Our blog is part of our open innovation approach. Research results and insights to our co-creation processes as well as information about the used technologies are being discussed in our blog - curated and written by our artists and technologists.
The Re-FREAM Manifesto is now available
Over three years, artists, designers, scientists and industry experts entered into the Re-FREAM co-creation processes. They collaborated through lab experiments and Zoom calls, imperfect outcomes and pivots, materials and contemplation, fuelled by brain cells and enthusiasm. Together, they conceived trailblazing solutions for pressing social and …
Unique new nebulising UNO machine
The new machine which has been entirely engineered and developed by Care Applications within the frame of the Re-FREAM project, is called UNO. It is a sample machine for the garment processing industry, garment wash, garment dye, and garment finishing including functionalisation. What makes it …
The ‘Sepida’ shoe is 3D printed on fabric with a ‘slide in’ evolutionary personalised midsole – Assa Ashuach
The Sepida shoes are part of the ‘Evolve IM’, a new biometric evolutionary footwear. In this project, we worked on three main domains: evolutionary design, circular design, and 3D printing on fabric footwear. This post focuses on 3D printing on fabric. The Spedia shoe design …
Circular Mono Material footwear, made of postconsumer waste for Reuse and Refix – ReFream by Assa Ashuach
This post presents my collaboration with Haratech, that is focused on strategies to increase footwear lifetime and leads to reduced overall manufacturing and object carbon footprint to the minimum. The MONO material is a R&D domain that was developed in parallel to the Evolve footwear …
Meet the Pioneers of Future Fashion in Berlin
On Nov 4 2021, we discuss future challenges in (fashion) design and experience 20 pioneering future fashion projects within the framework of Re-FREAM in Berlin. …
THALASSIC MASKS 6 . CONCLUSIONS
As the pandemic is changing the world, our identities, reflected in what we wear every day, are affected by that. In that sense the scope of the Thalassic Masks project goes beyond the objects themselves, but it is a reflection on how our lives are …
THALASSIC MASKS 5 . RESPONSIVE PATTERN
One aspect of the research was focused on exploring how living beings adapt, survive, and eventually thrive within aggressive environments. Natural ecosystems, through natural selection, have evolved a multitude of features and singular or collective behaviours that allowed them to survive even in the harshest …
THALASSIC MASKS 4 . PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Much of the work of the Co-creation phase of the Thalassic Masks project focused on developing the initial digital concept design into a working prototype. The final concept design features two components: a simple functional part, protecting mouth and nose, and an aesthetic one, a …
Project Marinero final results campaign
Photography: Mike Pasarella Hair and make up: Adriana Maria Model: Benthe @ Models Rock Agency Location: Blanche Dael Maastricht …
A New Kind of Blue
The prototypes are finished. The only thing left is to put in zippers and buttons. We are getting ready for dissemination – preparing and planning what events to go, which prototypes and samples to show where, and how we are going to have the last …
Final treatments on New Blue
The month started off with the finalization of patterns and tailoring of the remaining garments. 1 boilersuit, 2 five panel hats, 2 jackets, 1 pair of pants, 2 shorts, and a fanny bag. Produced in 3 different New Blue materials: New Blue Industry, New Blue …
-Sustainable Evolution- Capsule collection- Photoshoot and Video
This is the final stretch of my Sustainable Evolution project for ReFream. After many months of development I was able to finalize my prototypes to create a final video and photoshoot for this very special capsule collection. It was not an easy task to get …
Needs-Based Clothing Design processes thrive through human connection
This is my final blog post within the Re-FREAM funding scheme. The last nine months have been an exciting experience, full of learnings and pathfinding moments into garment wearer engagement in needs-based clothing design. I am incredibly proud of the team that has worked tirelessly …
Re-FREAM at Wear It Innovation Summit 2021
Wear It Innovation Summit 2021 For its 8th edition, the Wear It Innovation Summit went online for the first time. Over the course of four days, more than 40 speakers gathered to discuss the future of Wearable Tech. More than a thousand participants from all …
Re-FREAM at the ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 21
Festival Wrap-Up For five days, the Ars Electronica Festival once again pitched its tents in Linz – with numerous inspiring exhibitions, performances and workshops in tow. This year’s Ars Electronica Festival was calling for a “New Digital Deal”. The motto of the festival refers to a completely …
Syntropia – the field
The project Syntropia develops a shoe based on biomaterials which can grow on and be harvested from the same regenerative polycultural field. To see more about the previous steps of the project see our blog posts: Syntropia, Researching Syntropia and Thinking Footwear through a Regenerative …
Syntropia – the materials
The project Syntropia develops a shoe based on biomaterials which can grow on and be harvested from the same regenerative polycultural field. To see more about the previous steps of the project see our blog posts: Syntropia, Researching Syntropia and Thinking Footwear through a Regenerative …
Syntropia – the shoe
The project Syntropia develops a shoe based on biomaterials which can grow on and be harvested from the same regenerative polycultural field. To see more about the previous steps of the project see our blog posts: Syntropia, Researching Syntropia and Thinking Footwear through a Regenerative …
Needs-Based Clothing Design requires visual communication
When explaining my design approach towards bra diversity to the general public, I frequently encounter misunderstandings with conversation partners who are new to the topic of breast cancer. Especially when talking about urgently needed alternative bra options that cater to the needs of females with …
Ignotum final post
This is our final blog entry here on the Re-FREAM website, but before we dive into it, we would like to thank all of our partners and collaborators: Fraunhofer IZM: Christian Dils, Max Marwede, Robin Hoske, Sigrid Rotzler, Lars Stagun, Dr. Rafael Jordan, Kamil Garbacz, …
Second Skins, The final prototypes
Prototypes Finally, after 7 months, I was able to visit Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin, to work together in their labs for 3 weeks. It was great to experience that every part of the process had a specific expert and the whole team was extremely involved …
Innovations in personal fit – Assa Ashuach Refream project ‘Time Based Design’
Evolve IM’ biometric evolutionary footwear and midsoles Shoes and midsoles that studies its user and improves over time. We propose a new evolutionary footwear design approach, whereby user sensors biometric data is collected over time, to achieve a gradual improvement of the shoe. Innovations in …
Evolve IM’ biometric evolutionary footwear – At Milan MICAM X tomorrow
Excited to finally present my latest ReFream EU funded research, titled ‘Footwear Time Based Design’. With many thanks to the the ReFream team and project, that was set to rethink fashion and its synergies to life and science. Invited by our dear friend Federico Brugnoli, …
Building the Ignotum prototype
Last time we showed you our design process for Ignotum. Once we had come to a design we all were on board with, it was time to start making it into a real working thing. This blog post will be a bit longer than usual, …
Ars Electronica Experience in Linz, Austria
Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria It was a great experience being able to attend and show my collection of scented and naturally dyed garments at Ars Electronica this year. Although my project wasn’t as technologically-aesthetic as others I saw, I still got great feedback …
Embroidered Touch | Life Space
We’re in the home stretch of our Re-FREAM collaboration and it’s been an exciting journey to see everything come together. Together with the Fraunhofer Team, Christine Shallenberg, has been a masterful technology consultant during the entire process, ever steadfast at troubleshooting the software and programming …
Finalising the Ignotum design
Our design phase for Ignotum is slowly coming to its final conclusion. Everyone who has ever designed or developed a product knows, that usually this process demands lots of iterations and constant micro-decisions to be made that hopefully lead to a sensible yet exciting design. …
Prototyping, natural dyeing and laser cutting
Prototyping, natural dyeing and laser cutting During this whole process, garment design and manufacturing has been at the center of our project. I have subcontracted professionals in this area as to have a better and more experienced approach into creating these garments. Textiles have been very …
Deliverables Development
Naturally Dyed & Microencapsulated Fabric Results With CareApplications’ eco-finish nebulization technology, we went ahead and selected our final plants to proceed with and started dyeing a series of cotton and linen fabrics to later cut and sew with. We started with eucalyptus, black rice, thyme …
Bacteria Dyeing
Dyeing with bacteria Bacteria experimentations: During these lasts months we have been thoroughly fermenting bacteria for dyeing with my mentor Alicia Romero, from the microbiology lab at Aitex. We conducted various experiments with our 2 strains of bacteria to see how to get them to …
Needs-Based Clothing Design and textile preferences
Clothing design may not be considered a factor in the breast cancer recovery process. However, as the first layer of material that comes in contact with our skin daily, clothing plays a constant role in our perceptual experiences of touch – while dressing and undressing, …
Wear It Innovation Summit 2021 (Online Edition)
NEW. SURPRISING. GAME CHANGING This year’s Wear It Innovation Summit coming back online ! Wear it Berlin is organising a 4-day event from the 7th September to 10th September 2021, to bring together cross-industrial experts involved in wearable technologies. Already in its 8th year, the …
Re-FREAM Exhibition at the ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 2021
A New Digital Deal This year’s Ars Electronica Festival is calling for a “New Digital Deal”. The motto of the festival refers to a completely new way of dealing with current problems that presupposes two things: Room for initiative, which we urgently demand, and the …
The New Normal
I recently spent five weeks in Berlin at the Fraunhofer IZM and a few days at Stoll in Reutlingen. It was an enriching experience to work and collaborate with a team of like-minded scientists, fashion and textile designers, as well as engineers. Together, we were …
Navigating the evolution of fashion tech
The evolution of fashion tech For centuries high fashion in itself has been accepted for its aesthetic and expressive value. Now that we have started to fuse and cross-pollinate this field of expression with other industries, like technology, into something called “fashion tech”, this seems …
Trip to Hub Linz
TRIP TO STEYR @ PROFACTOR I took a trip to Hub Linz to visit Profactor to develop some buttons that could be screwed opened and closed so that a scented piece of fabric could be inserted into it. The idea was to be able to …
Prototyping and other endeavors
In the last post we mentioned how we collaborated with different subcontractors in order to go from samples to garments. The fashion designer, pattern maker and tailor helped us immensely in this undertaking, and made it a reality to have some final garment pieces ready …
From Samples to Garments
In May we came back to our studio in Berlin. We had just been spending 5 exciting and challenging weeks in the Re-FREAM Hub in Alcoy, Spain, together with our partners, Aitex and Care Applications. Now being back in Berlin we were to begin the …
Planetary Design Circle – A Holistic and Strategic Design Tool
Authors: Hoske, Robin; Marwede, Max – Fraunhofer IZM The past months were a time that changed the way we work and collaborate together with our artists. With the Pandemic we were once more reminded that there is an urgent need for a change within the …
Second skins research on responsive and adaptive materials
Over the past months, we did extensive research on activation methods and responsive reactive textiles usable for fashion integration. In this blog post, Christian Dils from IZM and I, Malou Beemer, will walk you through our process and findings. The hunt for responsive and adaptive …
Assa Co researching ‘Footwear Time Based Design’ with Stratasys, Haratech and Profactor
NOTE: Featured image (above) is a concept 3D illustration, and not attempting to be anything like the final design ; ) The co research was focused on the exploration of new footwear design and manufacturing methodologies, technologies, and the development of a hybrid approach to …
Mid term presentation of New Blue
On the 12th of April we had the mid term presentation! We arrived two weeks before in Spain with all our material we developed and had to work hard in order to show our work done here in the research institute. We presented our project …
Sustainable Evolution MidTerm
Midterm presentations were in mid April and it was a chance for all artists, technicians, hub managers and the rest of the organization committee to be able to see the progress in our projects. We at the Valencia hub (in Alcoy) were extremely lucky as …
POSTNATURAL PROSTHESES: GRANULAR FORMATIONS AND POLYJET SAMPLES
Our Co-research phase started by experimenting with Stratasys on PolyJet 3d printing on fabric. The technology allows to augment a textile by printing three-dimensional structures onto it, whose shape, colour, transparency and flexibility can be controlled through a digital 3d model, at the resolution of …
Sustainable Evolution – Co-research
For the last couple of months I have been here at the Valencia Hub in Alcoy, working and co-creating with the technicians. We are trying to find optimal processes of dyeing sustainably with microorganisms and plants dyes. We have also been working with laser cutting …
POSTNATURAL PROSTHESES: LINEAR FORMATIONS AND POLYJET SAMPLES
Our Co-research phase started by experimenting with Stratasys on PolyJet 3d printing on fabric. The technology allows to augment a textile by printing three-dimensional structures onto it, whose shape, colour, transparency and flexibility can be controlled through a digital 3d model, at the resolution of …
Thinking Footwear through a Regenerative Polyculture
The starting point of the project Syntropia is to develop a shoe based on biomaterials which can grow on and be harvested from the same regenerative polycultural field. Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, …
Researching Syntropia
With the project Syntropia we are working on a shoe based on an already developed simplified construction built from four main components. These parts will be produced using biomaterials which can grow on the same polycultural field. See our first blog post for a more …
We arrived at our HUB in Alcoy, Spain!
Hola! After a few stressful weeks in Germany, preparing and finishing all the base material (New Blue Craft and New Blue industry), we arrived in the beautiful city of Alcoy, Spain. Here our HUB is situated in an old monumental building in the middle of …
Needs-Based Clothing Design stakeholders
I would like to introduce (most of) the stakeholders involved in this project, who are collaboratively shaping the outcome of the final product. With the engineered knit designers and co-founders of case studies, Laura Krauthausen and Konstantin Laschkow, I am developing the base bodice of …
Needs-Based Clothing Design is a collaborative effort
The design process of a garment is a collaborative effort. Several parties are involved in bringing a design idea to life and seeing it through to completion. The garment designer is just one person in this larger group. The garment design process usually develops in …
Lighting up Ignotum
This blog post is about some of the recent technical difficulties we faced in our project and how we are solving them together with our technical partners. As with all the ongoing Re-FREAM projects, this mainly happened utilising online tools and meetings. Due to …
Ignotum Co-Research
Today we would like to give you more detailed insights into our project “Ignotum” with the Re-FREAM consortium – a quick refresh on why we are doing this, how we got started, failed a bit and then finally found a direction with promising results. Then, …
Mid-Term Presentation by Alexander Bello
MID-TERM PRESENTATION A few weeks ago all the Re-FREAM projects from Hub Linz, Hub Berlin and Hub Valencia were presented in front of the selected artists, technologists and innovation board to give an update on the progress of each of our projects. It was particularly …
Experience at Hub Valencia by Alexander Bello
Phase 2 – Experience: In the co-defining and co-research part of the project with CareApplications and AITEX, one of the milestones we concentrated on reaching was to develop a scalable system for natural dyeing in the most efficient way possible with the highest performance, without compromising quality …
Design principles, Second Skins
Before we take you with us on our research journey of the fusion between tech and fashion, finding usable materials and integration methods, I find it important to share our design vision with you. So, in this blogpost I will really focus on the backbone …
Mid-Term Updates Embroidered Touch / Life Space
The following is an update on my work and research with Re-FREAM partners, whose support of this project is part of a larger effort to explore the future of fashion. I will share some of the lessons learnt from this collaborative process over the past …
Sense of Play and Place
In 2016 I launched INTERKNIT, a knitwear collection born out of a series of residencies at Textiellab in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The textures and abstract surface patterns I developed through knitwear technology referenced women’s lived experiences, from the challenges to the joys they face in …
Second Skins, building the fundament
To develop a strong, coherent and relevant project, it is important to build a good foundation. Within this process, it is essential to always keep your main goals in mind. What are we working towards, why and for whom are we doing this? These questions …
Marinero – 9
Dear reader, this is my 9th and last Re-FREAM blog. ”Onderzoek brengt licht, meaning research brings light” The Marinero journey for project Re-FREAM comes to its final stage. 2020/21 has been an interesting year and I want to thank you for following this journey with …
