Garment designed by Sarah Grepl, student at ESMOD Berlin
Effect
Improving our home, the Earth, and the lives of humans, rethinking the fashion system and our behaviour, so that we are able to improve the Earth with clothes and benefit from space technology.
By creating one high-tech main piece of clothing, supporting the wearer in every functional situation, it should have a positive effect on our consumer behaviour, textile waste and environmental pollution.
The main piece enables adjusting body temperature in hot and cold environments. It copes with weather changes with waterproof and breathable features, and protects the wearer from dangerous sunlight or even from an accident by a cushioning effect. Damping elements, which are usually used for the launch and landing process support the wearer’s movement, because they are very light (inspired by zero-gravity movement in space). Small, kinetic solar cells allow the production of electricity for the wearer’s use. Sensors are built into the garment to record body based information over a long time, avoiding accidents and protecting through air bag technology.
Inspiration is drawn from the movie Overview Effect. The overview effect describes the feeling that an astronaut experiences seeing the Earth from above for the first time. A realisation takes place: We are one unit and we only have one Earth – it is very fragile and we need to protect it. ESA’s Earth observation satellite missions are designed to explore new ways of observing Earth from space to improve our understanding of how our planet works as a system, as well as the impact human activity has on the natural world. We should be inspired to solve climate and environmental change issues.