Carbon Fibre Fashion

Carbon fibre became a very popular material in many different areas. It started with airplanes, formula 1 cars, normal cars, laptop computers, iPhone cases and many other things. Carbon fibre is a composite material. This means, it is a combination of carbon and fibre. More basically, it is a very strong plastic! Actually it is stronger than steal and also very light, therefore it is very expensive. This unique characteristics make is very popular for automotive and aerospace industry. Mercedes McLaren SLR was a carbon fibre car, all formula 1 cars are carbon fibre, some Porsche 911 models especially GT series have carbon fibre parts to reduce weight and sustain the same level of safety.

Interestingly this ugly looking material and offers the feeling of plastic become a fashion material. Actually I was afraid of this integration in fashion, because carbon fibre is like a plastic. You cannot feel the difference in fashion products and looks weird. For iPhone cases, it might be okay. Light and robust to damages, that’s fine. A fresh fashion designer from Prague decided to use carbon fibre in shoes, in women shoes! I am not kidding. She designed high heels made from carbon fibre, the material looks exactly the same as a car interior or some unpainted parts of Mercedes SLR.

In terms of creativity, this is a great integration but in terms of functionality I really wonder the benefit. With these carbon fibres shoes, you will use less calories to walk around and even if you use them for breaking some other things nothing would happen. Also you can run faster with these shoes, as they are lighter! Actually I have no idea how carbon fibre create a benefit for fashion.

For more details; Zuzana Serbak and Carbon Fibre

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Mercedes, BMW, Zuzana Serbak