Second Skins: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities for Designing Adaptable Garments Using E-Textile

Abstract

The process of making adaptive and responsive wearables on the scale of the body has often been a process where designers use off-the-shelf parts or hand-crafted electronics to fabricate garments. However, recent research has shown the importance of emergence in the process of making. Second Skins is a multistakeholder exploration into the creation of those garments where the designers and engineers work together throughout the design process so that opportunities and challenges emerge with all stakeholders present in the process. This research serves as a case study into the creation of adaptive caring garments for sustainable wardrobes from a multistakeholder design team. The team created a garment that can customize the colors, patterns, structures, and other properties dynamically. A reflection on the multi-stakeholder process unpacks the process to explore the challenges and opportunities in adaptable e-textiles.

Keywords

• dynamic garments
• multistakeholder design
• textiles
• e-textiles
• fabrication