DOUBLE SKIN: How does the “Double Skin” concept interact with our body in the field of fashion design?

Abstract
In conventional fashion design the body is a key object that is sometimes used as a mannequin or sample to create clothes. This approach creates a gap between real body experience and the space around it. This paper addresses the gap by developing a “double skin” as a human centered design methodology. Borrowing the notion of “double skin” from architecture, where layered facades produce an active zone, this paper reformulates the concept in fashion as two interacting layers. It argues that, if clothing is treated as an interface rather than an isolated product, the key design question shifts from what the clothes are to how it mediates relations between the body and its environment. What should be emphasized in this abstract is that this research it’s necessary for fashion design, because it has to focus more on the process rather than the final product.
Roland Barthes in his book “The Fashion System” (1967) explains that both a dressed and an undressed body communicate a message, meaning they operate as a semiotic language. Therefore clothing should not be understood merely as an object that covers the body but as a mechanism that organizes the body as a sign within a system of meaning that intervenes not only in appearance but also in how the body is interpreted and socially valued by viewers. Clothing should not be seen as only the outer surface, but rather, it serves as a symbolic skin that communicates meaning.
This research uses a focused case study of Manuel Torres’s Spray on the Body (2022), where material evidence and form making directly address the boundary between the body and its surrounding space. The contribution of this research is a structured conceptual tool that interprets how layered boundaries can be articulated to bridge the gap between embodied experience and the spatial contexts in which the body operates and is perceived.

Keywords: fashion system, undressed body, dressed body, semiotic language, spray on the body, in-between zone.