FashionTech by Anouk Wipprecht

Anouk Wipprecht is a Dutch, female artist working in the field of Couture Fashion, but at the intersection of analog design and robotics.

Eyeo 2016 – Anouk Wipprecht from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Anouk Wipprecht is such an inspiring artist because she is truly pushing the boundaries of her field. She has defined these two fields of interest to her, fashion and robotics, and exploits them to create a new bias in her designs. She sees her designs as living systems that “move, breathe, and react to the space around them.”

One of the most interesting projects to me is the Spider Dress, which “attacks when you come close to it.” Anouk has been especially interested in defining these spaces of interaction with fasion, i.e the tiers of space around our bodies.

Diagram, Anouk Wipprecht

Attached to the shoulders are robotic arms which expand from this boundary of personal space into the social space as people approach the dress and model.

Spider dress, Anouk Wipprecht

Link to video of dress here!

What I love about this artist is her actual deployment of these intersectional ideas. There exists a conceptual level of her work which influences the development of her work and eventual fabrication. At each of these levels, the others don’t fault.

“FashionTech” is defined as “a rare combination of fashion design combined with engineering, science and interaction/user experience design.” The idea of fashion, as more than a garment, that exists on our bodies, in the space around us, and as a response to the environment we exist in is such a holistic approach to an everyday idea we take for granted.

Read more about the artist here!