LACE & VORONOI

Merging Computational Design and Traditional Lace in a stylish dress

With Lace & Voronoi I explored the aesthetic effect of combining parametric design shapes with traditional lace in a short dress.

GOAL

This dress, together with Parametric Coco and 3D Beating Heart, was created for the fashion show System Recovery 2.0, held at Fablab Yucatán on December 2017.

In this instance I was interested in exploring aesthetic possibilities using a combination of traditional lace and parametric design shapes laser cut out of black neoprene.

Overlaying CONTRASTING visual cues and meanings could potentially open up new aesthetic avenues and playgrounds for creativity.

PROCESS

I had already made a few short dresses out of jersey and had a pretty simple but effective pattern to use for the short dress. Because in Yucatán it’s very hot year long and even in December it’s quite appropriate to wear a short sleeveless dress, I chose this model of garment.

I started by creating the pattern on Rhinoceros, 3D modeling software for 2 and 3D design, and then used Rhino’s plugin Grasshopper for parametric design to create the voronoi shapes that I would laser cut.

Once I laser cut the external “armour” in black neoprene, I overlaid it to a lace layer and cut it in the desired shape. I then sewed the dress together and voilà! it was ready to wear.

OUTCOME

The Lace & Voronoi dress was showcased during the System Recovery Fashion Show held at Fablab Yucatán in December 2017 and it inspired the project IO<3 for the use of layering lace and neoprene in contrast with each other.