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Design Researcher Develops Revolutionary Clothes Production and Customizing Method

Sasha McKinlay's 4D Knit Dress

By Rain Noe - March 11

in Fashion Design | Sustainable Design | Digital Fabrication

Design researcher Sasha McKinlay, of MIT's Self-Assembly Lab, has developed a revolutionary clothes production method. McKinlay's 4D Knit Dress is produced, to a generic size, on an industrial knitting machine, using an active yarn she's developed. The idea is that the wearer has their body scanned, and then a robotic arm outfitted with a heat gun selectively blasts the dress based on their body's parameters. This could be done at the point-of-purchase.

"When we apply heat, the fibers shorten, causing the textile to bunch up in a specific zone, effectively tightening the shape as if we're tailoring the garment," explains Architectural Design student Danny Griffin, who programmed the robot.

This not only ensures the dress fits properly, but provides freedom of style: "Where the active yarns are placed in the design allows for the dress to take on a variety of styles such as pintucks, pleats, an empire waist, or a cinched waist," reports MIT News.

Furthermore, the dress can later be restyled with another heat application. "A dress can begin with one design — pintucks across the chest, for example — and be worn for months before having heat re-applied to alter its look. Subsequent applications of heat can tailor the dress further."

While that provides a benefit to the wearer, there's also a gigantic benefit to the manufacturer and retailers. Rather than having to make and stock a number of different sizes and styles, they could conceivably produce just one or two sizes—say, Small and Large—and the robotic heat gun could fill in the blanks. It could also produce the currently-in-flavor style on-demand.

That, in itself, would contribute tremendously to sustainability. Just ask any retailer that has had to dump sizes and styles that didn't sell last season.

The 4D Knit Dress was produced in collaboration with fashion brand Ministry of Supply.

Here's video of the process:

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Ryan Cee

8 months ago

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This would be great if it weren't for the fact that material design is itself is a part of fashion styles, and restricting the garment to a single type is a dead end before it starts.

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Roger ak

8 months ago

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would you need to re-style it after each cleaning?

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Zach W

8 months ago

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How do you stop the dress from changing shape again if exposed to heat?? Does it also react to super cold temp?? Does the fabric get weird if I wear it in Arizona summer heat?

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