A new clothing line known as Affectation, funded through Kickstarter, attempts to update the apparel industry. Designer Ian Stikeleather has developed clothing that fastens exclusively with magnets. Small magnets hidden in Stikeleather's garments replace buttons and zippers and allow wearers to accessorize his otherwise simple designs. Stikeleather says that magnetized clothing is part of a larger trend towards mass customization, and he strove to provide a modular design that his customers can build from the bottom up. Putting his project on Kickstarter was part of his plan for designing Affectation; with a group of investors who acknowledge that they will be getting a piece of Affectation 1.0, Stikeleather can use early feedback to improve upon his original ideas.
What I found intriguing about the Wired article on Affectation (address below) is how the addition of new technology to clothing required Stikeleather to go through the engineering design process. First, Stikeleather had to find a type of magnet that would wear well and withstand hundreds of trips through washers and dryers. The type of fabric that houses the magnets also needed to be tested. Stikeleather himself often wore prototype garments to industry gatherings, returning to tweak his designs based on his own experience in wearing them. From the start, goals for Affectation were set: the clothing line is not intended to be practical protection against the elements but to make whatever statement its wearers intend. (A side benefit to clothing with magnets is that frees disabled wearers --such as those with arthritis-- from the difficulty of dealing with small fasteners like hooks and buttons. )
Source: http://www.wired.com/design/2012/12/reinvent-clothing-with-magnets/
No comments:
Post a Comment