Necessity is the mother of invention. Hence it’s no wonder that numerous inventions owe their basis to this symbolic mother. And mother has inspired numerous episodes laden with fun and logic.
Once a King in Greece wanted to know if his crown was made of the exact amount of gold he had given to the jeweler and he summoned Archimedes, a scientist in his court to help him out. After a lot of pondering Archimedes went to take a bath. The water in the bathtub was already full to the brim. He slid into the bathtub. Immediately a large quantity of water flowed over the brim of the bathtub. His intelligent brain waves decoded the hidden message and out of excitement, he ran out naked shouting Eureka Eureka!
The hidden message now known as the Archimedes principle states that objects put in water will displace water. The displaced water will be equal to their volume. And different metals of the same weight will displace different volumes of water. This principle let the King find out that he had indeed been cheated, as gold in his crown had been mixed with other metals. To summarize, it took a nude man, a bathtub, and a trying situation for the invention of the Archimedes principle.
In a vein which sounds equally funny is the genesis of a T-Shirt. The T-Shirt in 1904 owes its origin to single men. Around that time all men wore buttoned shirts and all the sewing work & embroidery was invariably done by females. It goes without saying that the involvement of mothers, wives, and girlfriends was profound in ensuring one is dressed well. But what to do if you are a bachelor? The copper underwear company realized this opportunity and created a T-Shirt, menswear made of stretchable fabric without any buttons.
The not so funny innovation in the fabric regime is that of jeans. In the 1920s and 1930s, jeans were popular Western wear in the United States, worn by miners, cowboys, and other male workers who needed sturdy clothing that could withstand heavy wear and tear. In 1936, Levi Strauss added his signature red flag to the back pocket of jeans and turned it into a fashion statement.
Come to think of it, some products which I have designed were also based on the circumstances presented to me. When I moved to my apartment in Mumbai in 2013, I was keen to design my home myself. The idea was to reinvent the use of existing materials in an innovative way And I landed up recycling existing bicycle parts to design a bar stool and table, composite leather to create a cupboard, bed and side tables, sleeper wood to make a shoe rack and cardboard to make a sofa set. And as I continue my ongoing journey as an artist I believe, I will be successful in instilling this idea of innovation in the minds of people I come across and turn it into a trend of sorts.