Future of Fashion Materialised

UTS School of Design recently procured the latest Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT® knit machine for its knit lab. This seamless knit machine creates entire garments in one piece, greatly reducing yarn and material waste. Highly skilled technicians can program a wide variety of designs and knit styles into these machines, which can support made-to-order and bespoke garment production.

Gary Bigeni is an Australian designer who pushes the limits of fashion through his made-to-order fine art collections. Bigeni hand paints designs directly onto ethically sourced eco-cotton; the designs are then reproduced in limited runs using sustainable manufacturing practices. Intended to last a lifetime, all pieces are gender neutral and designed to reflect the distinctive personality of the wearer. Bigeni also teaches in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at UTS.

Dr Doris Li is a leading researcher in advanced fashion manufacturing focusing on knitwear design and technology. Li participated in consultancy projects on WHOLEGARMENT® knitting applications for sports, evening and casual wear. She received her PhD from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2020 and her research on knitted buoyant textiles is published in journals including Textile Research Journal and Fibers and Polymers (the journal of the Korean Fiber Society).

Dr Lisa Lake is director of the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles, a UTS partnership with TAFE NSW. She is a pioneer in the Australian sustainable fashion movement, having authored Sustainability with Style in 2012, and co-founded Clean Cut, an organisation that brought the first sustainable fashion show to Australian Fashion Week in 2014. Lake helped develop the sustainability strategy for the University of Sydney and previously led the marketing team at the Green Building Council of Australia.