In a conventional textile sample room, customers are presented with flat swatches. But given that textiles are almost always applied to three-dimensional surfaces, ought a sample room not reflect that?

In her installation for Knit!, material scientist Elaine Yan-Ling Ng offers an alternative form of sample display, one in which each textile is presented folded, pinched, draped or creased, thereby showing off the material possibilities of each individual knitted textile.

Ng regularly employs electronics and biomimicry in her work, pushing at the limits of what can be achieved using textiles. Her Knit! installation, An Alternative Sample Room, is no exception. Ng brought her knitted Razzle Dazzle textile swatches to life by mounting and laminating them onto materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, wire, PVC, and bamboo. Each swatch thereby becomes a mock-up of how the textile might look when applied to realworld objects.

All of the sample swatches feature clip-on mechanisms, which mean they can be moved around the installation, allowing the visitor to play with the layout of the display. At once experimental, chaotic and creative, An Alternative Sample Room invites visitors to take on the role of a designer.