Ryan Yasin has been named the 2017 UK James Dyson Award winner, recognised for his Petit Pli kids’ clothing that stretches as children grow.
On average, parents spend over £2,000 on clothing before a child turns three, with children often growing seven sizes in their first two years. Recognising the problem, and seeing it first-hand with his two-year-old nephew, Ryan decided to put some engineering principles to work.
The stretchy clothing works by employing the Negative Poisson’s ratio, which Ryan first encountered when studying aeronautical engineering at Imperial College London. When stretched, materials that have this ratio – known as auxetics – become thicker perpendicular to the applied force. The phenomenon is also applied in stents and biomedical implants.
Having recently graduated from the Royal College of Art, Ryan was able to combine his engineering knowledge with an eye for design, creating garments that can expand to fit children from six to 36 months. The Petit Pli clothing uses pleating to capture the auxetic properties. These pleats deform in both directions, either folding together or expanding, and allowing the garment to move with the child, and expand as children grow. Heat treatment has fixed these properties permanently in place, even through the wash cycle, and they are designed to be durable.
The clothing also features a hydrophobic coating that makes the garments waterproof, and the folds in the outerwear point down to allow rain to easily run off. What’s more, all the materials are fully recyclable, in keeping with the clothing’s environmental mission.
“It’s an honour to have won the UK James Dyson Award, it’s just great to have that backing and recognition of my solution,” said Ryan.
“The prize money is an added bonus, but I know how I will use it. In addition to supporting my R&D, it will help me form an interdisciplinary team of experts to take Petit Pli to the next level: putting it in the hands of parents worldwide, and making a tangible difference to the way we consume resources in the fashion industry.”
Ryan will receive £2,000 for taking the UK Dyson prize, and will go on to compete for the international award, where £30,000 is up for grabs.
Great concepts interestingly utilized. But please take a look at several patents already current -Prof Ken Evans and Dr Patrick Hook at Exeter in particular relating to auxetics: and I know that Heathcoats in Tiverton did work on fabric development along not dissimilar lines. A literature search might be of great value. There are of course many ‘stretch’ fabrics incorporating elastomers available: Its 50 years since I was a parent of small children, and ‘Babygro’ was the brand name I recall: and its jingle “Babygro -the next best thing to babies!”
The problem here is not the growing or the clothes. The problem is that people these days want to spend £2000 on kids clothes within 2 years. With a bit of effort you can find so many people who would help and do swop out clubs etc… theres no need to be spending that much money.
” there’s no need to be spending that much money.” Actually there is! Apart from the fashion aspects..(it would be a brave man who tried to stop a mother NOT try for the best?) change, fashion, (colour, shape, style, have always been and still are the basis of the global success of ‘my’ industry. The technical standard of clothing almost all over the developed world is outstanding. Wear, washability, fit, and so on: and yet I suspect that your partner’s wardrobe (en route to the charity shop) contains dozens of items which are absolutely OK as far as performance, but do not match aspirations. We (textiles) are surely the most fashion conscious industry in the world (and that is noted by someone whose primary career has been in functional as opposed to fashion textiles) and long may it continue. Those developing countries seeking advance do so when their growing and increasingly affluent populations buy ‘textiles’ because they want to, NOT because they need to. Its as simple as that.
is this good for children..?