Pauline van Dongen (1986, Amsterdam) is a fashion designer and researcher specialised in smart clothing and textiles. Her eponymous design studio, founded in 2010 and based in Arnhem, explores human-garment relations and alternative fashion (design) practices through the intersection of technology and textiles. In particular, how technologies when understood and approached as materials more than ‘functional tools’, can add new value and meaning to clothing and can enhance the way we experience the world around us. Her studio received international recognition with projects such as the Solar Shirt, Phototrope and Issho. Pauline also received several nominations for her work: she was selected by Forbes for their list of ‘Top 50 Women in Tech Europe’ (2018) and as ‘MIT Innovator under 35 Europe’ (2017). She has been focusing on the development of solar textiles since 2013 and is currently weaving thin-film solar technology into textiles for applications in textile architecture. With her vision and through a hands-on, ‘material aesthetics’ approach she emphasizes the value of the physical, sensory experience of clothing and its nurturing qualities. This is central to her PhD dissertation entitled: “A Designer’s Material-Aesthetics Reflections on Fashion and Technology” with which she received her doctoral degree from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2019. Besides leading her own design studio, Pauline was program manager of smart clothing at Holst Centre (TNO) between March 2019 and October 2020. She is one of the founders of the Solar Movement and the upcoming Solar Biennale (2022) and she currently is a member of the advisory board of the ‘ArtEZ Fashion Professorship’ and ‘New Order of Fashion’.