New Royal 100% ultrafine merino wool 120’s, 17.5 microns, 2/60 count, flesh pink colour: this is the yarn chosen by Khatarina & Cissel Dubbik, students of the Royal College of Art in London, to create one of the four projects part of ‘Knitting the future 3D printing meets Merino wool’. The initiative, conceived by D-house by Dyloan – urban laboratory in the heart of Milan where research and development projects and prototyping activities are carried out, thanks to the involvement of technological partners and companies specialized in innovative and certified materials – with the collaboration of Bond Factory, The Woolmark Company, and Stratasys, proposes a technological avant-garde theme in the sector: 3D printing in combination with Merino wool knitwear.
To illustrate the versatility of the possible applications, 3 international designers and 4 students from the Royal College of Art in London were involved, who, supported by as many Italian knit and spinning mills, including Tollegno 1900, created projects based on the use of 3D printing on Merino wool knitwear. Objective: creating a one-of-a-kind product.
The yarn from Tollegno 1900, New Royal 100% ultrafine merino wool has thus allowed the two Dubbik sisters to give shape to ‘Under My Skin’, which, using a camera with a thermal sensor normally employed in the military field, maps the body temperature and displays it in different shades of colour. The naked body silhouette was then used as a trace to define the areas to be 3D printed. While Tollegno 1900 gave the two designers the most suitable yarn to bring their idea to life, D-house by Dyloan gave them the opportunity to incorporate Polyjet 3D printing technology into their work. The result? A second-skin bodysuit… by name and by nature.
