Materials and Innovation : the pursuit of the new

Innovation can result in commercial success and creative opportunities, but how is it achieved? The pursuit of the new is a game of challenging boundaries.

One tactic is to bring something in from the outside, so as to take something that is not traditionally considered a textile and to use it as one. We look to the examples of paper and lace to demonstrate this method of innovation.

Another approach to innovation is to synthesise a hybrid from existing materials. The offspring takes some characteristics from both parent products in order to present a new blend. A material from the past, PlasticSteel^?, illustrates the pioneering nature of hybrid materials.

The Paradoxical Story of Paper and Lace

Is textile only restricted to its definition: a piece of flexible material, made by weaving, felting or knitting? Lace, the textile of transparency, undoubtedly challenges this preconception. Upon examination, ‘Lace is not a fabric because it is not woven on a loom’ * . It transforms yarn into an openwork surface, without relying on permanent mediums and frames. As a material that uses an innovative process, it has generated a new aesthetic that is completely different from other fabrics, but it is still accepted as a story of the yarn’s transformation.

Conversely, paper is not considered to be a textile. But what’s the difference between felt, the first man made fabric, and paper? Indeed, both non-wovens are the result of fibre’s tangle. So where is the paradox coming from?

PlasticSteel and the Acceptance of New Materials

As textile designers, our antennae are tuned to notice new and innovative materials. We have our sources: the materials library in college, web databases like Materia, word of mouth – but recently, I stumbled across a peculiar material in the unlikeliest of places: an antiques market. I was sifting through a basket of vintage junk at a stall in one of the cavernous antique markets on Portobello Road. Out of the mish-mash appeared this treasure: a well preserved box of PlasticSteel^?. It is certainly an antique - it transmits the atmosphere of the past through its graphic design, packaging, and signs of age but it also has the distinct qualities of a new material. Like Artificial Silk and Synthetic Resin, the name PlasticSteel^? (replaced by epoxy) uses familiar terms to introduce a novel material. Will we eventually reflect on Smart Textiles as the predecessor of something yet to come?

This entry combines two articles on materials and innovation ("Textiles’ boundaries" by Aurélie Mossé and "PlasticSteel and the Trailblazing Nature of New Materials" by Jenny Leary). Full length articles coming soon.

Textiles' Boundaries

Vintage Vanguard^?

* Translated quote of lace’s definition from the « Dictionnaire culturel du tissu », written by Regis Debray and Patrice Hugues, édition Babylone/Fayard, 2005, p66-69

-- AurelieMosse - 08 May 2008