HUE Q

One question for an FIT community member

James Pearce, Emerging Technologies Manager

Pearce oversees the Faculty Research Space and the Innovative Technology and Digital Production department, which includes PrintFX and the Fabrication Lab.

I’m always concerned less about the technology itself than the application of it. The technology is a means to an end. How do we use existing technologies in an innovative way?

For example, we’re starting to do more with fabric digitization. With a device we have called Vizoo, we can create a simulation of an existing piece of fabric that captures not just what it looks like but also its weight and how it moves. Then students can drape those digital clothes on models. Pretty much all the big fashion companies have switched to digital design. The buyer doesn’t get samples; they get renderings. It’s faster, costs less money, and is more sustainable. Physical draping is not dead, but the first stage of design is almost exclusively digital now.

This year, I worked with Hilary Davidson, chair of Fashion and Textile Studies, one of the world’s foremost experts on the clothes in Jane Austen’s time. We wanted to create a digital twin of a coat that no longer exists. Seeing a historical garment on a person is a much richer educational experience than just seeing a photograph.

We recorded Hilary in a motion capture suit and corset, standing and moving in a way that was considered socially graceful at the time. We are in the process of mapping these movements to a digital version of the garment painstakingly created by Larissa King, assistant professor of Fashion Design. The goal is to enable students to experience historical garments, but in the process eliminate waste and preserve fragile garments.