Iga Węglińska is a multidisciplinary designer and researcher specialising in human–garment interactions. Her works are on the border of fashion and product design with a focus on new technologies in both the physical and digital worlds. She regards clothing as sculpture. Her field of interest is in clothing as experience. Her design process focuses on form, as well, as the emotions that get evoked while wearing. She believes in intellectual fashion, Fashion as an art, and fashion that gives the wearer a feeling of singularity.

My first curiosity is regarding your influences and indulgences while growing up. What was it like and what made you want to get into designing?

My parents raised me as a feminist who needs to know how to “cope with life”, and they always cheered my interest in what nowadays we call design, but in the 90s they called it an urge to invent things. It may sound cliché, but I always felt a need to design, construct, deconstruct and repair things. My family was very aware of it, so for my 8th birthday my grandparents gave me a children’s sewing machine (the artefact I now cherish in my studio), and even though it was little, it looked very “real” to me – it was heavy, had a bobbin, a real needle and it was actually sewing! Of course, I sewed my finger the day after I got it… When I was in primary school my dad taught me the basics of electronics and how to solder and repair things – there was no question he would leave without an answer. My mom taught me how to sew, knit, and embroider. I also inherited her artistic talent. Add to this an Art High School, Fashion Design School, BA and MA in Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, and that’s how I ended up as a multidisciplinary designer and researcher with a Ph.D. in industrial design and new technologies in fashion.

Your work is purely scientific and revolves around the human’s extended thirst to retrieve the body’s information for better functions. With such an approach to garment construction, could you please tell us what’s the design process like? And how did you come up with this concept after your previous capsule collection in 2015?

Actually, the order is reversed. I defended my fashion design diploma in 2010, at the same time studying industrial design at another Academy. My artistic practice became cross-disciplinary and focused on material aesthetics, experiments, and new technologies. In 2014 I released a successful futuristic footwear collection created with the use of technologies such as 3D scanning, 3D printing, CNC milling, and moulding from composite concrete. It is safe to say that the tech approach accompanied me from the beginning of my professional career. The “BOY.” capsule collection from 2015 was created as a kind of escape from the experimental projects. Occasionally I just have to do some kind of “analog” pieces that require a lot of craftwork from me. It is a form of artistic gateway.

From using thermosensitive fabric to installing the sound and movement mechanics, how did you finally achieve the right result? Tell us about your final assimilations and the trial error moments.

The Emotional Clothing project is a design proposal for my Ph.D. dissertation. It is a proof of concept constructed with self-created smart materials that can react to psycho-physiological changes in our body. It pushes us towards interoception awareness (awareness of an internal state of our body). While working on this project, I collaborated with a psychologist, neurocognitive, chemist, creative technologist, and programmer. Before designing the silhouettes, I experimented with materials and electronics and conducted a pilot study based on the interaction between participants and samples of smart materials created especially for research purposes. Samples with the biggest potential were then implemented in the design concept to ensure any potential errors could be identified in the empirical part of the work. One of the biggest challenges of the final project was learning how to use it. Everyone sends a different body stimulus, which is read out by biosensors integrated with silhouettes. The wearer needs to understand the Emotional Clothing’s reactions, to control it by regulating her/his body state.

The garment’s innovative approach specifically in the times that we are living now, what do you believe is the answer to the need for this concept and design, and what do you think about humanity’s dissociations and failures as species?

Human is mortal. And as new technologies develop, no wonder we are more and more fascinated by topics such as body enhancement and post-humanism. From the designer’s perspective, it is a great field to explore. That is why I find it so interesting and decided to treat my project as a sensory prosthesis augmenting the wearer’s senses. The materials used in the design constitute a kind of bridge between what our skin knows and the world of advanced technology.

The aesthetic appearance and symptomatic gestures of your design are to be related to somewhat hybrid interstellar/robotic operations, if you were to speak for the growing scientific evolutions and development, what other objectives would you like to incorporate in your further collections?

Solutions that provide an immersive experience between the physical and digital world and treat clothing as an external membrane – an augmented armour protecting the human body from harmful environmental factors as well as controlling our internal state.

As the demand for solution-oriented fashion is growing amidst the mainstream fashion that still remains to be curated by the social environment at large, what do you have to say to the young generation seeking pursuits of innovative and problem-solving pathways - as such ideas remain to be in the domains of fictions and sci-fi fantasy?

To keep experimenting, trust their intuition and stay persistent, even if sometimes they may feel alienated. The prize is worth it.

On the quest for mindfulness and being aware, while acknowledging the physical limitations of the human body, please describe the nonphysical aspect, the scientific and intangible aspects of growth that designs such as yours lure to challenge the common perspectives and forces to seek intelligence.

Fashion used to focus on an aesthetic shell of clothing. Clothing plays a vital role in the quality of our lifestyle and has a lot of important functions: it protects our bodies from weather changes or cuts, it symbolises something, it adorbs the body, it informs society about our social status or occupation, and it has a magical function – like amulet or talisman. The problem is, that for centuries, we did not question it, and we have hardly developed the set of its roles. What I propose in my designs is a new discussion on the role and function of clothing. In my designs, I try to broaden the experience of clothing, by using psycho-physical changes taking place in the user’s body like body temperature, galvanic skin response, heartbeat, and a sense of proprioception. The designs have inner biosensors which measure the stimuli and send biofeedback, to focus the wearer's attention on their internal body state, how they feel in the specific clothing, and how they can control its colour or kinetic changes by controlling their body’s reaction. My designs act as a sensory prosthesis, developing the user’s body awareness, and extending hers/his cognition through a garment.