Abstract: Your Heart on Your Sleeve

Abstract

You’ve heard the expression before; “They wear their heart on their sleeve.” Well, three Danish designers have taken the idiom to heart, it seems, and have created a way to translate your very own moods and stories into bespoke textiles.

Abstract is a concept dreamed up by Jules Helles Eriksen, Bjorn Karmann and Kristine Boesen as part of their Bachelor project for their degree at Kolding Design School in Denmark. Together, the trio created a web space that allows consumers to become intimately and intrinsically connected to the clothing they are purchasing. Each piece is unique, telling a completely different story from the next. You literally can wear your story.

In collaboration with fashion and textile, we have created an interdisciplinary project dealing with “customizable fashion”. The idea is to create a program that can transform text/emotion [into] textile design and ultimately create clothes.

By programming a “processing” program that can analyze the rhythm of the keyboard and the facial expressions by the webcam, we will create an image of the user’s emotions.

This data is visualized in a selected system that can be transformed into textile designs. The clothes ultimately result in added value for users, as they have been [a part of designing] it and [have] selected the story behind [it]. (1)

How is it possible? Bridgette Meinhold, of Ecouterre, explains Abstract’s unique process:

First, a photo is taken via the customer’s webcam; they are then asked to write a small personal story about anything at all; finally, a specialized algorithm creates a custom textile based upon the mood of the customer, the rhythm of their typing on the keyboard, and the words they have chosen. Once the textile is created, it can be viewed via the web shop and used to design the final bespoke product.

The customer can choose where the pattern lies; the size of the product; whether it will be a shirt, a sweater, a jacket, or a pair of pants; and how “zoomed in” the pattern of the textile will be. The entire process is based upon, and depends on, the customer ordering the piece.

Abstract

Once ordered, it’s custom made and delivered to you with the story you wrote, the one that dictated the entire process, attached to the tag.

Abstract_ from Bjørn Karmann on Vimeo.

One of Abstract’s biggest messages is that people tend to take better care of the clothing they are attached to. We love this idea – be it through involvement in the design process or sentimental value. Every item, whether custom made just for you or worn during a particularly memorable life event, tells a unique story that we think is worth sharing, and sharing well!

As clothing care specialists in the GTA, our job is to make your clothing last so you can keep telling the story of the time you saw that band in this skirt –  and just how great that night was. Our six locations make dry cleaning convenient and our pick-up/drop-off services practically destroy any excuses that might linger to not have your clothing professionally cleaned.

And when it comes to the garment with the most important story attached to it, your wedding gown, we’ve got you covered too. We are members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists and are licensed to use specialized processes to care for heirloom fabrics.