Most of us have a box. Or a bag, or a corner of the closet where clothes go to wait for a fate we haven’t quite settled on yet. Not trash, not donation, just quietly pushed aside. The jeans that stopped fitting but once made you feel unstoppable. The sweater that pilled after three washes but somehow survived four more years. Parting with clothes is harder than it sounds, and the fashion industry has largely treated that emotional gap as a non-problem.
ByBye, a concept designed by Gyeong Wook Kim, Sooa Kim, Gayeon Kim, and Mingyeong Shin, disagrees with that approach in the most literal way possible. It’s a countertop-sized machine that takes your worn and discarded garments and transforms them, through a process of grinding, compression, and heat, into flower pots. Real, usable, actually beautiful flower pots.
Designers: Gyeong Wook Kim, Sooa Kim, Gayeon Kim, Mingyeong Shin
I want to sit with that idea for a second, because it’s a genuinely clever reframe of the problem. The designers describe ByBye not as a disposal system but as a “system of reform.” That language matters. When we throw clothes away, the garments disappear. When we donate, we hand off the moral weight to someone else. But ByBye asks you to stay present for the transformation and gives you something physical to show for it.
The mechanics are straightforward but impressively considered. You feed garments into the top opening, which uses a sliding rail mechanism to regulate input and automatically closes once the designated weight is reached. Inside, a shredder breaks the fabric down into fine particles. Those particles are then fed into a flower pot mold, compressed by a pressing plate, and hardened through high-temperature treatment. The finished pots rise up from the molding mechanism. The whole process takes about ten minutes per piece, and a companion app tracks fabric weight, the number of pots produced, and total production time.
What comes out of the machine is genuinely surprising. The pots carry a terrazzo-like texture from the mixed fibers, soft and speckled in muted blues, pinks, and greens depending on the fabric input. They look like something you’d find at a design fair, not something born from a pile of worn-out t-shirts. That aesthetic outcome feels important to the whole concept. If the result were dull or utilitarian, the emotional payoff wouldn’t land. Instead, you end up with an object that holds some trace of the original garment, and then holds a plant on top of that.
The project raises questions I keep turning over. Can the machine handle all fabric types, including synthetic blends that behave very differently under heat and compression? What’s the upper limit on pot durability when working with processed textiles? These feel like the natural next steps for a concept this promising, and I genuinely hope the team is pushing toward them.
What ByBye gets absolutely right is the emotional architecture of the experience. The name alone, a gentle play on “bye bye” and “by” as in made by, signals that this isn’t designed to make you feel guilty about your wardrobe. The copy throughout the project, “Hello? Nice to Wear You,” “Let Your Clothes Begin Again,” reads more like an invitation than an environmental lecture. That tone is rare in sustainable design, which has a tendency to lead with shame rather than possibility.
The designers put it plainly in their project statement: “Not a system of disposal, but a system of reform where clothing is seen again, and made anew.” That’s a design philosophy worth paying attention to. Fashion produces staggering amounts of textile waste every year, and while no home appliance is going to fix that alone, concepts like ByBye shift the conversation in a useful direction. They make the ending feel less like a loss and more like a beginning. Parting with clothes is still going to feel like something. But now it might feel like planting something too.
Let’s be real about furniture for a second. Most of us want pieces that look great, last forever, and don’t cost as much as a vacation. But we also want to be able to move without having to hire a team of professionals just to disassemble the bookshelf. Oh, and while we’re at it, can it also not destroy the planet? Apparently, that’s been too much to ask. Until now.
Meet LinumTube, a furniture system that manages to check all those impossible boxes at once. This isn’t your typical design project. It’s a collaboration between Studio Jonathan Radetz and the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research in Germany, and it’s rethinking what furniture can be from the ground up.
The concept is beautifully simple. The furniture, which includes benches, chairs, and stools, is built from just two materials: steel tubes and multilayer flax fabric. That’s it. No glue, no bolts, no complicated hardware that you’ll lose during your third apartment move. The flax fabric wraps around the tubular steel frame, creating a self-supporting structure that stays stable through clever engineering rather than industrial adhesives.
What makes this particularly clever is the fabric itself. The team at Fraunhofer developed a specialized multilayer flax textile with open constructions and integrated channels that interact with the steel tubes to create varying levels of stiffness. This means you get support exactly where you need it without adding extra materials or complexity. The seating surface can even be customized with a lamellar structure that provides additional cushioning for those of us who like to linger.
The whole system is modular and completely reversible. Researcher Christina Haxter explains that the goal was to design seating furniture that allows for quick assembly, disassembly, and rearrangement, making it easy to take apart when moving. You can reconfigure pieces depending on your space, separate everything by material type at the end of its life, and send each component back into its own recycling stream. Steel stays with steel, flax goes back to being flax. It’s circular design at its most practical.
But here’s where LinumTube really shines: it doesn’t look like a sustainability lecture. The covers come with or without fringes and are available in both multicolored and natural pastel tones. The aesthetic is minimalist but warm, the kind of thing that would fit just as easily in a modern office lobby as it would in your living room. There’s even an option for integrated LED lighting woven into the fabric, because why shouldn’t sustainable furniture also have a bit of flair?
The project received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and was unveiled at Milan Design Week 2025 during the Materially exhibition. It represents a genuinely different approach to how we think about furniture design. Instead of creating objects meant to be used and discarded, LinumTube embraces the idea that furniture should evolve with us. Need more seating? Add another module. Moving to a smaller place? Reconfigure what you have. Done with it entirely? Return everything to the material cycle without guilt.
This is the kind of innovation we need more of. Not flashy tech for tech’s sake, but thoughtful problem solving that addresses real challenges without sacrificing style or functionality. Furniture has been essentially the same for decades, built on a model of planned obsolescence and complicated assembly instructions. LinumTube proves there’s another way: lighter, smarter, and infinitely more adaptable.
The best part? This doesn’t feel like a compromise. You’re not choosing between design and sustainability, or between affordability and quality. You’re getting furniture that works better precisely because it was designed with all those constraints in mind from the beginning. That’s the kind of thinking that actually changes industries. So next time you’re wrestling with an Allen wrench at 2 a.m., wondering why furniture has to be this complicated, remember that someone out there is already building the alternative. They’re using flax, steel tubes, and some seriously smart engineering to prove that better is possible.
Have you ever looked at a piece of fabric and wondered what would happen if you gave it superpowers? That’s essentially what Dutch design studio Luis Marie did with their latest creation, Plissade, a room divider that’s turning heads for being completely, wonderfully, all about textiles.
Here’s the thing about room dividers: they’re usually pretty predictable. You’ve got your folding screens, your sliding panels, your wooden frames with some fabric stretched across them. They do the job, sure, but they’re not exactly exciting. Plissade, on the other hand, ditches the traditional playbook entirely. Instead of relying on rigid frames or heavy materials, this sculptural partition stands on its own through the power of pleating alone.
The designers behind this clever piece, Fenna van der Klei and Patricio Nusselder, drew inspiration from the traditional craft of textile pleating, where fabric is carefully folded to create different shapes and volumes. It’s the same technique that gives your favorite pleated skirt its structure or adds dimension to fancy curtains. But here, pleating isn’t just decorative. It’s doing all the heavy lifting, quite literally. The folds are engineered in a way that gives the divider enough rigidity to stand upright without any additional support, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.
What makes Plissade even more interesting is what it’s made from. The inner layer consists of felt created from recycled post-consumer polyester clothing. Yes, that means your old t-shirts and jeans could theoretically have a second life as sound-absorbing room dividers. The outer layer features woven textile made from recycled polyester yarns. So not only is this piece solving the age-old problem of dividing space in style, it’s also addressing our growing waste problem in a tangible way.
The acoustic properties are another bonus feature that makes Plissade particularly relevant for our modern living situations. With more people working from home and living in open-plan spaces, the need for flexible sound management has never been greater. Those pleated layers of textile don’t just look sculptural, they actually absorb sound, creating little pockets of acoustic privacy without the permanence of walls.
And then there’s the visual impact. Luis Marie offers Plissade in vibrant colors that create optical illusions reminiscent of gem facets. The way light plays across those pleated surfaces changes depending on your viewing angle, making the divider feel alive and dynamic. It’s the kind of design detail that transforms a functional object into something you actually want to look at. In a world where so much of our stuff is just background noise, having a piece that demands attention in the best way possible feels refreshing.
What Luis Marie has really done here is challenge our assumptions about what textiles can do. We’re used to thinking of fabric as something that needs support, something that drapes and folds because it’s soft and pliable. But Plissade proves that with the right engineering and understanding of material properties, textiles can be structural, functional, and beautiful all at once. For anyone who loves the intersection of old techniques and new applications, this room divider is a fascinating case study. It takes centuries-old pleating knowledge and applies it to solve very current problems: flexible space division, sound absorption, sustainable material use, and visual interest in our homes and workspaces.
Whether you’re dealing with a studio apartment that needs better zoning, an office that could use some acoustic help, or you simply appreciate design that makes you think twice about material possibilities, Plissade offers something genuinely fresh. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most innovative solutions come from looking at traditional crafts through a contemporary lens and asking, “What if we pushed this further?”
With the popularity of fast fashion, there is also a lot of textile waste that ends up in landfills and have not been recycled or upcycled. There are several groups that have been advocating for more eco-friendly fashion that includes not supporting these kinds of manufacturers and looking for ways to have better use for household textile waste. You don’t even have to create new clothes from them but find other uses outside of fashion.
Designer Name: Sze Tjin Yek
The Sorbet acoustic panels is one such project, turning all these shredded textile waste into acoustic panels that can be used for homes, offices, and other commercial spaces. Panels like these are important to minimize noise pollution within closed areas for both the mental and physical health of users. But instead of the usual acoustic panels made from open cell polyurethane, these are made textile waste which have the second lowest recovery rate in Australia after plastics.
These panels are made from 100% laundered and upcycled household textile waste. These are durable enough but of course they need to be bonded together and the inventor used a starch-based glue. And since the textile used have different colors and textures, there are three aesthetic options created: Blueberry Lemonade (blue and gold), Red Velvet (red and black(, and Hundreds and Thousands. The third one uses more color options since textiles are of course varied.
This kind of panel is of course more sustainable than your usual ones that use recycled PET and textile fibers bonded with mycelium. The next step would be to create a process that can make this commercially viable and also look at installation methods for it.
ASUS has long been recognized for its forward-thinking approach to technological innovation. With Ceraluminum, the company shifts focus, moving beyond performance metrics and engaging users on a sensory and emotional level. At the “Design You Can Feel” exhibition during the London Design Festival, ASUS presented this unique material in an artistic context, blending technology, material science, and human-centered design. This exhibition explored how technology doesn’t need to feel cold or distant but can foster emotional engagement and tactile experiences that draw users in.
Designer: ASUS
At the core of this shift is Ceraluminum, a revolutionary material that merges aluminum’s structural benefits with the tactile qualities of ceramic. With its four-year development, this material represents a significant leap forward in the functionality and aesthetics of ASUS’s products. Ceraluminum invites users to touch, explore, and experience their devices in a more intimate, human-centered way. It’s a breakthrough that combines art and technology, reshaping how we engage with our tech.
Ceraluminum: A Material with Presence
Ceraluminum reflects ASUS’s focus on creating materials that enhance functionality while fostering a more personal and tactile user experience. From my interpretation of their design philosophy, ASUS aims to develop materials that resonate emotionally with users, evoking a sense of warmth and connection—without suggesting metaphysical attributes like having a soul. Unlike traditional metals that feel cold and impersonal, Ceraluminum exudes warmth and tactility. It absorbs light and reduces glare while offering a textured, matte finish that invites interaction. Chief Design Officer Mitch Yang elaborated on the significance of this during the panel discussions, emphasizing that the texture and feel of Ceraluminum are key to fostering a deeper connection between users and their devices.
Developed through a unique micro-arc oxidation (MAO) process, Ceraluminum begins as lightweight aluminum and is transformed into a hybrid material through a high-voltage plasma discharge. This creates a ceramic oxide layer that maintains aluminum’s strength and lightness but offers ceramic’s hardness, scratch resistance, and tactile warmth. This unique combination gives ASUS’s devices a distinctive feel and presence, setting them apart from the sea of cold, reflective metal gadgets on the market.
Yang explained further, “Ceraluminum allows us to create devices that don’t just look good but feel meaningful to the touch. It changes how users interact with their technology, inviting them to explore the material with their hands, not just their eyes.”
SUSA: Embodying Calm Technology
At the center of the “Design You Can Feel” exhibition was SUSA, a conceptual AI-powered device designed by London-based Future Facility. This device embodies ASUS’s philosophy of calm technology, where tech is designed to be intuitive, unobtrusive, and calming rather than overstimulating. Encased entirely in Ceraluminum, SUSA represents the potential of this material to facilitate more mindful, tactile interactions with technology.
SUSA’s design is deliberately minimalist. It features a perforated screen that subtly filters its digital display, minimizing distractions while maintaining core functionalities such as photography, navigation, and calls. By encouraging users to engage with the physical object rather than becoming consumed by the screen, SUSA promotes a more intentional relationship with technology.
Leo Leitner, a designer at Future Facility, explained this during the panel discussion, stating, “SUSA is a reflection of how we can rethink the role of digital devices in our lives. By using Ceraluminum, we create a product that feels more natural and calming. It’s about slowing down, encouraging the user to focus on what’s important rather than being overwhelmed by constant notifications.”
Kim Colin, also from Future Facility, expanded on this by adding, “The tactile nature of Ceraluminum allowed us to create a product that feels inviting and grounded. It shifts the focus from what the device can do to how it feels when used. That tactile warmth is crucial to fostering a more mindful, human-centric interaction.”
SUSA is more than a concept. It represents a future where technology is integrated into our lives in ways that promote mental well-being, offering a calming influence rather than a constant source of overstimulation.
Collaborations with Global Designers: Ceraluminum Through the Eyes of Art
The “Design You Can Feel” exhibition also served as a platform for international designers to reinterpret and manipulate Ceraluminum in their own creative ways, showcasing its versatility beyond traditional tech applications. By inviting leading artists and designers to explore the material, ASUS highlighted how Ceraluminum can inspire new forms of user interaction. Each designer’s work emphasized tactile engagement and explored how material science can evoke emotional responses while remaining functional.
Giles Miller Studio (UK) approached Ceraluminum from a design perspective that blurred the lines between industrial application and artistic expression. Miller’s work focused on transforming the surface texture of Ceraluminum, turning it into a canvas for intricate patterns and reliefs. By manipulating its reflective qualities, Miller demonstrated how Ceraluminum could become a material that protects and decorates, elevating everyday technology into something more visually dynamic.
Designer: Giles Miller Studio
The studio used light to reveal hidden details in the material, inviting users to interact with their devices in new ways. Miller explained during the panel that they wanted to capture the subtle shifts in light as users moved their devices, turning a practical surface into an artistic experience. “Ceraluminum gave us the ability to create a surface that changes with the viewer’s movement, transforming the device from an object of utility into something more engaging,” Miller noted. This emphasis on the material’s light-reflecting properties invited deeper emotional engagement, making the device feel more personal.
Natural Material Studio (Denmark) took an organic approach to Ceraluminum, focusing on its ability to mimic natural textures. Their contribution aimed to highlight the material’s matte finish and tactile softness, drawing inspiration from natural elements like stone and sand. By working with Ceraluminum’s porosity, they created objects that felt grounded and familiar, offering a contrast to the typically sleek, hard surfaces of most technology.
Designer: Natural Material Studio
The goal was to craft a sensory experience that reminded users of nature. Their work emphasized the tactile qualities of Ceraluminum, offering an experience that felt like the material had been shaped by natural forces rather than human technology. “We wanted the object to feel as if it had always existed—like a pebble-shaped by the sea,” the studio shared during the exhibit. Their designs provided a sense of calm, reinforcing ASUS’s broader mission to create technology that connects users to the natural world while still harnessing advanced materials.
Nice Workshop (South Korea) explored the application of Ceraluminum in larger-scale objects with their “Aluminium Formwork Series”. Moving away from electronics, they demonstrated how Ceraluminum could be used in furniture design by applying ASUS’s ceramicization process to aluminum forms. This process resulted in furniture pieces with a textured, stone-like finish that invited touch and interaction. Founder Hyunseog Oh said their goal was to make aluminum—a traditionally cold, hard material—feel softer and more approachable.
Designer: Nice Workshop
Their work showed how Ceraluminum’s unique texture could be adapted to everyday objects, making them more inviting and user-friendly. “We wanted people to feel comfortable interacting with furniture in the same way they interact with their devices,” said Oh. This exploration of Ceraluminum’s versatility in non-tech applications expanded the material’s potential, proving it could enhance electronics and the physical spaces we inhabit.
Fernando Laposse (Mexico) brought a sustainability-focused lens to the exhibition, concentrating on how Ceraluminum could be repurposed and recycled to reduce environmental impact. Known for his work with natural fibers, Laposse saw potential in Ceraluminum’s longevity and durability. He explored how the material could be integrated into sustainable design practices, offering a responsible alternative to more wasteful production methods.
Designer: Fernando Laposse
Laposse’s work aligned with ASUS’s vision for creating long-lasting products that reduce waste and contribute to a circular economy. By focusing on Ceraluminum’s recyclability, he highlighted its potential to contribute to sustainable design efforts. “Ceraluminum’s strength and durability mean it can be repurposed, not discarded, ensuring that our devices leave a smaller environmental footprint,” Laposse explained. His approach resonated with ASUS’s commitment to sustainability, demonstrating that high-tech materials and responsible design can coexist.
Studio Furthermore (UK) embraced a more experimental approach, pushing Ceraluminum’s potential beyond the traditional limits of material design. Their contribution focused on the material’s transformation through ceramicization, exploring how different textures and surface treatments could evoke new tactile experiences. By experimenting with forms and patterns, Studio Furthermore demonstrated how Ceraluminum could serve as a medium for creative exploration, where users could discover new ways to interact with their devices.
Designer: Studio Furthermore
The studio’s work underscored how Ceraluminum is durable and capable of provoking emotional and tactile connections. By emphasizing the material’s sensory qualities, they invited users to engage more profoundly and rigorously with their devices. “We wanted to encourage users to touch and feel their devices, not just see them as tools,” the studio remarked. Through their experimental processes, Studio Furthermore showcased how Ceraluminum could foster more profound, more meaningful interactions between users and the objects they use every day.
Final Thoughts: A Sensory Future for Technology and Design
ASUS’s “Design You Can Feel” exhibition and the development of Ceraluminum represent a forward-thinking approach to how technology integrates into our lives. With this material, ASUS bridges the gap between the tactile and the technological, offering users an experience that goes beyond performance to touch the soul of design.
Ceraluminum’s durability, tactile warmth, and matte finish go beyond aesthetic choices; they reshape how we interact with devices moving forward. This material reflects ASUS’s commitment to creating devices that resonate emotionally, offering comfort, engagement, and fostering a deeper connection.
Through collaborations with global designers, ASUS has highlighted the potential of Ceraluminum to transform not just technology but how we live, interact, and engage with the objects around us. As we move forward, Ceraluminum is poised to lead a new design wave that prioritizes emotional resonance, environmental responsibility, and the fusion of art with cutting-edge material science.
MotorSkins is revolutionizing the way we interact with technology with their cutting-edge SELK technology. This innovative system exemplifies the powerful fusion of ambient computing and programmable matter, promising to profoundly transform our relationship with both the digital and physical worlds.
SELK technology is the flagship innovation from MotorSkins. It integrates soft robotics, fluid logic, and software/API into a cohesive and intelligent system. This sophisticated multilayered textile structure, known as programmable matter, has the ability to sense, react, and adapt to its surroundings. This makes SELK not just a piece of technology, but a dynamic and interactive material.
In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, ambient computing is emerging as a visionary concept for the future. It imagines a world where technology is seamlessly integrated into our environment, working effortlessly and becoming an inherent part of our daily lives. Complementing this vision is the field of programmable matter, which involves engineering materials to dynamically change their properties, such as shape or function, in response to user input or environmental changes.
MotorSkins’ SELK technology sits at the intersection of ambient computing and programmable matter. This technology transcends traditional interfaces, offering a tactile, responsive medium that not only coexists harmoniously with its environment but actively enhances it. By incorporating SELK’s smart textile actuators into everyday products, MotorSkins showcases a forward-thinking approach to material science. These actuators transform static objects into interactive, adaptable interfaces, allowing materials to respond intuitively to user inputs and environmental changes.
The company is applying SELK technology to create dynamic orthoses in the healthcare sector. These orthoses, made from SELK’s versatile material, combine simplicity in design with enhanced functionality and performance. This wearable interface adapts to the user’s movements, providing support and flexibility where needed.
In the automotive industry, SELK technology is set to revolutionize car interiors. Imagine a car cabin that adjusts to your needs, with buttons, comfort features, and haptic feedback appearing only when required. This leads to safer and more intuitive interactions between drivers and their vehicles.
MotorSkins is also exploring how SELK can improve human-machine interfaces, creating more ergonomic workspaces and interactive, responsive environments. By merging programmable matter with the principles of ambient computing, MotorSkins is not just developing advanced tech interfaces; they are fundamentally reshaping the way we interact with technology.
These efforts predict a future where technology seamlessly integrates into our daily lives, enhancing our experiences in natural and unobtrusive ways. Motorskins’ innovative work demonstrates how design and technology can synergistically improve human life, making our interactions with the world more intuitive and connected.
There are many techniques and strategies going around the Web on how to get a good night’s sleep, but many neglect the most basic requirement of all: comfort. If you’re sweating buckets all through the night, it shouldn’t take a genius to know why you feel even more tired when waking up, presuming you even got any shut-eye at all. Keeping the body cool is critical in getting that good night’s sleep, but that’s easier said than done, especially given how different people respond to environmental factors differently. Some find air conditioning units too cold, while others feel they aren’t enough, and that’s not even considering you might not be the only one in the room sharing the bed. It would be nice if you could envelope yourself with cool air tailored specifically to your body, which is what this simple yet innovative blanket brings to your bed and to your life.
Blankets and comforters are designed to keep you toasty on cold nights but also tend to trap warm or hot air on warm nights. Four times cooler than linen but just as comfortable on your skin, the HILU Bluvet, a portmanteau of “blanket” and “duvet,” actually works in reverse to keep your body temperature down and experience a refreshing and comfortable sleep. This works wonders for your body during warmer seasons or weather, making it feel like you have your own personal air conditioning unit under the sheets.
HILU Bluvet is made of a special cooling yarn blend, revolutionary Adaptex CoolWeev fabric, that wicks away excess body heat, keeping you cool, dry, and fresh all night.
The secret is HILU’s proprietary Adaptex CoolWeev fabric designed to wick heat away from your body. Made from gel-spun fibers, the Eco-cool Polyfibers are woven into yarn to produce a material that is incredibly strong yet also feather-light. While other cooling mattresses need to make you sweat to cool you down, the Bluvet stops you from sweating in the first place by absorbing excess heat from the air around your body. Whether you’re using it as a blanket, a duvet, or even a mattress topper, the HILU Bluvet guarantees a soothing slumber every time.
Of course, a cool body won’t be much help if you’re scratching all night, which is why the Adaptex CoolWeev fabric is designed to be antimicrobial and hypoallergenic to protect your skin from irritation. It also prevents the build-up of bacteria and odors, so you wake up not only feeling fresh but smelling as fresh as when you went to bed. And when the blanket does get dirty, you can safely put it in the washing machine in the morning and have it dry and ready for bedtime on the same day. Built to last and with a 10-year limited warranty, this blanket/duvet hybrid will keep you company and cool for thousands of nights to come.
With the HILU Bluvet, you’re not just investing in comfort; you’re also choosing a cleaner, healthier sleep environment.
HILU Bluvet also lets you sleep with peace of mind thanks to its environment-conscious design. Made with OEKO-TEX-certified materials, the blanket utilizes eco-friendly and recycled materials that help not only reduce waste but also minimize any harmful impact on the environment. The HILU Bluvet comes in cream, blue, and green colors as well as Queen (90in x 90in) and King (102in x 90in) sizes to match your style, but why stop at having a cool body when you can have a cool head as well? Grab a set with two HILU Dual-Tech Pillowcases, with one side utilizing graphene technology to keep a consistent perfect temperature regardless of the season, while the other side features the same Adaptex CoolWeev fabric for that refreshing cool feeling every time.
After introducing the world’s first thermoregulating graphene blanket, HILU is once again revolutionizing the market to offer a cool new blanket that will also keep you cool no matter the season. So stop wasting your nights tossing and turning, drenched in sweat, and wrap yourself in the cool embrace of the HILU Bluvet and get the most comfortable sleep every night.
Jackets are more than just fashion accessories, especially if you live or visit areas with extreme weather conditions. We’re seeing a lot of brands that come up with lines that can withstand the cold, rain, snow, etc but also will make the wearers look good when sporting them. Volleback is one such brand and we’ve seen several products from them that use materials that are not the usual we see in most of these apparel. Now we’re getting a Full Metal Jacket that is made from one of the most advanced materials available – copper.
When you think of a jacket made from copper, you might think it’s something pretty heavy and bulky. But the process that they made to use copper in this jacket line is pretty interesting. They used 11 kilometers of copper for each jacket, using copper that is both extremely strong and malleable at the same time. Rods of electrolytic industrial copper pass through a machine repeatedly and turns them into thin copper strands. These yarns are then layered with thin coats of lacquer and go through a 6-day curing process and then laminated with an advanced waterproof and breathable membrane called c_change®.
The entire jacket is made from 59.5% copper, 20% polyurethane, 20% polyamide, and 0.5% other metals and is waterproof (fully seam-sealed), windproof, and breathable. Each Full Metal Jacket has 2 fleece-lined zipped side pockets; 2 giant front bellows pockets with angled storm flaps, 2 zipped upper chest pockets concealed behind storm flaps, and 1 zipped internal pocket. Despite the seemingly heavy material and all these features, the jacket is not bulky at all and looks pretty lightweight. There are three colors available – black, copper, and silver.
The reason why they chose copper as a material for this edition is that it can be used for disease-resistant clothing since it’s biostatic. In fact, NASA is now experimenting with the material to create medical instruments that can be used in the International Space Station to protect astronauts. So if we eventually get to space in the future, then this jacket can also help protect us from infection and diseases.
The Porsche Pepita Edition by Vitra represents a masterful integration of automotive heritage and contemporary design, where each piece fulfills a functional role and also carries a legacy of innovation and timeless design as it finds a place in homes and offices. Vitra’s limited release of iconic chairs, such as the ‘Eames Plastic Side Chair,’ ‘ID Trim L,’ and ‘Petit Repos,’ show the synergy between traditional craftsmanship and modern aesthetics. This houndstooth pattern, a long-standing feature in Porsche interiors since 1965, symbolizes a tradition of exceptional craftsmanship and aesthetic finesse.
Designer: Porsche x Vitra Collab
First introduced in the interiors of Porsche vehicles in the 1960s, the Pepita fabric is a distinctive duotone checkered pattern that resembles abstract four-pointed shapes. It is often rendered in black and white, though it can be incorporated through a specific weaving process that interlaces two contrasting colors to create a visually striking and uniquely recognizable broken check pattern. Pepita fabric has become synonymous with high quality and sophisticated taste.
Initially featured as upholstery in the iconic Porsche 911 models, the rarity of Pepita fabric has increased as fewer manufacturers choose to undertake the labor-intensive production of true houndstooth weaves. This scarcity has made genuine Pepita a coveted element in both the automotive and interior design sectors. Vitra’s reintroduction of this fabric through limited edition pieces revives a classic style and maintains its exclusivity, making it highly treasured among collectors. The combination of its limited availability, storied heritage, and intricate aesthetics solidifies Pepita fabric’s status as a rare and distinctive feature across design and automotive history.
In the 1960s, the introduction of the iconic 911, launched in 1963, exemplified Porsche’s commitment to combining performance with sophisticated comfort. The interior design focused on functionality and luxury, resonating with discerning customers through the use of durable and tactile materials like leather and the stylish Pepita fabric for seat coverings. The clean and driver-oriented dashboard design emphasized ease of use and clear visibility of essential instruments, with the tachometer centrally positioned to align with Porsche’s performance-driven philosophy. Subdued color schemes of blacks, greys, and browns dominated, though brighter colors were also available, reflecting personal preferences and the vibrant styles of the 60s.
The unveiling at the ‘The Art of Dreams’ event in Milan highlights the seamless integration of innovation and design excellence between Vitra and Porsche. The collection prioritizes exclusivity, mirroring significant Porsche models and milestones, such as the ‘Eames Plastic Side Chair Pepita Edition’, limited to 1,963 pieces to commemorate the year Porsche introduced the Pepita option in its 911 model. These chairs are more than functional items; they are collector’s pieces that echo the narratives of their creators and pivotal moments in both design and automotive history, celebrating a rich heritage and the evolution of design.
There are pieces of furniture that serve their purpose in your living space even if they’re not always that well-designed. Then there are those that you don’t really understand what they’re for but they’re just so pretty or fits into your aesthetic that you just know you need to have them. Of course if those pieces are also sustainable and eco-friendly, that’s a great bonus. Well, it would also be great if they can actually do what they’re supposed to do while looking pretty and saving the earth.
Designer: Nendo for Paola Lenti
Italian furniture brand Paola Lenti unveiled their collaboration with Japanese design firm Nendo at the Milan Design Week. The Hanara-shi series of furnishings and complements look like art pieces at first glance. Their shapes and designs are inspired by Japanese culture of course, specifically the cherry trees that are starting to be in full bloom in Japan right now. There’s also some inspiration from ancient samurai armours if you look closely at the fabrics and patterns.
While their colors are really attractive and eye-catching, I couldn’t figure out at first what they were supposed to be. But upon closer inspection (of the photos and the website), there are suspended lamps, baskets, floor lamps, armchairs, and poufs/ottomans included in the collection. The fabric used is Maris mesh which is recyclable and made from 100% polypropylene waterproof material. Unlike other furniture which starts from the design, this one started from showing the fabric that they will be designing and that’s when the ideas started to flow.
Since the material is rigid, marbled in colour but textured, flexible, and malleable, they were able to fold and wrap them on themselves to create this line of products. There are of course welded elements to put them all together but the main star of this Hanara-shi series is definitely the fabric and how they designed it to create these pieces of furniture. The upholstery and inlays used are also recovered cutoffs from previous processes so you can say that not only are they beautiful but they’re also friendly to the earth.
