Bas Froon
During the fashion hackathon, Unseam challenged the students to use rapid-prototyping techniques to make 3D textiles without ever touching a sewing machine. The results are a promising step toward a more sustainable fashion industry!
Fashion Hackaton with Unseam
Prototype, laser-cut, laminate, repeat!
Bas Froon shared his expertise through a hands-on workshop with students from TU Delft and the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and invited them to use novel methods to convert flat textiles into orbs and 3D objects. His joint work at Unseam with Karin Vlug is at the forefront of new 3D shaping textiles techniques that enable the creation of made-to-measure garments and textiles objects. This bypasses the traditional chain of production in the fashion industry and its costly manufacturing process, waste material and dependence on exploitative manual labour. The blueprint garments are made using digital design software that calculates the shrinkage rate of different materials which are later superimposed to create 3D shapes.
With this method, the end shape of the product can be calculated with great precision, omitting the need for several costly prototypes. The design is adjusted and rectified in realtime. This production process makes it possible to create products in small quantities, ever-adjustable and made to measure. It also allows for a much more time and cost-effective prototyping from concept to realisation.
Once the design completed, the pieces of fabric are laminated and laser-cut. A short wash at high temperature allows for the 3D shape to appear. The transforming of the textile from 2D geometrical shapes to 3D wearable pieces only happens in the final part of the production process, allowing the designers to make full use of already existing high-volume technology like CNC cutting and lamination.
After the hackathon, the students then developed a digital design tool that would make the process and methods used available to other textile designers. The result is a Grasshopper based script combined with fabric parameters and a prototype garment made with the Unseam self-shaping textiles. This was presented in an online event in January 2021 by the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.
Bas Froon
Profile
Bas Froon is the founder of Unseam, a European funded initiative aiming to bring back the manufacturing process of textile to Europe through innovative design techniques. This is based on a seamless, three-dimensional shaping textile technology that can replace the labour-intensive operations of the textile industry unnecessary.
Bas Froon (1978) graduated from the Master of Industrial Design at KABK in 2017. He also holds a master title from Twente University. He has won several awards and nominations including the Creative Industries Fund and the ClimateKIC Sustainable Business Accelerator Grant.