A remarkable piece of clothing that can actually grow along with the child that’s wearing it has won the UK James Dyson award.
On average a child will grow through seven sizes in their first two years, costing around £2,000 before they even reach three.
Concerned about not only the cost burden this was placing on parents, but also the huge amount of waste this generates, 24-year-old Ryan Yasin decided to do something about it.
The recent graduate from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London set to work on creating a garment that could actually grow along with a small child.
The result was Petit Pli, a set of clothing that’s not only waterproof but when it’s not being worn can even be kept in a parent’s pocket.
Petit Pli employs something known as the Negative Poisson’s ratio. Put simply, when stretched, materials that have this ratio – called auxetics – become thicker perpendicular to the applied force.
Yasin had his lightbulb moment while studying aeronautical engineering at Imperial College having previously been working on satellite design and construction.
Through heat treatments applied to the fabric Yasin was able to give the garments auxetic properties effectively allowing them to expand and grow to many times its original size.
Initially Ryan created a simple pair of trousers and a jacket however his real goal is to expand beyond these by releasing a full range of clothing.
By winning the UK James Dyson Awards Yasin will get £2,000 as well as moving him onto the international round of the competition.
James Dyson himself will now look at the finalists from around the world and pick an international winner who will win £30,000.
Last year the international winner was Isis Shiffer who created a recyclable, waterproof bicycle helmet that costs just £5 and can fold completely flat.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related… + articlesList=599d78e3e4b0d97c400055ab,5947b15ae4b01eab7a2ef701,58e4aad1e4b03a26a36794d8
Shiffer hopes that the cheap, reusable helmet can be offered alongside cycle sharing schemes in an effort to combat the rising accidents that take place with cyclists in some of the world’s busiest urban hotspots.
The James Dyson Awards were set up by the James Dyson Foundation as a way of recognising the incredible ideas that young students can come up with.
The award encourages ideas that think outside of the box and in many ways capture the ethos of ‘function over form’.
James Dyson Awards Past Winners
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post UK, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.