Berlin-based Mashallah Design  & Linda Kostowski have created items of clothing by scanning human bodies and using the data to create sewing patterns. The human form is turned into 3D patterns of polygons, which are then turned into 2D files and used to laser cut fabric. The project was on show at Create Berlin during the London Design Festival earlier this month.

THE T-SHIRT ISSUE
A Digital T-Shirt Project
By Mashallah Design & Linda Kostowski

Three people are portrayed digitaly by turning their 3D data into 2D sewing patterns and converting these into articles of clothing. Linked with their biographical memories a digital twin of the body is created.

WOLF / 419 FACES

SWIMMIES / 378 FACES

JUKI / 318 FACES

Three people are portrayed digitally by scanning their bodies. The output of this scan is a 3d file, which resolution is defiend by the amount of polygons, similiar to pixels in a bitmap grafic. Linked with their biographical memories a digital twin of the body is thus created, which expands and personifies the garment in a formal-poetic way. The 3d data is turned into 2d sewing patterns by the use of the unfolding function which is a common tool in industrial design process to make paper models with, the single fabric pieces and the inner interface which defines the edges are cut out by the help of a lasercutter. Making a clothes pattern in this way changes the aestethics of the garment fundamentally , because in contrary to ordinary patternconstruction methods unfolding does not matter about orientations like center front or the shape of a armhole, which frees the designers imagination in a way that feels fresh and liberate.
As fabric we used sweatshirt jersey as a reference to the common clichee that berlin is the city which fashionable output lies in making and painting on t-shirts.

THE MAKING OF