Grow With The Flow

A modular harness and accessory system that provides flexibility throughout the day

This project is now archived and was part of DDW24

This project is part of
We design tomorrow

Grow With The Flow

Elsa Zschoch, Pauline Stockmann

‘Grow with the flow’ is a modular and expandable accessory system consisting of a harness and bags. The modularity and size adjustability as well as the minimalist design open up a wide range of possible uses and combinations and make it universally accessible.

Concept

’Grow With The Flow’ was designed with the intention of creating an accessory that can fulfil various requirements as a complementary garment throughout the day. The title of this project refers to the modularity of the harness as well as to its main material, Hyphalite, a biodegradable vegan leather alternative made from mushrooms, which offers multiple uses in fashion due to its many properties such as breathability or softness. Just as mushrooms can ‘appear’ spontaneously by growing fruit bodies from their mycelium roots, this harness offers many possibilities for attaching different pockets easily and quickly thanks to its laser-cut pattern structure. In addition, the harness itself can be worn in different ways. Its basic structure consists of two shoulder straps attached to a waist belt, which can be worn either parallel or crossed over and can be individually attached to the front part.

Sustainability Approach

Thanks to various biodegradable fasteners and components made by Valupa, the harness straps can not only be individually adjusted, but also easily removed or exchanged, following an circular approach. To make all parts of this accessory recyclable, not only are the various components of the harness easily separable, but the pockets themselves can also be quickly disassembled, as no glue or other permanent bonding methods are used. The harness is designed for everyday use, e.g. at work during the day and at a concert in the evening, and should be adaptable to any body shape. It can therefore be adapted to the wearer's individual needs at any time and can fulfill both practical and purely aesthetic functions.

Context

Only biodegradable materials were used for this project. The main materials were kindly sponsored by ISA TanTec (Hyphalite) and Valupa. ‘Grow With The Flow’ was developed as part of the knitwear design course in the Master's programme in Fashion Design and Clothing Technology at HTW Berlin. It was supervised by Thu Thao Haussmann.