Designing Dissolving Wearables

A orange and blue crocheted bralette with a flower designs in the center on a cloth mannequin.

Bio-based materials facilitate the development of more sustainable devices and wearables, expanding the range of design possibilities beyond conventional materials. Our work with biofoam explores one such quality, dissolving, as a unique affordance for designing and interacting with wearables. We developed techniques to make biofoam yarns, and used them to craft three wearables: “Seasonal Footwear", a “Reveal Bralette", and an “Unfolding Lace Top". Each incorporates sections that dissolve in water, allowing customization to suit the user’s needs. They illustrate short-term use cases, such as a one-time reveal or shape change. We explore this novel design space as sustainable ephemeral fashion, where bio-based dissolving materials enable revealing, transformative, and interactive functionalities.

Living Matter Lab

Associated Researchers

Additional Researchers

Sasha De Koninck

Publications

Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez, Lily M Gabriel, Mikhaila Friske, Shanel Wu, Sasha De Koninck, Laura DevendorfÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýMirela Alistar. 2023. "Designing Dissolving Wearables". In: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing & the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing (UbiComp/ISWC '23 Adjunct). (Cancun, Quintana Roo Mexico, October 8-12, 2023).