Sid Bullmore

Sid Bullmore graduated his bachelors in menswear design at London College of Fashion in 2019. Since graduating he has worked as a designer for material technology company, Petit Pli, applying patented textiles to garments and accessories.

On the Fashion MA Sid has focused on developing technology to adapt the design of our clothing to the specific needs of each wearer; integrating wearable electronics with algorithmic modelling and digital fabrication.

The primary aim of this technology is to enhance awareness of the body and provide postural support; encouraging movement as part of an active lifestyle. The secondary aim is to inspire a future of the garment industry in which what we wear is designed with us, not for us, as a material extension of our anatomy and identity.

MotionTrace is a body mapping technology which uses our specific shape and movement to generate the structure of our clothing.

It is designed as a tool for coaches, physiotherapists or individual athletes. The personalised apparel enhances our proprioception; the body’s natural ability to sense its movement and position in space.

MotionTrace helps us understand the position and movement of our body in real time through the feel of the garment on the skin, whilst providing optimised fit and compression for improved postural support.

The process of garment generation is entirely data-driven. MotionTrace uses a compression garment embedded with pressure sensors to provide inertial motion capture. This real-world pressure data is fed into an algorithmic model to produce garments with a unique lattice structure, supporting the body in motion.

Levi Fitting.

Sid Fitting.

MotionTrace uses a unique fitting and garment generation process.

During a fitting real-world pressure data is translated, through an algorithmic model, into a personalised pressure map of the body's movement. This pressure map forms the structure of a new bespoke garment; supporting the wearer as they move.

Fittings were conducted on Sid and Levi. In Levi's fitting the focus was on tennis movements; aggregating the pressure maps from his forehand, backhand and serve into his final generated design.

In Sid's fitting the focus was static position of his shoulders and back for running. Holding the upper body in the correct form and then exploring his range of motion with this posture.

These two fittings resulted in two unique garments.

v1.

v2.

v3.

v4.

The development process for this technology has centred on four iterations of the sensor garment.

Each one of these prototypes worked with many more iterations of the algorithmic model.

Developing these two parts of the process from scratch meant the physical sensor and algorithmic model could be better integrated with one another.

By version 3 working with fitting models and athletes became an equally important part of the design development process of my final version; version 4.

Levi Generated Garment.

Sid Generated Garment.

The white garment traces the arc of Levi’s tennis forearm with additional support and compression around the neck and shoulder blade.

The blue garment is a trace of Sid's upper body when held in the correct position for running. Additional compression and grip are positioned around the point of the shoulder and chest; pulling the shoulders back into the correct form.

Sid Bullmore

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About

Royal College of Art

Sid Bullmore

The Burberry Foundation

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About

Royal College of Art