ABSTRACT
In a time where companies specializing in high-technology products hold a monopoly on smart textiles, mainly in the realms of medicine or sports, the domains of fashion and textile design must rise to the occasion and explore the sensitive characteristics inherent to these new materials, beyond their technical uses. As a professor and fashion designer, it is within this context that I have developed a creative practice spanning nearly 20 years through my ‘Exercices de style’ (style exercises) lab. It is the tool through which I have created interactive ecosystems, where textile and matter exist to serve the intangible: oxygen, gaze, sound and light are used as media to produce complex, evolving, modular structures. This dialogue between immateriality and technology opens up a vast spectrum of creative possibilities, both technical and conceptual, in the realm of fashion. In order to translate this position in my practice, six speculative design projects were completed in my lab then exhibited internationally and are presented here in greater detail.
