3D Knitted Fabric

These puffy, delightfully detailed and surprisingly dense knitted fabrics have been made by a process called 3D knitting. 3D knitting, or whole garment knitting, involves the use of huge computer-programmed knitting machines that construct entire garments or products in their three-dimensional form. This seamless process removes the time-consuming and wasteful steps involved in cutting and sewing pieces of pre-made fabrics together manually.

These particular fabric swatches were made by ByBorre, an Amsterdam-based company that is on a mission to encourage fashion and furniture manufacturers to source their materials more responsibly, through the use of digitisation. Rather than aiming to sell clothing and products, ByBorre offer an open-source digital platform aimed at encouraging other manufacturers to digitally design or customise their fabrics and have them made to order, rather than just selecting them from a swatch book of existing materials. In an effort to encourage more transparency in the supply chain, all the materials that ByBorre offer also have ‘textile passports’ with information about the provenance of the fibres, their eco certifications and the LCA (life cycle analysis) data, as well as their technical properties.

The fabrics manage to be at once dense and sleek as a result of the materials used and the way the fabrics are layered and textured. The knitted elements of the fabrics make use of a combination of wool, for a natural feel, and recycled polyester for durability. The wools are spun using a new spinning technology (OTW or Omega Twist) that is said to create a more uniform and smooth appearance and reduce pilling and abrasion. The ‘puffier’ fabrics have a filling yarn of polyester sandwiched in the middle of the knitted layers, and are reportedly inspired by the mattress manufacturing technologies that founder Borre Akkersdijk encountered before setting up his own company.