A designer´s material aesthetics reflections on fashion and technology

The prevailing understanding of technology tends to focus either on its functional or instrumental value or on its expressive qualities as a matter of representation. Pauline van Dongen argues for the need to reframe the role of technology in fashion, examining how wearables – garments that combine electronics and digital materials with textiles – can become integral to fashion’s everyday reality. Her own practice as a fashion designer is informed by the concept of material aesthetics. In this book she explores perspectives as a design researcher engaged in a reflective analysis of processes and outcomes, and discusses work created in the context of her design studio.