The journey towards the 4D knit dress began with the exploration of dynamic textiles by students at the Self-Assembly Lab. Credit: Shutterstock.

MIT’s research laboratory Self-Assembly Lab explained the 4D Knit Dress represents a sustainable alternative to fast fashion by eliminating waste through its single-piece construction and customised sizing.

Sasha MicKinlay, a recent graduate of the MIT Department of Architecture and a textile designer at the Self-Assembly Lab added: “This dress promises to be more sustainable than traditional fashion to both the consumer and the producer.”

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Collaborating with the Ministry of Supply, McKinlay and her MIT team ensured the dress could undergo various styling transformations from pintucks to pleats to cater for individual preferences.

Self-Assembly Lab’s founder and associate professor in the Department of Architecture at MIT Skylar Tibbits said: “Everyone’s body is different. Even if you wear the same size as another person, you’re not actually the same.”

McKinlay helped with producing the active yarns, creating the concept design, developing the knitting technique and programming the industrial knitting machines to produce multiple dresses quickly.

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Danny Griffin, a graduate student in architectural design, shared his expertise in robotics to refine the heat activation process. Through experimentation, Griffin devised a programmable robotic procedure to precisely control heat application.

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The versatility of the 4D Knit Dress is said to extend beyond fit and fashion. Gihan Amarasiriwardena, co-founder and president of the Ministry of Supply, acknowledged the challenges of traditional fashion production and distribution, often leading to excess inventory that end up in landfill.

Amarasiriwardena described fast fashion as a perpetuating cycle of overconsumption and waste.

Tibbits added: “From a global standpoint, you don’t have tonnes of excess inventory because the dress is customised to your size.”

McKinlay added: “I hope this research project helps people rethink or reevaluate their relationship with clothes.

“Right now when people purchase a piece of clothing it has only one ‘look.’ But, how exciting would it be to purchase one garment and reinvent it to change and evolve as you change or as the seasons or styles change? I’m hoping that’s the takeaway that people will have.”

The 4D Knit Dress debuted at the Ministry of Supply’s flagship store in Boston.

In February Hong Kong fabric innovator Comfiknit partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to research the cooling properties of activewear fabrics.