Second Skin: Giving building materials a second life.

Second Skin 2020

Through recycling, design thinking, and good old-fashioned hard work - our students are giving building materials a second life, one fashion garment at a time.

But First, what is Second Skin?

In its essence - Second Skin is a brief that requires the built environment students to experiment with building material to create unconventional fashion garments.

The purpose of the Second Skin brief is to develop the valuable skill of interdisciplinary research, which is an approach that merges multiple disciplines to solve problems and further understanding.

By exercising interdisciplinary research, we instil Inscape students with the confidence to approach and explore topics outside their scope of knowledge, dismantling the silo mentality of design and its discipline. In this case, students who are more comfortable with designing buildings and living spaces are now required to get in touch with their inner fashionista to inspire an outfit.

Snapshot of the brief: Using their creativity, knowledge, and skills - our students are required to:

• Research Fashion Design trends
• Select building materials (not traditionally used for garment design) 
• Design a garment using those fashion insights and repurposed building materials.
• And finally, showcase their final designs.

Dynamic Adaptations in a Post Coronavirus World

In the past, a huge aspect of the Second Skin project deliverables was showcasing student designs in an engaging fashion show, often presented at industry events such as Decorex SA. However, since the global pandemic hit; Inscape has had to make dynamic adaptations to the way our students learn and submit projects.

Over and above the transition to digital classes and online learning, which presented its challenges and opportunities for triumph; our academic and marketing staff designed a workaround solution to uphold the impact of this brief and it’s deliverables without adding additional stress on the student’s shoulders.

While nothing could ever replace the excitement and pazazz of a fashion show, where students can show off their work while strutting down the runway, we wanted to create something that still embodies the essence of the brief while being Covid-friendly.

Our solution is a digital publication that offers insight into the student’s design, highlighting the materials they used as well as notable features of their garment design. Using the publication to share their work on digital media, we ensure that contact is kept to a bare minimum, so our students, staff, and all other Inscape stakeholders remain safe during these unprecedented times.

We are so proud of what our students on all campuses have accomplished this year and we cannot wait to see how they continue to excel academically! 

Be sure to check out our Instagram page, as we have highlighted some of the best designs which were created by the built environment students for this year's brief.