Dialogue Between Worlds

Fundamental Science and Fashion at Paris-Saclay

The Dialogue Between Worlds project explores an original approach to science communication by combining fundamental physics, creativity, and fashion. In response to contemporary challenges around democratizing knowledge and opening science to diverse audiences, this initiative proposes a concrete experiment: creating and presenting pieces inspired by fundamental physics research, designed not only to attract attention but above all to educate and evoke emotion.

Far from being a purely aesthetic endeavor, the project is based on co-production between researchers, artists, and mediators, combining scientific rigor with creativity. It aims to diversify the ways science is communicated, fostering a thoughtful and participatory dialogue with audiences often distant from research and scientific practice. This approach takes place in a context where scientific institutions seek to strengthen their societal impact by making complex knowledge accessible through innovative forms.

Panni Margot

Argentine Fashion Designer and Creator

Panni Margot is an Argentine fashion designer whose signature combines a strong futuristic visual sense with Japanese influences (kimono, minimalism, nature-inspired symbols) and a genderless approach to clothing.
He stands out, among other things, for his early use of artificial intelligence (AI) in fashion: he was the first designer in the world to create a collection from AI-generated designs (using a system like DALL·E) — images conceived by AI and then transformed into garments. This collection was presented in the United States at Runway Latinx in Chicago in 2022.
He was later invited to showcase a collection at New York Fashion Week (NYFW), as part of the Runway 7 event at Sony Hall in September 2024. This marked an important milestone in his international visibility.

Our Designs

Six pieces collection at Institut Pascal.

The Hat that Sees the Cosmos

Scintillator: revealing the invisible showers of cosmic particles.

Linked by concealed electronics, this hat and dress form a single detection system. A small scintillator embedded in the hat registers the passage of muons — charged particles produced when high-energy cosmic rays from our galaxy interact with the upper atmosphere, creating a cascade of secondary particles. Each detected muon triggers a brief illumination across the dress, visualizing part of this atmospheric particle cascade.
At sea level, hundreds of muons per square metre per second pass through our bodies unnoticed. Here, their presence becomes visible: each pulse of light marks a particle that began its journey as a galactic cosmic ray, carrying information about energetic processes elsewhere in the Milky Way. By integrating a scientific detector into a garment, this piece makes ionizing radiation perceptible and invites reflection on the instruments required to observe the invisible universe.

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Layers of Light and Shadow

Thermal shielding: reflecting radiation to protect instruments in space.

This suit is made from the same multilayer thermal material that wraps satellites orbiting Earth. Its metallic surface reflects sunlight and shields against extreme variations in temperature, from the cold of shadow to the heat of direct radiation. Every layer is a defense against the vacuum, a precise balance between reflection and insulation.
The design is filled with pockets, a quiet reference to the payloads housed inside real satellites. The thermal-blanket material points to the physics of thermal control systems, which regulate heat, reflect solar radiation, and ensure that scientific instruments remain operational in the vacuum of space.

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Bubble Imprints of Subatomic Interactions

Bubble-chamber tracks: vapor trails of particles.

This denim jacket and trousers reveal the ephemeral traces left by subatomic particles. The printed patterns are based on real photographs taken with Fermilab’s 15-foot bubble chamber, where charged particles moving through superheated liquid produced spirals, curves, and branching tracks. Each line captures a fleeting, microscopic event.
Denim was chosen for its accessibility and familiarity, evoking both everyday life and its American origins, where many of these iconic experiments took place.
Translating these scientific images onto fabric creates a tangible connection between particle physics and daily life, grounding abstract processes in a material everyone recognizes.

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The birth of the Universe

Cosmic inflation: the rapid expansion that shaped space and time.

This dress traces the first moments after the universe began to expand. Its wide skirt mirrors the exponential curve of cosmic inflation — the phase in which space itself stretched faster than light, turning quantum fluctuations into the seeds of galaxies and clusters. Each printed section marks a stage of expansion; together they form a visual map of growth, motion, and scale.
The upper part remains empty, evoking the unanswered question of what came before. Early universe cosmology connects the smallest physics to the largest structures, bridging quantum uncertainty with the geometry of the cosmos. Here, that link becomes tangible: the fabric’s form and pattern unfold like spacetime itself, a reminder that what we see today began as a fleeting instability in the vacuum.

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The unseen architecture of the universe

Gravitational lensing: light distorted by unseen matter.

This bodysuit reimagines how the universe reveals what it cannot show directly. A field of painted stars lies beneath a heat-deformed transparent layer whose curves distort and shift the light that reaches us. This visual effect echoes gravitational lensing: the bending of light by mass that does not emit light.
In cosmology, distant galaxies appear stretched, magnified, or displaced because their light is deflected by gravity along the way. These distortions act as clues: they map the presence of unseen matter in the cosmos, including the component we call dark matter, known not by sight but by its influence on how light travels.

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The underground landscape of neutrino detection

Neutrino: Neutral elementary particle with infinitesimal mass.

This kimono transforms the invisible world of neutrino detection into a play of shifting color and light. Its surface changes tone with illumination; even a camera’s flash reveals new hues, evoking the way neutrinos oscillate between different flavors as they journey through space.
Neutrinos cross the universe almost without interacting. Billions pass through our bod- ies every second. Only on the rarest occasions does one collide with matter, releasing a faint flash of light that photomultiplier tubes capture deep underground, golden eyes that see the unseen.

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