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The inflatable dress (or 'Wearable Space') is, as
the name describes, a garment that inflates into a personal space to
sleep, rest or play within.
Nomadic is the current state
of the urban dweller, a kinetic lifestyle that is constantly changing,
operating from and traveling to many locations. We navigate these
many locations with our bodies, wearing traditional garments, and
transitioning between built environments. Wearable space is a
structure that challenges the segregation of garment and built
environment, attempting to fuse ideas of clothing, mobility, space and
place while articulating the sameness of garment and shelter, in that
both are structures interacting and enfolding the body at different
proportions.
These ideas where manifested into a structure for
modern nomadic urban travelers that experience life in transition
between places, this garment therefore allows them to negotiate urban
and natural terrains with clothing that transforms into a temporary
comfortable abode to rest in while moving through transitional areas or
temporary situations.
Wearable space is a bi-functional piece
that interacts with the body and designates comfort zones; it is the
ability to bring personal space with you. The first of its’ functions
is as a dress, which has a close, intimate spatial relationship with
the body. The garment then inflates, transforming and growing around
the body into a small, temporary-pneumatic structure for one or more
bodies to use as a sleeping/activity pod. These structures can
then be combined to create larger communities, growing infinitely in
all directions.
by Colleen Coghlan (our new L.A based coolhunter)