
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Self-Assembly Lab have created prototypes of a 4D knit dress that can change style using heat.
The yarn that makes up most of the dress is a blend of viscose that comes from FSC-certified wood pulp and polyester. The “active” yarn is made of nylon that changes shape and properties when heated. These are embedded throughout the dress, allowing it to change style, such as adding pintucks, pleats or a cinched waist, based on where the heat is directed.


The base dress design is programmed into a tubular knitting machine; then a six-axis robotic arm heats the dress in specific areas to create the desired style.

“There was a lot of trial and error to figure out how to orient the robot and the heat gun,” says Danny Griffin, an MIT architectural-design graduate student who helped program the robotic arm. “The heat needs to be applied in precise locations to activate the fibers on each garment. Another challenge was setting the temperature and the timing for the heat to be applied.”

The dress and technology debuted to the public in December 2023 at Ministry of Supply, a men’s and women’s business-attire store in Boston, Mass. Previously, the lab and the clothing company collaborated in 2020 and 2021, using this technology to rapidly produce face masks during the pandemic.

Gihan Amarasiriwardena, co-founder and president of Ministry of Supply, supports the technology and its potential to develop a more sustainable manufacturing process. “A lot of times, you’ll be guessing what a season’s style is,” he says. “Sometimes the style doesn’t do well, or some sizes don’t sell out. They may get discounted very heavily or eventually, they end up going to a landfill.”

With the technology already commercially available, the lab and Ministry of Supply are continuing to explore other applications and will move forward based on consumer feedback. “If the demand is there, this is something we can create quickly,” says Amarasiriwardena.