Over the weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip to Boston with my mom. This summer is the first that we will not be going on a family vacation, and due to my work/internship/classes schedule there isn't a whole lot of time for me to get away for a weekend, so when my sister had to be picked up in Boston we decided to head up a day early to get some sight seeing done!
In under 48 hours we were able to do a lot of fun things that I had planned for my mom and I. One of them was to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I saw the museum online and knew that it would be a perfect place for us to go. My mom has always loved taking us to museums, and i'm starting to really appreciate visiting them more. Besides being the fourth largest museum in the United States {they have over 450,000 works of art} I had an extra special reason for wanting to visit; the #techstyle exhibit that was going on. The exhibit is going on from March 6 until July 10 and is all about "the art of innovation in fashion".
While I always knew that technology and innovation played a huge part in shaping the fashion industry, this exhibit really opened my eyes to the amazing things going on in fashion.
When you walked into the exhibit you were met with a line of pieces going horizontally down the hallway. The two pieces that immediately caught my eye were the silk digitally printed dress {designer was not listed} and the Alexander McQueen "Alien" Shoes. The shoes were one of my favorite pieces in the exhibit because they were so unique and intricate. The shoes are 3D-printed resin that were made based on the special-effects that were done in the film
Alien {1980}.
Iris van Herpen and Neri Oxman of MIT Media Lab's worked together to create this piece which was the first 3D printed garment to be made of both hard and soft materials. The texture on this dress was incredible to see up close. There was so much detail that I cannot imagine this pieces being created through the use of a printer.
Mary Katranktzou used digital printing to aid the creation of this colorful piece. It was amazing how vibrant the colors and patterns were when you looked up close. The silhouette is also very reminiscent of classic Asian dress, something that I find very sophisticated.
This leather jacket by Elvira 't Hart was anther favorite piece of mine. She used both computer-aided design and laser technology to help transform her sketches into their 3D forms. I think one of the reasons I liked this jacket so much was that I could picture it being worn by so many different people in so many different scenarios. It's a great twist on a classic piece.
The scale-like layers on this bodice were created by Manish Arora through the use of a laser cutter. There was a lot of intricate details that went into this piece and making sure that the "scales" were layered correctly to create a 3D shape.
This piece was from the Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture "Wearable Art" collection. The collection {which was one of many runway shows being shown on a wall in the gallery} showed how the model would wear the dress down the runway and then moments after would be taken off and transformed into a framed masterpiece placed on the back wall of the runway.
Another {amazing} example of 3D printing are these two pairs of shoes. The first pair are the "Molecule Shoes" which are done by Francis Bitonti in collaboration with Adobe and Stratasys Ltd. They are based on the "Game of Life" and are meant to show growth. The second are "Highrise Shoes" done by United Nude. This pair of shoes are meant to resemble a model of a building to scale. This specific pair reminds me of something that Lady GaGa would wear in one of her earlier music videos.
CuteCircuit's MFA Dress shows how fashion and electronics are able to work together. The dress is synched to a touch screen which allows the user to choose a pattern that will be flashed across thousands of MicroLEDs that are embedded in the dress. It was pretty cool pushing buttons for different patterns designs and seeing the dress immediately light up with the result.
"The Spike" Artificial Leg by Viktoria Modesta and others was a very interesting piece. This was shown through the video "Prototype" being played on a screen. The film showed the designer and pop artist, Modesta who had a leg amputation in 2007 using "The Spike". She is working with groups such as the Body Mechatronics group and the MIT Media Lab to work towards "pushing boundaries related to concepts of the body".
Overall the exhibit was extremely fascinating. If you are in the Boston area I
highly recommend spending some time looking at the #techstyle exhibit and wandering throughout the rest of the museum. It was a great experience and really got me thinking about the new innovations that are involved with garment production.
