Je Hyun Kim

Mono-fold is a novel e-textile and a wearable device that can remotely measure the size and the strain of clothes in E-commerce.

Delivery returns contribute to the environmental impact of e-commerce, as 30% of all deliveries are returning to where they came. Since texts and images on e-commerce deliver all the information, it causes an information gap leading to unwanted products.

Experiments were conducted to study end-users ' behaviour, contextualising in apparel, which had the most return rates. Rather than transferring physical body measurements to the digital software, bringing digital clothes measurements to the physical world is more effective as it allows consumers to use physical references. Therefore, I developed an e-textile for human-computer interaction to standardise clothes sizes.

The final e-textile was created by measuring two features of clothes: size and strain. The application of this e-textile is a wearable device. Users can adjust the size of the wearable device as a physical reference of what they see in digital marketplaces. Depending on how much you adjust the wearable, it will automatically choose the right size using the measurement data, and the right material for the clothes using the strain data.

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Jehyun is a multidisciplinary designer currently based in London, constantly seeking new ideas to represent “his story”. Growing up in diverse cultures such as Korea, Japan and the US, Jehyun is highly adaptive to changes and always ready to embrace new things.

Before joining the Innovation Design Engineering program at RCA and Imperial, he studied Mathematics and specialised in computational and statistical analysis. He also explored different mathematical applications such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Featured:

Semi-Finalist, 2022 The Mayor's Entrepreneur Competition

Finalist, 2022 Venture Catalyst Challenge

Winner, 2021 OPPO x RCA

2021 London Design Festival

Published on "Uncertainty Deconstructed - Transforming Traditional Perceptions" - Springer

One of the most significant factors contributing to the environmental burden of e-commerce is returns. According to CBRE’s December 2020 forecast, the average return rate for the e-commerce industry is 30%, meaning that almost one-third of packages are going back to where they came from.

Unlike in-store purchases, not every consumer is receiving what they expected; therefore, they are not satisfied with an item they purchased. In order to bridge the information gap, what if we could transfer digital clothes measurements to the physical world, creating a physical reference for people to use?

Real Time Feedback on the Size of the Fabric

My first e-textile focused on measuring different sizes. In order to do that, the textile itself had to get its measurement so that it could be compared with the size data online. The foldable size sensor allows to measure itself when the other side of the fabric touches the opposite side.

Real-Time Feedback on the Strain of the Fabric

My second E-textile focused on measuring the strain of any fabric of clothes. Both the measurements and the strain of the fabric are vital when it comes to sizing. Even if it is a very small size, it could fit perfectly if the strain of the fabric is low, just like a sweater, for example. The stretch sensor allows measuring the strain when stretched.

The final textile was created by combing these two e-textiles: textile that measures size when folded and textile that measures the strain when stretched.

These two textiles have different roles in measuring size while interacting with each other. Size measuring textile measures the size of static motion; size for static body parts. Strain measuring textile measures the size of dynamic motion; size for dynamic body parts that are constantly stretching, such as joints. By having length and strain measurements acquirable through this e-textile, it is possible to interact with sizes that are only remaining in the form of digital data.