Dr Donna Sgro has used digital fashion tools and UTS’s new Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machine to design costumes for the Sydney Dance Company performance Brightness.
Dr Sgro used cutting-edge digital tools and software to design the Brightness costumes. Photo: Stephen Reinhardt.
A new work from independent choreographer Kristina Chan, Brightness was part of Sydney Dance Company’s INDance season in August 2024. It featured experimental textile works created by University of Technology Sydney (UTS) fashion and textile designer Dr Donna Sgro, using digital fashion tools and UTS’s new Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machine.
Dr Sgro’s work is research-based, with a focus on creative pattern cutting techniques that bring garments to life and highlight movement. She is passionate about exploring and sharing the opportunities that digital transformation brings to fashion, textile, and costume design, when combined with materials experimentation.
Dr Sgro created two experimental textile works using her (non-digital) Dynamic Cutting method, as well as a suite of Shima Seiki garments working in collaboration with production designer Clare Britton from the Creative Practice Lab at UNSW. While Sgro is credited as the costume designer for Brightness, she doesn't necessarily view the experimental textile works as costumes.
Dr Sgro worked with Shirley Tam to select appropriate materials and discuss sizing for each piece. Photo: Clare Britton
“The dancers interact inside the textiles, so they become a vessel, rather than a costume. They are amorphous forms that reflect the concept, which is about transformation, growth and connection with the environment,” said Dr Sgro.
“The textiles reframe the dancer's body by the way they interact with it. They are see-through and can be lit from behind. There's a lot of detail in the fabric structure based on my cutting technique, which is illuminated by the lighting design, and they can be worn in many different ways,” she said.
“One of the fabrics, which I sourced from Japan, looks like black liquid. It’s opaque when lit from the front but see-through from the back. The other is a nude silk satin organza fabric. In one part of the performance the dancers remove the clothing. It gets peeled off, reflecting transformation.”
Brightness is part of Sydney Dance Company’s INDance season. Photo: Stephen Reinhardt
Chan said her vision for the work was to create art that speaks to the audience’s relationship with nature. She said the choreography experiments with form, repetition and duration to reflect ecological timelines and transformations.
“The design elements are integral to this, with costumes by Donna Sgro that emphasise movement and change, and Clare Britton’s minimal design highlighting tiny details in nature,” said Chan. “Together, they create an integrated experience merging body and textiles to evoke a sense of impermanence and transformation.”
Dr Sgro says the textiles reframe the dancer's body by the way they interact with it. Photo: Stephen Reinhardt.
This project has been in development since 2018 and was assisted by funding from the Australian government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; Create NSW; The Creative Practice Lab at UNSW, Critical Path; ReadyMade Works; and is auspiced by Catapult Dance.
Dr Sgro used cutting-edge digital tools and software to design the Brightness costumes, and then worked with UTS Technical Officer Shirley Tam, at the UTS Advanced Fabrication Research Lab, to produce seamless wholegarment knitting samples and the finished garments.
“The UTS School of Design installed the Shima Seiki 3D wholegarment knitting machine in 2022. It is the first of its kind to be installed in a university setting anywhere in the world and the only machine in the Southern Hemisphere,” said Dr Sgro.
“The Shima Seiki machine can knit jacquard patterns, which enabled us to create beautiful textures and images in the pattern. Clare Britton, our production designer, used photography from the natural environment based at Red Head, Kristina’s home town, and translated that into the knitting structure, with different yarns and colour variations.”
The Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT knit machine is among the most advanced of its kind on the market. Photo: UTS.
Dr Sgro teaches skills in digital fashion and textile design, including CLO3D, a fashion design program that allows students to create and visualise virtual, true-to life garments and develop patterns using simulation technology. However, her strong materials focus underpins her use and teaching of digital technology.
“We’re encouraging people working in fashion and other creative industries to partner with us and use the Shima Seiki knitting machine for research projects and small-scale productions, to learn more about emerging fashion and textile design digital tools, and seamless knitting technology.”
Choreographer Kristina Chan said her vision for the work was to create art that speaks to the audience’s relationship with nature. Photo: Stephen Reinhardt.
Dr Sgro's fashion and textile works have been exhibited around the world, including Japan, France, UK, USA and South-East Asia. She has formed an alliance, Digital Fashion Australia, with researchers and teachers at seven institutions around Australia to support and promote digital fashion.