Wawancara dengan Valentina Favaro

The inspiration is a reflection on how movement can be embodied in our urban garments through the use of programmable materials in response to the digital era.

We are now living in a digital era, digital people in digital environment, and virtual is overwhelming the physical aspects of life. In opposite to these I wanted to bring awareness on materiality.

In each change there has been in the material culture the reason was mainly the movement.

The relation between body and movement is the main focus.

The relation between body and movement is the main focus. I needed to find a way to put together the meaning and importance of materiality with a new need for functionality, something which can enhance the movement of our body, as well as follow and represent a new life in which from morning to night we need to go to tons of different places with different needs of clothes.

I wanted to go deeper in the path of programmable materials, to design something which could both follow our movements and change its shape.

In the end I started capturing the movement of the body with a Kinect, and tracing it with Maya. This gave me the possibility to follow both the conceptual part and the functional one: for the first one I was able to trace the movement, to bring it from real to virtual to its materialisation into clothes; for the functionality I was able in this way to understand which movement freedom and support was needed in our clothes. All these for easiness has been divided in free different capsule collection connected each one to one activity.

Finally I started printing, printing, again and again, to find the best way in which fabrics were able to start moving, I was finally programming them.

To look further into this research trying to find a way to make it easier and to follow the path of movement in the best functional way.

it took me 5 months, in which I printed day and nights. I was often putting my alarm during night every three hours to take out a printed piece and put another one on the go.

My interest on looking always forward, on discovering new possibilities. And, most of all, my interest on the connection between body and movement, nevertheless my passion for materials.

First of all the practitioner Christopher Guberan, focuses on the reaction of 3d printing on fabric. Guberan research is based more in general in the development of materials which can change and react.

These materials are called programmable materials.

Materializing the digital stands for the era we're living and the one we're going to live, in which virtual is becoming more present than physical. But can we imagine a world only virtual? the name wants to create a reflection on the importance which materials have for us. On the paradox that one day we'll need to transform something digital into physical.

First of all, I used a Kinect to make all the part of motion capture. Then I used the software Maya to trace and analyze movements. Meanwhile studying and developing all the sketches I started experimenting with the 3d printer with flexible filaments (different shapes, materials, mechanical tensions). Finally I made all the 3ds files with solidworks and rhino.

Applying 3d printing to fabrics to create new programmable fabrics. Also, to capture the body and analyse it while moving.

Most of all the 3d printing of each pieces and the tailoring of each garment.

3d printing on fabric is really difficult and is challenging to not ruin the fabric and at the same time find the good adherence. Also the right mechanical tension is really tricky to find together with the right filament and fabric.

Finally during the tailoring you need to put all together in the best way each module printed ( since I had access only to normale 3d printer with a plate of 40 x 40 cm).

I wanted to give it a chance for creating a resonance and maybe new connection: I think it's a good way to bring it forward and meet new people with the aim of bringing programmable materials into fashion.

My path started studying fashion design at Milan Politecnico, after that I decided to move to London to do my master at UAL, feeling the need of exploring more wearable technologies.

I always wanted to be a designer, I feel the sense of beauty is in everything, we just have to put attention to it and give it form. I literally feel materials, like if they can have a soul, that's why I love to design, but moreover to research and explore new materials, applications and possibilities.

As I was saying previously, for me design is to play attention when I am feeling beauty, when I feel emotions, to see how a material can be transformed and modified.

Is at the same time expression and research, since I really believe designing we can help people have a better life: from an object which can make you feel better up to functionality.

I love to design for activewear, trying to understand our body and enhancing our performance.

I also love experimenting with wearable technologies and 3d printing, which I believe can be paths to open new horizons on our clothes. Helping us and enhancing our bodies.

My favourite technology as you can see from my work "Materializing the digital" is 3d printing. Not only printing itself but all the things around it, scanning the body movements, trying to understand what possibilities we have.

At home, at my desk . A cup of tea, relaxing music on background, early morning or late evening.. just feeling myself.

On fabrics and on hybridisation. Putting together different answers and techniques, trying to build something new.

I believe in cross fertilisation as a way to discover new possibilities.

I feel excited, powerful, I feel in love. That's why, as in every love, I also feel fear, fear of not being able to really reach what's on my mind, feel of failure.

Functionality, simplicity, being different.

functionality, comfort, easiness, aesthetic.

From my point of view our responsibilities as designers are to put humans at the center, to really think for who we are creating something, to their needs, life and emotions. All this process has to be done with the interior consciousness that we're not on this planet alone, that we're not the planet. With all our skills we should be able to help and enhance our planet and different species, not to destroy the environment for our personal interests and goals. That, I think, is really important in the mind of a designer, since we are keep putting in the world new object( which one day will have to be discarded) while taking from it the materials we need everyday.

I think we're evolving to a better sustinability. Moreover after this pandemic episode I hope people will be able to feel we aren't as big we seem, how a little, invisible thing can change our lives in one second.

I think sometimes fear can be good to make a change to a better way of life. I think we should start to hybridise different field, putting them together, to have more strength and skills. Maybe we can really help pur planet instead of killing it.

My inspirations come from everything I see, I read, I listen to, I feel.. They come from all my senses and perceptions.

My design style is kind of post human/ super functional. I feel the need to enhance our bodies and explore ways which are still unexplored. Sometimes this can create a sense of discomfort since people are not use to it, but I believe we'll early change our way of feeling, buying and wearing clothes.

I live in Italy, and I can say my country and my background have a huge influence in the way in which I design. I just need to feel and touch a fabric, to start creating in my head the whole design.

But my background is also made by my experiences, and leaving in London really changed the way in which I design, it helped me feeling more free and myself, less "rules made".

Actually my only regret is that activewear is really little present in my country, and I feel it is the product which can start making our lives better: that's why instead of escaping in other countries where It would be easier for me to work for more brands I prefer to stay sometime here with the hope of creating my own one, Italy based, activewear brand.

I am kind of hyperactive. I love to wake up early and go to bed really late, I am kind of a short sleeper.

I usually work in the morning on designs, most of the time in the studio of the brands for which I am working. Late in the afternoon I work in a gym, where I usually also train for some hours, that's the other part of me, when I am not designing I am always training! Late in the evening I go back to my designs or I read a book or go out with friends.

I am young myself, but for what I can say up to now, what is helping me the most, is to believe in what I am doing while staying humble, always listening to different thoughts and opinion: you can always learn, moreover from what's wrong.

I always try to understand when I need a break. Often is really time consuming and after hours and hours you loose your clarity and you just feel confused and unable to choose. That's the moment in which I tell myself " okay, let's do something else", and while you do something different or when you go back to the project ideas are clear again, everything seem easy. Meanwhile there are moment in which you're in perfect peace, I call them my" zen moments", and that's when you have to keep go, forget to eat or anything else.

I would like to go forward in different paths. One is to create my own brand, another one to keep on exploring and researching new application fields. While doing this I'll keep working for clients to have a living but, moreover, to always learn.

They can contact me at my email (valeviky.vf@gmail.com) or on my instagram account @Valentina.favaro_design