DIY creation of fashion eschewing the need for sewing, demonstrated in Dutch label Post Couture’s “Fab Lab”.
Photo: Pietro Sutera © Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH
The motto for this year’s theme park at the world’s largest trade fair for home and contract textiles was “The Future is urban”. The park offered five experience areas and four central lifestyle trends. While last year’s exhibition was somewhat disappointing with its stacks of panels of fabric and lack of information available, this year there was a noticeable breath of fresh air with a concept courtesy of British research and design studio FranklinTill.
Small home environments and studios were created in the different thematic areas that showed how living in the increasingly limited spaces of our ever busier urban environments can in fact be quite pleasant – multi-sensorial experiences included. This was certainly the case for the recreation rooms “Color Experience,” which was entirely in different reds and blues. Here, visitors were able to experience the effect being immersed in a color can have on your mood. And interactive elements were part of the parcel, too. A return to quality and the authenticity of proven crafting techniques were vividly explained: including the 1,000 year old Japanese dying technique Shibori, presented in the “Perfect Imperfection” section by Lola Lely and Bristol Weavers Mill, and the DIY creation of fashion eschewing the need for sewing, demonstrated in Dutch label Post Couture’s “Fab Lab”. The visibility of materiality and creative processes was also a topic in the trend section “Adapt and Assemble”: materials without frills and complex details – some of which will be produced using laser cutters and 3D printers – are to serve modern nomads as robust companions in their frequent changes of residence.
Robust companions for modern nomads: Materials without frills and complex details in the trend section “Adapt and Assemble”.
Photo: Pietro Sutera © Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH