Sustainable Innovations that Disrupt: Part 2
- Dec 12, 2017
- 2 min read
The concept of fashion has remained stagnant for decades, only styles have changed. However fashion is changing behind the scenes, adapting to the new technological climate of today. Nancy Tilbury of Studio XO stated that recent developments in fashion technology could see a “Brave New World of Fashion”. Studio XO merges fashion and tech, 3-D printing textile and garments. Tilbury and her team designed Lady Gaga’s ‘bubble dress’, not only a great example of architectural fashion, but engineering. It is a piece of wearable technology, with fully functioning mechanics on the inside. The questions surrounding this type of design are ethical ones; is it too ‘cyborg’? We are used to seeing people wearing technology in the form of watches and head wear e.g. Apple Watches, Google Glasses. Is wearable tech in the form of garment too much? Too futuristic? Well Tilbury’s aim is to make “science-fiction, science-fact” she also sees advancements in fibre Science, integrated computing, mechanics and hybrid design overtaking textile mass production.
Carrying on with the notion of wearable tech is Adidas’ ‘Smart Clothes’. The brand have produced clothing that can measure an athlete’s real time performance; heart rate, respiration, movement sensors. At the moment it is in its embryotic state with quite a few hardware issues to work out as an athletes clothing has to be streamline and must not inhibit their ability to perform at their standard rate. As the clothes get more seamless it will be accepted by more; out of sight out of mind. Perhaps the issue with the marriage of fashion & Integrated technology is that people are afraid of seeing the technology in their clothing but so long as it is invisible, it’s okay. This links back to wearable tech being too futuristic or too cyborg…
Comments