Fashion

The Sublime And The Vulnerable. The Art Of Carrie Mae Rose

Article originally published on Digicult – Articolo originariamente pubblicato su Digicult Invented by the famous, controversial and brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla at the end of XIX century, the“Violet Ray” became a popular tool of healing in electrotherapy. In the thirties it was said that the discharge of electrical particles of a violet color emitted by the device could cure ailments ranging from back pain to the effects of anthrax. Edgar Cayce, the father of holistic medicine, strongly recommended its use, until the Food & Drug Administration forbade the sale after the manufacturer had to pay compensation for damage caused using this instrument. A few decades later, however, the “Violet Ray” came back. It began to spread through its derivative tool called Violet Wands, an electrical stimulator that became popular in police departments and S&M communities. In fact, thanks to the control of its various degrees of intensity, electric discharge could be applied at low voltage with variable intensity ranging from stimulating pleasure to permanently damaging the body parts affected.

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(Re)Searching for a sustainable fashion system – Interview

(segue in italiano) Thanx to the collaboration with Jen Ballie, who kindly accepted our invitation last year to our Openwear conference, I had the chance to get in touch with Kay Politowicz, professor of Textile Design, co-founder and Project Director for the Textiles Environment Design (TED) research group at Chelsea. For many years she was Director of Undergraduate Textile Design Course at Chelsea – and promoted a high-level of achievement of students working with specialist material processes in textiles: knit, weave, print, stitch – increasingly using digital processes and a wider variety of workshops – such as ceramics, wood, metal. In that role she became increasingly aware of the need to develop an environmental focus to curriculum developments within the subject and the opportunities that such a focus would reveal. In the last few years she moved to an entirely research-based and funded role and she believes it has been a great way to develop opportunities for externally funded practice-based

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Two workshops at Innovation Festival in Milan

While we are organizing the second edition of Wefab (date is still to be defined) we accepted the invitation of Phyco Lab to take part with two workshops to their two-day jam session on Physical Computing during Innovation Festival on the weekend of 12th and 13th of November 2011 in Milan. Once again Openwear collaborates with Vectorealism for an event dedicated to introduce creatives and designers to Open Design and Digital Fabrication. On saturday the workshop is all about lasercut fashion accessories. On sunday we’ll focus on the first steps to 3d printing with open-source tools. It’s not all about theory: you’ll be able to use directly a Makerbot 3d printer and a professional laser cut. If you are interested book your ticket here or at the bottom of this page (max. 20 participants each) Event registration for Jam Session – Makers Workshops powered by Eventbrite

Craft Central London: an interview with Emily McKillop

Six months abroad then back to Italian “good ole manners”: a cultural shock. Then I discovered Critical Fashion, the Italian movement on sustainability. I worked a year and researched other four months on sustainability and fashion. At first they appear so apart from each other but I believe, and facts are supporting my feeling, they are getting very close and powerful. In this blog post I would like to focus on one of the aim of Critical Fashion: Collaboration. It is a very subtile question, rules are often missing and freedom may becomes chaos. But there are some projects around Europe that are working to bring together and share knowledge, like the case of Openwear. We find ourselves in London, 33-35 St. John’s Square, in front of Craft Central, new name of Clerkenwell Green Association, the not-to-profit pioneering organization established over 25 years ago to build a strong future to art and design. It is one of those places, called

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From knitting machines to wearable technology in Florence

(segue in italiano) Last april I was in Florence with some friends and had the chance to meet Riccardo Marchesi, electronic engineering, managing director of Inntex and founder of Plug&Wear, an e-shop offering materials and components specifically targeted to creators of interactive fashion. He let us visit his lab, showed us experiments and prototypes around e-textiles, and here’s some bits about the long conversation we had. An electronic engineer in the fashion world. First involved in the business of knitting machines, then getting into innovative textiles, and now being passionate about wearables. Is there a connection among those three, a path that you are following, or is it only a matter of chances? Life is a matter of chance. You must be at the right time in the right place or you will miss the train. I moved my first steps in a family business going around the world trying to sell our knitting machines. At the beginning I was

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