As part of the largest international fabrication event, FAB23 Bhutan, the graduates of the Fabricademy started hosting the Textile Tales exhibition in Thimphu today. Fabricademy is a multidisciplinary six-month intensive programme that runs in seventeen different fab labs all over the world. The exhibition is to provide people with an experience of breakthrough innovations in the global textile and fashion industry.
The week-long exhibition is underway at the Royal Textile Academy. The exhibition has a display of diverse textile designs revolving around three themes. They are sustainability in the textile and clothing industry, the use of technology in local manufacturing and the integration of electronics and wearables.
Visitors can see different projects from the graduates of Fabricademy, as well as research that is done in labs and FabLabs all over the world.
“These electronics here are embedded within the garment, and at night when the light gets dark, the project lights up and makes it so that when you’re walking, this was meant to be a raincoat. So in the rain, in the dark, as you’re walking around, the project lights up and makes visibility a little bit better, so it has a safety feature as well. The textile industry is rather damaging to the planet, and to go through this program and consider how to create garments that can be respectful both to culture and the planet, I think, is an interesting opportunity for many,” said Rico Kanthatham, Founder, Skylab Workshop.
“Sustainability is extremely important in a Fabricademy programme at the textile academy because the world of today’s textiles is very polluting. So a lot of the program focuses on either growing bio-materials, growing colour, exploring what are the alternative paths for more sustainable research, for more sustainable outcomes, for garments, for textiles, for weaving, so that we don’t pollute, but we find ways to live in sync with nature,” said Cecilia Raspanti, Co-founder, Farbicademy.
Some of the raw materials of the textiles are grown by bacteria while others are recycled being able to dissolve with algae or other sustainable materials. Meanwhile, colours are extracted from plants.
“You can navigate to the different projects from sustainable garments made from biodegradable leathers that are grown in the lab, to 3D printed garments and illuminating clothing that you can wear at night,” said Anastasia Pistofidou, Co-founder, of Farbicademy.
The exhibition is being hosted by Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck SuperFab Lab this year in collaboration with the Fabricademy and the Royal Textile Academy.
“What Fabricademy and we are trying to do right now is like help bring technology into this textiles and help them preserve the culture. We are not trying to change what was already there because it’s already very beautiful and perfect. We’re just trying to help them preserve by trying to weave the technology into the tradition,” said Tshering Wangzom, Analyst, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck Super FabLab.
Each design has a QR code attached to them which explains the details of the displays to the visitors when scanned. The exhibition is open to the public for free.
Devika Pradhan
Edited by Kipchu
