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Blūm
The concept of a bra is very unnatural. Throughout history we have seen many ways women have been controlled by their bras and societal norms. A bra should feel natural, comfortable and age beautifully as women do. A woman should have control over her experience with her bra and feel comfort in finding the perfect fit and material. The design of an intimate should be intimate.
Blūm is an all natural bra that utilizes color grown cotton and alpaca fiber to build comforting experiences between women and their bras.
Fall 2017
Material Exploration
Pattern Making
Manufacturing Strategy
Color Grown Cotton
Alpaca Wool
Recycled Packaging
California Grown.
Produced in and inspired by California.
Research Notebook
Material, market, experiment research documentation.
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User Experience Map
Using a new generation of bralette.
Design Parameters
Material qualities are derived from pinpoints found in user experience map. Natural materials are chosen to build a comfortable relationship with bralette.
Comfort
Structure
Breathable
Color Grown Cotton
Consciously redefine the cotton industry with color grown cotton fiber. Cotton fiber is bred and grown at Viriditas Farm in Brooks, California. Sally Fox has been breeding and perfecting her species since 1982. She is a producer for fibershed and I was able to meet Sally and buy her textiles at the 2017 Wool & Fine Fiber Fibershed Symposium.
Cotton grows in beautiful natural colors.
No dying needed to give color to the cotton because it is naturally bred into various colors by splitting the seeds every harvest to create new shades of color.
Fiber darkens over time.
Cotton fibers are still alive and doesn't fade over time. It darkens as you wash the fabrics, creating a relationship with garnet similar to the changing of seasons. Most sustainable fabrics fade with time, but this is a unique attribute to the cotton.
Farmer practices ethical farming.
Sally the cotton breeder and farmer cycles her organic fields with sheep grazing which gives nitrogen back to soil and makes the farms carbon neutral. Her farm alone eliminates 20,000 cars emissions for a year with her farming methods.
Suri Alpaca Fiber
Replace uncomfortable underwire with customizable padding that molds to your body. Alpacas live at Windy Hill Farms in Somis, California. The fiber is collected yearly to be roved by Cindy Harris and her fellow Alpaca breeders.
Alpaca fur is antimicrobial and hypoallergenic.
Alpaca fiber resists bacteria growth and is great for sweaty areas around chest. It is also one of the few material that is hypoallergenic unlike wool.
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Keeps you cool and wicks sweat.
There are two breeds of Alpaca. Suri and Huacaya. Suri fiber
structure has many loose hair folicles causing allowing air to flow through the silky long sure fiber.
Forms to your body as you wear it.
Felted fiber moulds to any given form when agitated and given moisture. Daily wear will cause bra to form to individual breast shape. Washing will also help tighten fibers.
Regenerative Packaging
All of the offcuts and waste cotton fiber from manufacturing the bra can be broken down and made into a cellulose that is perfect for making paper packaging.
Utilize waste materials from bra manufacture.
Paper packaging is produced with trimmings from bra manufacture which eliminates the need for new material and closes the loop.
Compostable at end of life.
Paper can be recycled into a new product or broken down in a compost bin.
Embossing replaces need for ink.
Logo can be embossed onto the packaging during the same step as the paper is being made to save time, material and ink.
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