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The Stitch Lounge: StitchLab
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A science and fashion mash up. Huh? We confess, we were slightly apprehensive about the latest Stitch Lounge. Much as we love Stitch Lounge producer Carrie Maginn - we did think she was proper CRAZY when she invited us to join real live designers to meet a scientific muse, then design and create an inspired garment, ready for our chosen muse to wear on the LateLab catwalk in less than 36 hours. 36 hours! Thankfully though, our jitters were completely unfounded and we utterly loved every second of this Stitch Lounge. |
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Saturday morning began with a series of short talks from each muse. First up was Mark Daniels, Inspace Creative Director and New Media Scotland Executive Director. He once was an architect, but now is a master of technology and culture (preferably in equestrian attire). Mark also makes a mean bellini. Inspired by Professor John Oberlander, the talented duo of Jacob Birge and Kristina Johansen Seznec created an incredible jacket for Mark, illustrating communication connections. |
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| And then Dr Patricia Erskine stepped up. A chemical engineer at heart, Patricia spoke of polymers in their rigid and fluid, twisted and bubbly, bendy and elastic state. Patricia is so passionate about plastic, she can actually recognise the different sounds they make. She loves the click of melamine. And can detect a piece of lego dropped on the floor. Patricia talked of bakelite jewellery and coffins, synthetic sponges, lego, cellophane sweety wrappers (she showed us the twist you can achieve only with a Quality Street wrapper, not Roses. Fact!). Her plastics inspired Kseniya Shap to design her really beautiful mermaid-like dress - the bodice is sewn with 'scales' created from milk bottles.
Another great tit-bit from Patricia - cellophane is a natural polymer derived from cellulose, plant material. This fact, together with the fluid and rigid states of polymers and Patricia’s rather elegant stance as she talked inspired us to create her a flowing gown, kind of plant like in structure with the fabric puddling down on to the floor. |
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| Professor John Oberlander, a computational linguist and Academic Director of Inspace amongst many other accolades, spoke of his research into speech synthesis and individuals' differences in communication. Fascinatingly, Professor Oberlander collaborates with researchers to investigate personality classification using bloggers, who provide a rich and revealing source of text to analyse. It seems that using the word 'cool' and swearing a lot reveals you as quite extravert, while swearing means you are also highly creative. So fucking there! Indeed, John inspired two highly creative (and therefore, potty mouthed) pairs of designers to sew their amazing jackets, illustrating communication lines. The images here are Mona Kastell and Saras Feijoo's incredible creation. |  |
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Professor Ron Pethig from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering then talked of James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist and mathematician whose staggering contributions to science include presenting the first colour photograph of a ribbon. This inspired Madeleine Shepherd and Carmen Moran to design a very dandy waistcoat and hat for Ron, illustrating the three colour method, and also nodding to Maxwell’s theory that Saturn’s rings were not solid but in fact made of tiny particles. A screening of Bill Cunningham New York followed the catwalk extravaganza. You have got to see this film! A poignant and inspiring documentary of a truly funny and wise man who just lives to photograph fashion. Loved it!
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So a big gushy thank you to Carrie, New Media Scotland and Inspace for making yet another magical Stitch Lounge happen. Big thanks to the scientists for their fascinating and inspiring talks and for strutting the catwalk so well! And another thank you to the other designers for the good times. Such great fun and we're so honoured and happy to be part of it. All photos courtesy of Chris Scott, except for those of our plastic fantastic frock - thanks Chris! |