From the Royal Court to Active Textiles

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Fashion plays a significant cultural, societal, and economic role in France. The second program in our French Innovation series will explore this French staple, from the fashion of its royal courts to the country’s indefatigable status as a pioneer in fashion and luxury innovation today.

Gwen van den Eijnde, of RISD, will enlighten us on French contributions to the world of fashion, from the first mentions of style in the fifteenth century to the liberation of women by Chanel and Dior.

For a peek into new innovations in the fashion world, Christophe Guberan will introduce us to his Active Shoes research project, which explores the future of shoe production and performance with self-transforming textiles.

Event in English. A reception with refreshments will be provided after the discussion.

Guests are welcome to explore our eye-opening French Innovation exhibition in our gallery, featuring sketches, models, and more related to this series’ programs.

For Members

$10

For Non-members

$20

About the Panelists

Christophe Guberan is a Swiss industrial designer who teaches product design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The buzzing and innovative ecosystem of the Greater Boston Area allows him to augment his practice while experimenting with new research and technological development.

In 2014, Guberan began collaborating with the MIT Self-Assembly Lab and Founder & Director Skylar Tibbits, a pioneer in 4D printing, to create “active shoes” under the Minimal Shoe project for Design London Museum. Guberan has continued his exploration of material interactions, digital manufacturing, and self-assembly processes. His projects include Hydro-Fold, Liquid to Air, and his most recent collaboration with Tibbits, Rapid Liquid Printing, which tackles speed, scale, and quality challenges in 3D printing technology by printing objects suspended in a gel-like medium.

Gwen van den Eijnde is a Dutch-French designer working in the disciplines of fashion, fine art, and theatre. Through his expressive, avant-garde clothing and costume designs, he creates captivating characters and tells enthralling stories that stretch the imagination. A professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), van den Eijnde’s multi-layered approach is informed by his deep knowledge of fashion history and theory; his work is a commentary on the peculiarities of life, often finding subversive humor and fantasy rooted in fact. Van den Eijnde has studied and worked with some of the most esteemed practitioners in his field, including artist Edith Dekyndt in the Atelier Textile of the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, costume designer Olivier Bériot, choreographer Robyn Orlin, and the revered Hermès atelier, Petit h. Before joining the faculty at RISD, he was visiting professor at the Fashion department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Head of Textile Design at the Haute École des Arts du Rhin in Mulhouse.

French Innovation Series

France can lay claim to a significant number of world-changing inventions and innovations, from the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon and the Concorde’s sonic boom, to pioneering the fashion industry, self-assembling shoes, live surgeries, and 3D printed aneurysms.

This spring, the French Library / Alliance Française of Boston and Cambridge is pleased to present “French Innovation,” its latest cultural program series. Each program in the series will explore the history of an industry, present its evolution and current landscape, welcome a modern-day innovator who will introduce us to a groundbreaking product, and provide an eye-opening, interactive gallery exhibit.

This series is brought to you, in part, by the Consulat Général de France à Boston, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and the Office for Science and Technology of the French Embassy.

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