S++ : A Hybrid Textile for Healthcare and Well-Being Contexts

This paper presents a collaborative, design-led research project between KYOTO Design Lab (DLab),t he Department of Advanced Fibro Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Royal College of Art’s Textiles Programme (RCA). The project involved an initial one-week workshop, followed by a 6-month design research associateship at KIT’s D-Lab – an innovation incubator delivered through practical design methodologies and interdisciplinary collaboration. The focus of this project was to investigate the possibility of re-engineering chirimen, a traditional ‘intelligent’ silk crepe fabric being woven in the Tango Peninsula, in northern Kyoto Prefecture. Varying the weave structure itself and introducing PTT, a thermoplastic polymer, enabled the creation of a hybrid textile of silk which is hydrophilic and Polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) which is hydrophobic. This hybrid textiles structure offers new product applications for chirimen silk in healthcare contexts against a background of industry decline and shrinking markets for this highly sophisticated textile.