Modules \u00e0 la mode<\/strong><\/p>\nThe researchers conducted a preliminary user study where both designers and novices explored Refashion and were able to create garment prototypes. Participants assembled pieces such as an asymmetric top that could be extended into a jumpsuit, or remade into a formal dress, often within 30 minutes. These results suggest that Refashion has the potential to make prototyping garments more approachable and efficient. But what features might contribute to this ease of use?<\/p>\n
Its interface first presents a simple grid in its \u201cPattern Editor\u201d mode, where users can connect dots to outline the boundaries of a clothing item. It\u2019s essentially drawing rectangular panels and specifying how different modules will connect to each other.<\/p>\n
Users can customize the shape of each component, create a straight design for garments (which might be useful for less form-fitting items, like chinos) or perhaps tinkering with one of Refashion\u2019s templates. A user can edit pre-designed blueprints for things like a T-shirt, fitted blouse, or trousers.<\/p>\n
Another, more creative route is to change the design of individual modules. One can choose the \u201cpleat\u201d feature to fold a garment over itself, similar to an accordion, for starters. It\u2019s a useful way to design something like a maxi dress. The \u201cgather\u201d option adds an artsy flourish, where a garment is crumpled together to create puffy skirts or sleeves. A user might even go with the \u201cdart\u201d module, which removes a triangular piece from the fabric. It allows for shaping a garment at the waist (perhaps for a pencil skirt) or tailor to the upper body (fitted shirts, for instance).<\/p>\n
While it might seem that each of these components needs to be sewn together, Refashion enables users to connect garments through more flexible, efficient means. Edges can be seamed together via double-sided connectors such as metal snaps (like the buttons used to close a denim jacket) or Velcro dots. A user could also fasten them in pins called brads, which have a pointed side that they stick through a hole and split into two \u201clegs\u201d to attach to another surface; it\u2019s a handy way to secure, say, a picture on a poster board. Both connective methods make it easy to reconfigure modules, should they be damaged or a \u201cfit check\u201d calls for a new look.<\/p>\n
As a user designs their clothing piece, the system automatically creates a simplified diagram of how it can be assembled. The pattern is divided into numbered blocks, which is dragged onto different parts of a 2D mannequin to specify the position of each component. The user can then simulate how their sustainable clothing will look on 3D models of a range of body types (one can also upload a model).<\/p>\n
Finally, a digital blueprint for sustainable clothing can extend, shorten, or combine with other pieces. Thanks to Refashion, a new piece could be emblematic of a potential shift in fashion: Instead of buying new clothes every time we want a new outfit, we can simply reconfigure existing ones. Yesterday\u2019s scarf could be today\u2019s hat, and today\u2019s T-shirt could be tomorrow\u2019s jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebecca\u2019s work is at an exciting intersection between computation and art, craft, and design,\u201d says MIT EECS professor and CSAIL principal investigator Erik Demaine, who advises Lin. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see how Refashion can make custom fashion design accessible to the wearer, while also making clothes more reusable and sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Constant change<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile Refashion presents a greener vision for the future of fashion, the researchers note that they\u2019re actively improving the system. They intend to revise the interface to support more durable items, stepping beyond standard prototyping fabrics. Refashion may soon support other modules, like curved panels, as well. The CSAIL-Adobe team may also evaluate whether their system can use as few materials as possible to minimize waste, and whether it can help \u201cremix\u201d old store-bought outfits.<\/p>\n
Lin also plans to develop new computational tools that help designers create unique, personalized outfits using colors and textures. She\u2019s exploring how to design clothing by patchwork \u2014 essentially, cutting out small pieces from materials like decorative fabrics, recycled denim, and crochet blocks and assembling them into a larger item.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great example of how computer-aided design can also be key in supporting more sustainable practices in the fashion industry,\u201d says Adrien Bousseau, a senior researcher at Inria Centre at Universit\u00e9 C\u00f4te d’Azur who wasn\u2019t involved in the paper. \u201cBy promoting garment alteration from the ground up, they developed a novel design interface and accompanying optimization algorithm that helps designers create garments that can undergo a longer lifetime through reconfiguration. While sustainability often imposes additional constraints on industrial production, I am confident that research like the one by Lin and her colleagues will empower designers in innovating despite these constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lin wrote the paper with Adobe Research scientists Michal Luk\u00e1\u010d and Mackenzie Leake, who is the paper\u2019s senior author and a former CSAIL postdoc. Their work was supported, in part, by the MIT Morningside Academy for Design, an MIT MAKE Design-2-Making Mini-Grant, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The researchers presented their work recently at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to keep up with the ever-changing trends of the fashion world. What\u2019s \u201cin\u201d one minute is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[77805,18,77807,77804,77798,77799,77801,19,17,46709,37049,77796,30118,77806,77803,77797,77802,82,77800],"class_list":{"0":"post-129163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-decomposition-algorithm","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-erik-demaine","11":"tag-fabric-modules","12":"tag-fashion-design","13":"tag-fashion-industry","14":"tag-foundation-module","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-mit-csail","18":"tag-mit-media-lab","19":"tag-mit-morningside-academy-for-design","20":"tag-modular-design","21":"tag-rebecca-lin","22":"tag-reconfigurable-clothing","23":"tag-refashion","24":"tag-seam-interface","25":"tag-technology","26":"tag-zero-waste-garment-design"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}