Kniterate wants to create a machine that prints garment files of compact size at an affordable cost. it wants to bring production back to a small, local scale, changing the production methods of the fashion industry.
In the words of the founder Gerard Rubio, Kniterate is a movement for distributed production, because it can be housed in any workshop for a cost that is ten times less than that of industrial machinery, and cuts down on the time required for testing of yarns and fabrics. Over the last year the team has created a prototype of a web-based app, and they are working on a script capable of converting images into knitted artifacts.
Belgium’s Diane Steverlynck, Anne Masson and Eric Chevalier of the studio lænd have created carpets whose decorative motifs spring from the design of the yarn itself. In other words, the decoration and geometric patterns are encoded before the machine makes the product. Though this might sound abstract, the tiny variations of the yarn, like the fluctuations of tension due to the imperfections of the fiber, leave room for slight margins of the unexpected, adding new value to the project.
The encoding of decorative patterns is also a pursuit for the designers Cecilia Delaney and Vladimir Gheorghe, based in London. Raum is a series of printed fabrics whose decorations – all unique – come from real time processing of video images, shot in real places. The goal is to explore the intersection between physical place, temporal scanning and digital space.
A tireless researcher in the field of color and fabric – with an exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (until September 2018), after a solo show at the Design Museum in London – Hella Jongerius studies the interaction between the woven crafts tradition and processes of industrial production.
Among the experimental weaves on view in Munich, there is a multilayered Jacquard made possible precisely thanks to industrial looms. The upper layer in thick black linen yarn has long ‘floaters’: weft yards not tied to the base weave with the warp.
They can be cut and opened by hand, revealing the layer below composed of slender polyester yarns with graphic motifs. Jongerius’ fabrics demonstrate how applied creation can help to push the envelope of the limits of making. As the designer says, “if you think our future is making, therefore it’s in our hands.