Diana Connolly – Looking Outwards 3

Lustre, 2015
My friend Rehan Butt created a clothing line named Lustre for the 2015 Lunar Gala show with two of his friends, using algorithms to help produce their clothes. Their clothing line was termed by the audience as being the “origami line” because thick white paper was laser cut and then folded in geometric shapes to fit the models. The algorithms to do this were as follows: The team scanned each of their models using an ABB robot equipped with a camera to take many photos of each person, to then be compiled on AutoDesk’s 123D Catch for the sake of creating a 3D mesh model. With the 3D model of each person, the team was able to fit their 2D drawings of the clothing designs onto the 3D models, using the program Rhino to create the shapes of the clothes digitally. Taking it from 2D to 3D required an algorithm to determine where the volume of the clothing would be, and thus where to create the folds. These algorithms helped to manifest the team’s artistic sensibilities in the line’s final form because they used software and math to create the geometric shapes of the clothes, which all required high levels of detail, as well as consistency with the other geometric components. Once these geometric paper components were cut and folded, the team added iridescent, multi-chrome fabric accents to each of the clothing pieces. I absolutely loved this juxtaposition between the two polarized components, as the fluidity and colorfulness of the fabric contrasted with the rigidity and stark whiteness of the paper. I thought that the overall look of each piece was very enticing, and effective in highlighting the key features of both the paper elements and the fabric elements. Below are images of a few of the pieces, as well as a video of the models walking from the 2015 show!

Link to Rehan’s website page about the clothing line: http://rehanbutt.com/fashion

5 selected images from Lustre

Video of Lustre being modeled in the 2015 Lunar Gala show