From marine organism to material - from material to textile - from textile to body

In August, we (Paula Meier & Barbara Rakovská) had the unique opportunity to develop a project together during the Craft work 4all Villette Makerz residency in Paris.

The project began with a simple question: what happens when a garment is designed through the behaviour of its materials rather than imposed onto them?

Working with agar-based biomaterials and knitted wool structures, we explored materials as evolving systems rather than fixed substances. An important part of the process was the development of different material formulations and physical states. From flexible agar polymers to fibre-reinforced composites like rice fibres and wool, we investigated how different material combinations could interact with knitted structures. Through testing, casting, layering and fabrication, we observed how changes in composition affected flexibility, strength, texture, volume and structure.

These experiments gradually became the basis for the garment itself. Rather than designing a final form first and searching for a material to realise it, we allowed the material experiments to inform the construction of the body. What began as an exploration of the corset gradually expanded into a wider garment system, including an experimental knitted skirt and a series of accessories developed through crochet, 3D printing and weaving.

The resulting pieces combine agar-based biomaterials with hand and machine-knitted wool structures. The two materials introduce contrasting qualities: flexible, rubbery and fragile polymer skins meet soft, porous and elastic knitted surfaces. Their points of connection remain visible, allowing the garment to reveal the process through which it was constructed. At the same time, the fusion of knitted structures and biopolymer allowed us to achieve unprecedented volumes, creating forms that would be difficult to achieve through either material alone.

The red colour was developed in dialogue with the visual language of red algae, creating a link to the marine origin of agar. Together with the layered polymer surfaces and raw knitted structures, it shifts the garment away from a conventional fashion silhouette towards something more ambiguous: part garment, part skin, part organism.

The corset becomes less a device for shaping the body and more a scaffold for material encounters. It holds together different substances, techniques and origins, allowing them to coexist without becoming one uniform material. Working with agar derived from red algae creates a direct material connection to Brittany's marine ecosystem, grounding the project in the local context of our residency in France.

The accompanying knitted skirt extends this exploration beyond the structure of the corset, translating the material research into a softer and more flexible volume. The accessories further expand the material language of the project, combining crochet, 3D-printed and woven elements as smaller-scale experiments in how different making processes can coexist within the same body system.

We created a temporary hybrid assembled through marine, plant, and textile processes, bringing together materials and techniques across different scales of making.

The final work exists somewhere between garment, body and artifact.

Rather than imagining clothing as something we simply wear, we ask: What if a garment could become a space where different materials, bodies and forms of life meet?