About fashion everything had been told - or it only seems like that. For me fashion isn't about clothes which we can see at Gucci or Chanel fashion shows - fashion is about all those different factors that makes us to feel beautiful in our skin.
Only thing sure about fashion is that fashion is Art - not only trends dictated by top fashion house's projectants. And Art written by capital "A". And as ans art it demands creativity without limits.
Using high technologies in the topic of fashion can open a new roads in our minds. World isn't that boring as all those gray and serious people try to persuade to us. Computers, informatics and high technologies are important and sure can improve our lifes in many fields - including fashion, why not?
But when I look at the fashion shows and clothes I feel that top projectants got limited and they lost they ability to dream and research. Trends created by them are running in a cycle - jeans-etno-20's-70's-lot of flowers-and so on. It seems like they forgot the word "INNOVATION".
So let's think about technology in fashion. Few years ago T-shirts with fluorescent text's on them were popular among teenagers. Maybe you also remeber sport boots with diods turning on under presurre -it was almost two decaes ago and I haven't seen such interesting things in our shops since then.
Hopefully there're people that starts to aplly technologies in the fashion world - and their ideas are pretty amazing. Look at the Diana Eng Fairytale Fashion Collection:
Althought idea of using diods isn't new, this collection is pretty amazing. For me the most impressive is seventh one - with this wings filling up with air. Amazing.
Ineresting is also way she can obtain beautiful patterns as on this beautiful scarf:
Or imagine clothes that reacts on weather - when it's getting colder warming system is turning on. The beach parties till sunrise would be much more interesting if we don't have to freeze at this hour between night and dawn! Speaking about it one of the most ineteresting source of inspiration is nanotechnology.
Technology in "nano" scale can provide totally new functionalities to the fabrics.
- Hydrophobic or hydrophilic, anti-stain, no-wrinkle
- Eco-compatible and non-toxic
- Self-cleaning
- Multi-functional fibers (with thermocromatic microcapsules, anti-microbial and flame-retardant
(c) Michael Grace-Martin
Silver possesses natural antibacterial qualities that are strengthened at the nanoscale, thus giving Ong's dress the ability to deactivate many harmful bacteria and viruses. The silver infusion also reduces the need to wash the garment, since it destroys bacteria, and the small size of the particles prevents soiling and stains. The resultant colors are not the product of dyes, but rather, reflections of manipulation of particle size or arrangement. Here you can find more about this outstanding idea.
Also interesting project was created by another student of Cornell University, Heather Donsky, the 2010 Cornell Fashion Collective Show. Here's the s olar jacket that uses conductive cotton threads to charge portable devices:
Quite fascinating is Intimacy 2.0 project. the dress as being made out of “smart e-foils” that become progressively transparent based on what design team Studio Roosegaarde describes as “close and personal encounters with people”. More specifically, the studio notes that in response to the wearer’s heartbeat, the INTIMACY 2.0 dress will become transparent. Here you can see the dress and what happens when model's pulse got faster.
Hopefully young projectants are looking for new inspirations and results of that researches impact the common view of fashion. Year by year more hi-tech fashion must have lists shows up in the web.
Quite fascinating direction is garments that can tell about the mood of the user basing on the brainwaves.
Idea came up from reserach in the field of controling vehicles by brain.
But...wait fashion isn't only about clothes. Wide space for imagination is in the field of tatoos. Last July tatoo artist K.A.R.L. introduced first animated tatoo ever. The idea is quite simple - you can scan a QR code with smartphone and than movie is opened - but the outcome is fabulous!
Another direction in tatoo art development is small electrical devices which look like tatoos but in fact can be anything -starting with phone. Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art.At the Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin. This tatoo can communicate wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices . How it works? Electricity is produced from glucose and oxygen taken from blood flowing through cooin-sized fuel cell. More about it: here.
Tatoos like that can improve our life not only because they assure access to Internet whole time but also can save lifes. Imagine situation when a person has a pre-infarct state. Device could recive data about blood pressure and hormones characteristic to that state and inform the user about danger or call help for such person. In less dramatic cases it can just help to keep us fit and healthy by giving basic informations like sugar level, blood pressure and pulse, temperature or when one of the common factors of blood is out of proper range rise an alarm. It can be also useful in diagnosis of cancer or other dangerous diseases.
And on top of that it would be pretty - tatoo that can be different every day!
These are things that already exist - maybe don't have all those applications I wrote about and aren't avaliable for now but probably will be in the nearest future. Possibilities for fashion carried with technology - especially nanotechnology - are limitless and depends only from our imagination. How we develop and create our world is up to us.
Let's make it up-to-date, colourful and health friendly!
