A new exhibition shows what happens when the worlds of science and fashion collide - and gives us a glimpse of what we could be wearing in the future, Deirdre McQuillan.
MARIE O'MAHONY likes to describe herself as a bit of a magpie. It's a description she also applies to fashion, describing it as "a great cultural barometer . . . which spots shiny new ideas and visual references and quickly appropriates them." Author and international authority on innovative textiles and technology, she is the curator of Techno Threads, a flagship exhibition opening tomorrow in Trinity College Dublin's new Science Gallery, drawing together science and fashion in ways that have never been seen in Ireland before.
We meet in the gallery as sealed boxes and containers filled with futuristic textiles and garments and other exhibits are waiting to be opened and viewed by the Irish customs authorities before going on display. She is wondering what they will make of the "semi-living jacket" or the dress made of fungus, two of the more contentious items in the show. Having organised exhibitions and events all over the world, she has strong views on the role of the modern museum because contemporary audiences, she argues, are more challenging and interactive, citing Umberto Eco's theory of perception of virtual versus hyper reality in a technologically advanced age.
"The job of today's curator is to make you look at things in a different way. You have to provide an extra layer of meaning," she insists. "The link between science and what we wear may not be obvious. What am I wearing? Where has it come from and what am I going to be wearing tomorrow?" she asks rhetorically. These are some of the questions that the exhibition will prompt and stimulate.
DIVIDED INTO THREE parts, Techno Threads offers a wide-ranging glimpse at conceptual couture, including clothes that can be sprayed onto the body, to the aesthetics of science and the impact of science fiction on fashion. "We are mixing one-off prototypes and high street items with others that are looking to the future. Many designers have been inspired by science and science fiction and many science fiction writers come from a science background like Philip K Dick and, of course, there are film-makers like Stanley Kubrick. Today, the time lapse from laboratory to street is becoming shorter." Fabrics felted from rare breed sheep by Claudy Jongstra, who created fabrics for Star Wars, are included along with lengths used in the movie.
Some of the very latest advanced textiles, like the extraordinarily beautiful laser cut embellished embroideries from Switzerland used in haute couture and a jacket made from aerogel, the lightest solid in the world, are interesting contrasts. Work from avant garde designers like Hussein Chalayan and Manish Arora show off their innovative approaches. Also included is the futuristic bubble ensemble worn by Bono in U2's PopMart tour, designed by Belgian Walter Van Beirendonck and specially lent for the Dublin exhibition.
The most controversial items, however, will undoubtedly be the "semi-living seamless jacket", cultured from human cells in Australia by artists in collaboration with scientists, and a dress made from Guinness.
O'Mahony explains how the tissue culture is developed. "You start with a biodegradable substrate - it's like a scaffolding - used to grow a garment. At the moment these can be grown in a bell jar in climate controlled conditions. The dress, which comes from Australia, is based on a fungus used in fermentation. They are ultimately about looking at ways of creating a garment without using animal skin or hair or petroleum products. Their argument is that it is a fully biodegradable process. It is one possibility of how we might wear clothes in the future, but it also poses the question, is this what we want? Is it desirable or making less of what it is to be human? Will people sell their cells to make clothes? People are so taken aback by the idea because it is so far out of our usual sphere of experience."
THE ISSUE OF sustainability is handled by fashion designers such as Rebecca Earley, who questions how we colour, print and dye fabrics and reuse dyes and fabrics. "When recycling may use more energy than is worth it, the idea of a cradle-to-cradle approach is becoming an important one," says O'Mahony. "You have to ask, 'is there another way? Can reuse be inbuilt?'" But if people have far too many clothes these days, what about the future? "I think that people will be going for fewer garments, but with more built into them in terms of how they perform, how they look and how they can be worn. It is a search for a new little black dress, a more sophisticated version of that, a more multi-purpose item."
Designers, she says, are looking for ways of making manmade materials more personal and prolonging their life cycle. "Younger age groups want to do their own thing - Nike's customised trainers have not been a huge success because young people don't want to be dictated to online. You can't commodify a lot of these things like how to personalise and customise. Products have to be created open enough for people to make their own mark on them." In her opinion, the most creative designer today is Yoshiki Hishinuma of Japan who became best known for using thermoplastic material, mainly polyester, that could be heat treated to change shape or add colour, thus combining new techniques with traditional craft skills. "That is the answer, that is where craft is the anchor, but introducing it in a thoughtful way," O'Mahoney says. Examples of his 3D knitwear are on display.
In her experience globally, different countries have different strengths. "The more global we become, the more local is the design. Individual identity comes through in their work. I think there is a strong sense of craft and the personal in the Irish identity because there is such a strong craft industry here that it percolates down. It is not the case everywhere. It is also strong in Japan in a different way."
One display that graphically illustrates her point about difference is the work of students from four different colleges, including NCAD, who were given an innovative black material, a stretch bubble, polywarp knitted polyester ("it has to be sold by weight because of its stretch") not normally used in clothing. They were asked to transform it into samples suitable for fashion. In the creative response, no two are the same. Some are embellished, some artfully composed with other textiles, and some intrinsically changed, showing the variety of their different imaginative approaches.
O'Mahony is originally from the former coal mining town of Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny. She remembers growing up at a time when the town still had a creamery where she used to collect cream in a jug - "and that dates me", she says with a smile. After a foundation course at Dún Laoghaire School of Art & Design in the late 1980s where she initially wanted to do sculpture and graphic design, she left to study Gobelin tapestry weaving in Edinburgh. There she got into CAD (computer aided design) technology to create images for her tapestry and became involved in curating an exhibition for Sarah Braddock Clarke, the writer and lecturer.
"People started approaching me about where to get materials and I became a consultant, so I now do a mix of consultancies, lectures and workshops." Her next exhibition will be on design for health and safety in North Carolina in the US in October. She and Braddock Clarke have collaborated on a number of books on 21st century textiles.
"When I started, everything was cut and dried, whether it was sculpture, product design or graphic design, but by the time I was leaving these boxes were getting thrown out and there was an opportunity to do your own thing. There is a great coming together now and great openings. Fifteen years ago at a textile trade show, people could not get their heads around using industrial fabrics for fashion. Now at the same fair, you have as many designers as people from engineering or industrial backgrounds. I was the only female 15 years ago and the only person not in a grey suit."
She still doesn't wear grey suits. Dressed in asymmetrically seamed Japanese jeans from Michiko Koshino "designed to fold down at the ankles", her shoes are quirky, printed leather wedges "like something from Star Trek", with runner-like rubber soles, an aesthetic combination of the old and new characteristic of her curatorial approach. Her bag is also an example of modern fabric manipulation; a small pocket-like affair made from knitted neoprene in Italy and bought in a Japanese shop in London, where she is a professor at Chelsea College of Art. The city is now her base, where she lives with her husband, a professor of Industrial Design Engineering in the Royal College of Art, and their five-year-old daughter. Thanks to her organisational skills and considerable experience and contacts, the exhibition has been brought together in quite a short time, but what she really wants is for visitors to ask questions. "I urge them to look at the aesthetics in these works and to look again and find the scientific stories behind them. They will not disappoint."
• TechnoThreads: What Fashion Did Next, The Art and Science of Future Fashion runs at the Science Gallery until July 25th. Opening hours noon-8pm Tues-Fri and noon-6pm Sat & Sun. An open panel discussion with Marie O'Mahony, Oron Catts and Dermot Diamond on the Future of Fashion: Clothes with a Conscience will take place at the PACCAR Theatre tomorrow from 2-3.30pm. Admission free.
