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Draping the Human Contour: Prototyping Couture

Information

Location Kansas City, Missouri
Completion 2015
Services Signage and Graphics

cou·ture: noun
the design and manufacture of fashionable clothes to a client’s specific requirements and measurements.

The art of couture designs for the unique contours of the human body — a highly individualized experience of fashion dependent on human interaction and insight.

For the tenth anniversary of Color + Couture, a group of designers from BNIM conceived of an outfit that resembled a Kansas City landmark, comprising of an airy, two-piece dress and a coordinating choker. The striking necklace, a geometric complement to the lofty dress, is an exploration into using architectural technology to create replicable methodologies for bespoke designs.

Process

The idea of the choker began early in the schematic design of the ensemble as a process that utilized Photogrammetry, Grasshopper, and traditional physical measurements to develop a freeform necklace that would contour the model and accent the dress. The team considered several iterations of the choker before settling on the final design.

Unfolding the freeform shape onto a 2D surface was impossible; thus, using the Divide Domain tool in Grasshopper, the form was subdivided and triangulated — mimicking the natural tessellation of the human skin — and draped around the model’s back and shoulders. The 88 subdivisions were fine-tuned utilizing the graph mapper. Larger offset cuts were also added to create an airy neckpiece and perforations were added at the corners to aid in construction.

After a physical mock-up of paper was created and tested, the choker was unrolled into the 88 unique pieces using a plug-in script provided by Blickfield7.com and labeled in a sequential order to help in the physical construction. The linework was then arranged onto a laser worksheet in CAD and categorized into cut and etch properties. Once cut, the pieces were cleaned and hand-sewn together using the corner perforations.

The intricately crafted choker is the manifestation of what is possible when technology is fused with couture.