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Constructing Connectivity by Jessica Smarsch at Dutch Design Week 2015, Eindhoven. Photography by Lisa Klappe.

Dutch Design Week 2015: Fashion in motion

Eindhoven – Jessica Smarsch presented 'Constructing Connectivity', a garment-making process that translated bodily movements into design blueprints.

Smarsch’s wearable device tracked the electricity generated by a dancer’s muscle movements.
Custom visualisation software used the data to create a bespoke pattern

‘Traditionally, textiles were created through the natural rhythms of the body on a loom,’ Smarsch tells LS:N Global. ‘I wanted to bring the engagement of the body back into what is now a very industrial manufacturing process.’

Her wearable device tracked a dancer’s body through a series of movements. This data was then recoded and visualised using bespoke software to create a ‘monochrome graphic that becomes a blueprint for weaving fabric’. The pattern was then put through a loom using a double-layer weaving process and a plant and animal fibre to achieve a unique texture and form.

A washing process then converted the fabric into a single, seamless garment, ready to be cut and worn. Each piece represents an individualised interpretation of choreography, movement and gesture.

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