Design Professor’s Award-Winning Wearable Fashion on Display at San Jose Museum
The work of Helen Koo, assistant professor of design at UC Davis, and her students is showcased at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in the exhibition “Transmorpho: The Future of Textiles and Fashion Design by UC Davis- FT Lab.”
Developed in the UC Davis Fashion Design and Technology Lab, the collection presents textiles and fashion-driven interdisciplinary efforts that combine computer science, electrical engineering, and architecture to improve people’s quality of life and wellness.
This collection comprises smart textiles, wearable technology, and sustainable, transformable clothing; the mixture of low and high technologies can be converted into multiple colors, shapes, and designs by growing, changing, and being reformed or restructured.
For example, a transformable fabric can be automatically put on and taken off by simply pressing a button, which is useful for people with disabilities.
The co-designers include Rong Ben, Tinsley Fok, Sean Huang, Megan Johnston, SueBin (Sally) Lee, Jason Lin, Katherine Ta, Dat Vo and 19 other students majoring in design or electrical and computer engineering. The exhibition also features work created from the Design and Wearable Technology class. Additional collaborators include San Francisco-based architects Jongsun Lee and Misun Lee as well as designers from the Medialab-Prado in Spain.
The exhibition runs Aug. 24 through Oct. 2. Hours are Wednesday through Friday: 11 a.m.–4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. General admission is $8; seniors and students with I.D. admission is $6.50. The museum is at 520 South First Street, San Jose.
