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Refelt
i-did
i-did is a company that repurposes textile waste that no one else wants to create felt. This is than used for the production of bags, lamps and soundboards.
They want to expand their collection and see if it's possible to create new clothing out of this recycled felt.
Through biomimicry, many experiments and prototypes two concept shirt were created:
The futuristic Senea,
(worn by our team mate Gabriël)
and
The mainstream Arnea.
(worn by Fashion Designer
Ronald van der Kemp)
The Problem
The current felt from i-did has never been used to produce clothes before, but at first glance it looked itchy and rather stiff. To get a more precise idea of the problems some experiments were performed.
Felt Bracelet
To check skin irritation our team wore felt bracelets for three days.
We found that the the felt didn't irritate, but it was itchy and stiff. The texture of the felt did get slightly better over time.
Felt T-shirt
My teammate Gabriël wore a felt t-shirt for three days.
The t-shirt was itchy and stiff. This made it hard to get in or out of and made it buldge weird when he sat down or put his hands above his head.
Experimentation
Now that the weaknesses and limitations of the current felt were noted more experiments were done. In these experiments we tested common fabric softening and loosening treatments and new fabric treatments based on our Nature Technology Summits on the felt.
Biomimicry
After the experimentation fase there were two particular ideas inspired by nature that were very succesfull in softening and loosening the fabric.
Abstract Mechanism
The garden spider pushes the raw material through a funnel to create a solid string.
Incorperation
The felt is pushed and pulled through a tube for about 50 times to soften and loosen the fabric up.
Abstract Mechanism
The garter snake has keratin scales that can move separately to ensure protection and flexibility
Incorperation
Diamonds or triangles are sown together to create a more flexible material.
Ideation
Now that our team had a clear idea of the problem areas of the felt and possible treatments we started to ideate.
Final Concept
Senea
A look at what the future of sustainable fashion could look like. Instead of buying standardized sized clothing, we scan our bodies and a computer generates the perfect fitting design consisting out of varying sizes of triangles. These will then be cut out in the least wasteful way and automatically be sown together to create your t-shirt.
Arnea
A modern take on what sustainable fashion made from felt could look like. The jacket is inspired by a retro baseball shirt that fits right in with streetwear and mainstream fashion. The Arnea is light weight and easy to wear over any t-shirt to add some extra texture and flare to your outfit.
Other Explorations
With some of the left-over scraps our team explored some other clothing item options
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