There's something I've always wanted to try:
to engineer a dress made out of unusual materials.
NAOMI: These here are 160s,
which means they are one-inch wide and 60 inches long.
Hi, I'm Deysi from Design Squad,
and I'm here with Naomi from Red Balloon Company.
So, do you want to see one of my dresses?
Yes.
Naomi is a balloon twister.
That's so cool!
I want to combine fashion design with engineering
because I'm giving a speech to kids
about what engineering means to me
at a TEDx Youth Event.
So I need a cool dress.
Can it be purple, please?
Sure, yeah.
Here, I'll show you a bunch of different colors.
We'll have the base of it be mostly purples,
and then we'll have some of these golden rod highlights
and also add some blues in the mix.
Okay.
We got our colors,
and I'll see you in a week for the fitting.
Okay, yay!
I'm excited.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
To start making the dress,
I'm going to make a small twist called a pinch twist.
So this is the basic unit of construction of the dress.
I'm going to keep adding a pinch twist
and a 160 going down until I've made it long enough
to go all the way around the dress form.
One balloon in itself is not that structurally strong,
but when you build with the fibers,
which are the balloons, the more structural it gets.
This is pretty strong and sturdy.
A balloon dress is really engineering
to make something temporary, as opposed to permanent.
I think Deysi is going to be here very soon.
DEYSI: Is it ready?
Yeah, you ready to see it?
Yeah.
All right, here we go.
(gasps)
Wow!
And it's purple, yes!
So can I try it on?
(balloons rubbing, squeaking)
It's alive!
Just gonna twist these...
(balloon pops)
(screams)
Naomi, this is the noisiest dress I've ever tried on.
(another balloon bursts)
Ta da!
I like it.
And it's comfortable, actually, once you get used to it.
(squeaking)
I'm here at the TEDx event and I am very nervous.
At Ted X Youth events, kids and adults share ideas
about how they experience the world
in a new and different way.
I've been walking around, showing off my balloon dress,
A lot of people have been taking pictures,
they've asked for autographs,
I let some kids touch the dress,
but very carefully because we don't want
any of the balloons to pop.
HOST: So our next speaker,
born in Mexico, grew up in East Boston,
and then she decided she wanted to become an engineer.
And she's wearing what I was going to wear.
Deysi.
(applause)
Naomi Greenfield, the owner of Red Balloon Company
is the creator of this spectacular dress.
Naomi, instead of weaving traditional materials
like fabric or thread, she wove balloons together.
Engineers can do amazing things by understanding
how their materials work.
I always liked building things,
but it wasn't until the summer
before my senior year of high school
that I actually got the opportunity to really try it out
when I was asked to be a contestant on Design Squad.
I figured out that my passion for math
and my love for theater would be channeled into one field:
engineering.
Because of Design Squad, I was able to discover first-hand
what life for engineers is like.
I learned from the challenges we tackled on the show
that engineering enabled me to work with great people,
solve problems, be creative,
and make a difference in people's lives.
Design Squad also showed me
how much creativity there is in engineering.
My last words to you about engineering are:
If you thing something is important to you,
follow through with it.
Don't be afraid to explore your creative side,
because it's very important to put your own input into it.
Thank you.
(applause)
It's over!
I did it!
Yay!