International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Conference 2025, in St. Louis, Missouri
This research-creation emerges from a broader investigation into eco-responsibility within fashion design practice, examining tensions between experimental garments and acceleratingly ephemeral fashion.
How can emerging technologies contribute to sustainable practices while maintaining emotional resonance often absent from eco-responsible fashion discourse? How can we interfere in the relentless acceleration of environmental disaster driven by mainstream fashion production cycles?
The InBetween3dPrintDress achieves conceptual and formal cohesion through systematic exploration of tensions between opposing elements into a unified artistic statement: traditional techniques and emerging technology, handcraft draping and machine production, organic fluid forms and geometric rigidity.
Without naming a specific emotion, the team was working to express emotions in the range qualified in the ‘Softness’ category, including empathy, nostalgia, tenderness/care, and vulnerability. This work contributes significantly to sustainable fashion design discourse by demonstrating how emerging technologies integrate with ancestral techniques – draping and zero-waste cutting – to create emotionally resonant, eco-responsible garments.
Credits:
Re.Shape Lab_ PI & creative direction: Danielle Martin // 3D printing & draping design: Niloufar Ashournia, Haya Abdelhamid, and Shantine Li.
photos: Danielle Martin // acknowledgement: Design research & 3D printing at TMU Library Collaboratory
danielle martin 