top of page
Smocking Hot
customizable garment
This project is about using a combination of smocking and dissolvable thread to create a wearable garment that is instantly personal to its wearer through fit, feel, and material qualities, while also being easily customizable by dissolving the individual smocking knot points.
In tandem with qualitative user involvement sessions about their relationships with their bodies and clothing, we also aim for the garment to fit and accentuate different body types. The garment reconciles that relationship by proposing a method of dressing that lets the wearer adjust it to and change it for their body.
The garment evokes a physical first-person exploration of one's body, inviting the wearer to both actively shape and tactilely explore the 3D qualities of the smocking, as well as their body underneath.
try it.
Change it.
wear it with pride.
Material Exploration
A playground of tactile feel: Woven Fabric, 3D-Printed PVA, Water-soluble thread
Pigment
3D Print
Frankenstein
Pigment
1/4
My finger likes the way the 3D printed plastic stretches the fabric. It invites the finger to explore the stretched fabric along the plastic spiral track. It feels satisfying
I think plastic doesn't belong with fabric in large quantities. It feels harsh to the touch — uncomfortable, sharp
This smocked fabric feels amazing to move your fingers through! It's soft, delicate, and complex. It also allows to feel the surface below — it acts as a sort of interface for it...
This can create interesting interactions with water-soluble thread!
...an interface for interacting with our own body!
What does smocking do to the body?
The smocking technique creates a 3D pattern on the fabric, which shifts and blurs the silhouette of the wearer's body
The goal is to throw out the chase of the ideals and standards of the fashion industry and curate a new experience in which the wearer has a say in how the fabric fits THEIR body — they have the freedom to shape the fabric to their bodies according to their will.
Water-soluble thread allows the users to "unsmock" the fabric, customizing which places on their body are obscured by the smocking interface
Material selection
making of prototype 1
I would not just wear it casually, because it looks so intricate and special
Participant 1
I wish the sleeves were symmetrical...
Participant 2
I don't really know what could be dissolved...
I feel like I'm breaking the pattern!
Participant 7
One of the sides is too open...
I suggest the seam go all the way to the waist
Participant 4
making of prototype 2
Objectives (guided by user tests):
— sides should be closed
— sleeves should be symmetrical
— fit should be better by using different patterns for different body parts
— use thread that dissolves at high temperatures only; make garment washable at lower temperatures
Turns out that determining how much fabric you need for the smocking technique is kind of unpredictable — so we made a program that does it for us.
Code written by project group members from the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology:
Jasmijn Vugts, Jasmijn Braakhuis
bottom of page