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This Make: interview, published September 23, 2010, previewed Diana Eng’s technology fashion show at World Maker Faire NY. Eng planned to bring earlier designs—mostly from her Fairytale Fashion Collection—together in a newly styled show.
What Diana Eng planned to show
Eng said she would select designs she had made previously and rework and style them into a cohesive presentation. She described it as her first time showing in such a large public venue. The show was scheduled for September 25–26, 2010, at World Maker Faire NY; those dates and arrangements are historical, not current event information. Read the original Make: Q&A.
The Fairytale Fashion Collection brought electronics, mechanical engineering, and mathematics into clothing. Related Make: coverage describes designs with blooming flowers, changing colors, and transforming shapes, and says the collection’s research and development was shared online as an educational tool. See Make:’s Fairytale Fashion coverage.
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A September 7, 2010 O’Reilly press release characterized the planned Maker Faire designs as electronic, shape-transforming, motion-sensing, and biomimetic. It highlighted a dress inspired by bioluminescent jellyfish and made with electroluminescent wire, alongside garments with deployable structures inspired by opening leaves. Read the O’Reilly press release.
How Eng got started—and her inspirations
Eng said her grandmother taught her to sew when she was eight, and that her father taught her programming at the same age. She made a Visual Basic game called Frogland. In the interview, she put the sewing lesson simply: “My grandma taught me how to sew when I was 8.”
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She named Issey Miyake, Martin Margiela, Mariano Fortuny, and United Nude as fashion-design inspirations. Make: also identifies Eng as the author of Fashion Geek: Clothes, Accessories, Tech, a book related to her interest in combining fashion and technology. Related Make: coverage.
Why the World’s Fair setting mattered to her
Asked about Maker Faire being held at the World’s Fair location, Eng connected the site with innovation and fashion history. She said, “The World’s Fair was always a showcase of new innovation,” and added that her mother had been a child model there. Those are Eng’s recollections and framing in the interview; the specific World’s Fair examples were not independently verified in the available coverage.
Historical show details
The 2010 Q&A listed the fashion show for 2 p.m. in the Great Hall, with seating on a first-come basis and standing room. It directed readers to the New York Hall of Science for event information. These details applied to the September 2010 event only.
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Eng’s earlier Maker Faire work should not be confused with the 2010 Fairytale Fashion show. Coverage of the 2008 Maker Faire described Black Box Nation, a fashion-tech project by Diana Eng and Emily Albinski, including an inflatable dress made with a modified hand vacuum. Read Make:’s 2008 coverage.
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