Designer Analysis - Sgro, Donna & Teijin

Sgro, Donna

Donna Sgro is a young designer working in Australia controling her own independent, boutique womenswear label called Donna Sgro. Her achievements include: (as part of the 1st Shinmai Creator’s Project) showcasing at Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo in 2009, exhibiting in Paris and is now part of Trash Fashion at the London Science Museum. Sgro's work is interesting because of her own interests, textiles place side by side with the latest technologies and production methods with playful colour combinations.

Sgro, Donna & Teijin
Trick of the light

Donna Sgro has designed the dress, titled trick of the light (shown above,) with a 1940's retro style ( an example shown to the right on the cover of a 1940's dress pattern.) The features include: a tailored cut; high wasted design pleated as if contained by a belt; a round neck created by two shown and emphasised pattern pieces; buttoned from top to bottom down the front seam; sleeveless arms, but with small ruffled cuffs on the shoulders; a respectable length sitting just over the knee; all neatly finished. The style has a modern womanly feel revolutionised by a post-war society where woman were now regarded as more independent, sophisticated and ready to work.

The dress material and style has no pattern motifs or accessories allowing focus to fall on the unique qualities of the material itself. A unique surface which can be described as the following: modern, reflective, heavy, shimmery, new. From afar the colour would resemble a grey but with the technology involved with it's production and the finish it gives grey as a description is far from the truth of the attractive aesthetic.

Inspiration to design the textile was in the question: How does a peacock’s feather or a butterfly’s wing create vivid displays of iridescent colour? The answer to both creatures is without dyes.

The textile industry is one of the most chemically intensive industries on earth, and is the No. 1 polluter of clean water (after agriculture). The problem is the amount of clean water needed in the production processes for example it takes about 500 gallons of water to produce enough fabric to cover one sofa. This water then pollutes as it leaves the majority of factories because of the effluent’s heat or the increased pH as well as this the water becomes full of chemical saturated with dyes, de-foamers, bleaches, detergents, optical brighteners, equalizers
additives to name a few, all of which help damage the environment. The developments in science that offer opportunities to produce colour without dyes could effectively have a major positive impact in the environment. As well as this the new material unlike your dyed clothes this colour won’t fade providing a higher quality more durable product, traits desirable in sustainable products.

This shimmering dress is made from a material called Morphotex, produced by the Japanese textiles company Teijin. An overview of the concept can be described as a material that mimics creations in nature by using just a trick of the light rather than an added dye. More specifically nanotechnology is used to create an iridescent effect – known as ‘structural colour’. The vibrant blue of the morpho butterfly is made into a template as the microscopic structure of its wings was recorded. Teijin uses 61 ultra-thin alternating layers of polyester and nylon to create each Morphotex fibre. By making each layer a precise thickness between 70 and 100 nanometres it’s possible to control the way light bounces, bends and scatters inside the fabric. This creates four basic colours (red, green, blue and violet) that reveal a rainbow of shades as light plays off the fabric.

Apart from Morphex there is a whole stream of technologies developing from natural designs with the same ideas of developments in mind including a team at Cambridge University who have recreated the bright flickering colour of opal gemstones, explained by Snoswell:
‘Previous man-made opals have been delicate and brittle. We’ve replaced the perfectly stacked glass spheres in opal’s structure with tiny plastic ones to create a new “copycat” opal that’s really durable and elastic. It opens up exciting possibilities to create new effects in fabrics.' David Snoswell, a nano-colour expert at Cambridge University.

Withing the Trash Fashion exhibition the descriptive comments summarise by talking about the technologies future: " There is huge potential to produce clothes by using this colour-changing material. In the next few years it could give an entirely fresh look to clothing " Science Museum

"... It’s possible to create subtle highlights, but we could also see swimsuits that make the wearer look like a tropical fish!"' David Snoswell

The summary specialises on a specific couture idea of a swimsuit. I think this prediction is ideal for the technology as finding the resources and capital to produce textiles at a Nano sized level for a mass market, I believe, would be near impossible but the fact companies are investing into sustainable ideas is progressive and even more so that designers like Donna Sgro are getting to use the materials in there designs, raising awareness and providing a muse to young emerging designers or fashion enthusiasts.

Summary of the Product:

Advantages:

Economical:

• The new material would provide a dramatic selling point to boost the sales of a garment.
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  No dye manufacturing costs.
  
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  Reduced pollution costs (clean up etc)

Environmental:

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  Having no dyes reduces the pollution caused by production.
  

Ethical:

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  Aesthetically pleasing to an extent

Disadvantages:

Economical

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  Higher price to produce the material, including materials, labour ect
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  Material may be limited during other processes
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  Combination of materials may make it difficult to recycle
  
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  The fact the material is a new technology may either reduce or produce clients this can not be decided until it has integrated fully into the market

Environmental

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  Only cuts out one environmental problem, still many to face.
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  Heavy manufacturing process of the material may cause other environmental damages.

Ethical

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  High prices will limit and select the target market