turn in a bookstore. We’re not talking here about turn-by-turn navigation that keeps you from heading for Boston and winding up in Charlotte. We’re talking about stamping out every trace of inefficiency in pursuit of a life where every right turn that would most directly have been a left becomes a problem to be solved.

”

- Google’s New Glasses And The War On Serendipity : Monkey See : NPR (via new-aesthetic)

This is the leather prototype. As you can see, it doesn’t...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:37:00 +0200

This is the leather prototype. As you can see, it doesn’t have any of that stiff structure that I was aiming for. Also, it looks like something Dracula would wear.

Really not a good look.

You see, the leather I used for the prototype is thinner and softer than the leather I was planning to use for the final piece; as such, it does not hold its shape very well.

When I first started building the leather prototype I wasn’t planning on using boning. Like I said in a previous post, I had a blurry idea of maybe using the aluminum structure to hold it together. The aluminum strips, however, have VERY sharp edges and were prone to hurting whoever was handling them, as well as damaging the surface of the leather. Nah.

The idea for boning came after reading this post on the wonderful The Cutting Class (highly recommended to anyone learning how to sew!). Boning is flexible and could give me the structure I needed without the dangerous downsides of the aluminum strips.

The boning worked wonderfully for this prototype. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of this specific prototype with the boning in place (I blame it on the long hours I spent sewing without pause…).

The very fist muslin prototype. You can see here that I was...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:20:13 +0200

The very fist muslin prototype. You can see here that I was going for design n.1, with no darts on the side panel.

The aluminum strips were an interesting thing. You see, this part of the head and neck is quite tricky to measure, so at first I used these strips (that are actually construction material) in order to understand, isolate and measure some shapes from my own neck, head and shoulders. These measurements were my base for the designs and helped me a lot when building the first patterns.

In the beginning I was thinking of including these strips in the final design to give a some structure, but I ended up discarding this idea in favour of boning, which is much easier to work with (and less dangerous!).

The final designs that made it through the final cut - I had SO...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:09:00 +0200

The final designs that made it through the final cut - I had SO MANY drawings in my sketchbooks!

These three designs were the ones I actually attempted building. The last one, with the horizontal strips, looks so good, but it was a bit beyond my capabilities as a pattern-maker. It was a risky design, and I didn’t want to try to do something much more difficult than necessary, especially when working with a full-on leather garment for the first time.

Anyway, the first design was the one I experimented with first, but the side on either sides had some creases I really didn’t like. In the end, for the final headpiece, I used the second design, which has some darts in the sides in order to prevent creasing.

Junya Watanabe’s AW11-12 collection was an important...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:54:00 +0200

Junya Watanabe’s AW11-12 collection was an important reference for the headpiece, especially for the more technical issues that I encountered while actually building and sewing it. I wanted to achieve this kind of hard, rigid, restricting and severe look. Watanabe’s jackets made extensive use of darts in order to bring this thick-looking leather to the desired shape. Topstitching is used to flatten the seams and give the jackets a nice finish.

All photos from Vogue.co.uk.

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:26:27 +0100

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

Lasercutter experiments for the headpiece. Leather looks really...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:30:25 +0100

First experiment with 123Make.

First experiment with 123Make.

Leather cutting and engraving.

Leather cutting and engraving.

This muslin fabric caught fire... oops!

Lasercutter experiments for the headpiece.

Leather looks really really nice when engraved in the laser cutter. We tested a few different laser strengths. Cutting, on the other hand, looked a bit weird in the light-coloured suedes we tested as it left some burnt marks, but that might be due to the texture of the material. Maybe other types of leather might take the cutting a bit better. The black suede was the one that fared best in the cutting, as the marks weren’t visible. The engraving, though, gave much better results in the pink and blue (not pictured) suedes.

We also tried to cut the muslin pleats, but it didn’t really work out and it actually started to burn… ooops.

Connecting the dots

new-aesthetic: Styleblaster - an automated surveillance fashion...

We Can't Know What the Future Will Bring | Fashion - WSJ.com

new-aesthetic: hautepop: One step down the catwalk for Google...

Fashion 2.0 | Connecting With Consumers Through Wearable Devices | BoF – The Business of Fashion

Fashion 2.0 | Commerce That’s Curated Just for You | BoF – The Business of Fashion

The Cutting Class: Wedding Cliches at Comme des Garcons

Twin object: done, documented.

Process pictures for the Analog Connection for Couples Device...

First tests for the object for couples. At this stage I was...

I was just reading a few papers on intimacy and relationships and it just struck me that ALL, and I...

A very serious photo of one of the headpiece’s last tests,...

"And they are the generations who are constantly told via mass media that only losers feel pain, that..."

"[…] it’s creepy because it seems designed to eliminate all the parts of life that are effectively..."

This is the leather prototype. As you can see, it doesn’t...

The very fist muslin prototype. You can see here that I was...

The final designs that made it through the final cut - I had SO...

Junya Watanabe’s AW11-12 collection was an important...

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

More process documentation from the headpiece. I initially...

Lasercutter experiments for the headpiece. Leather looks really...