AI and tech are making their way into every part of our lives, and fashion is one of them! Every day, more clothing items are released to the market that use some form of tech or engineering, and we will look at some below!
Clothing that responds to interactions
Would you wear clothes that could respond when someone shakes your hand or waves at you? Then take a look at this robotic dress that blooms when the wearer’s hand is shaken, by opening the petals!
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Energy Harvesting Textiles
Ever wondered what other opportunities for renewable energy are out there? Take a look at these energy-harvesting textiles – their materials generate electricity from your movements, body heat and sunlight, whilst being virtually indistinguishable from other clothing! Would you give them a go?
Google x Levi Smart Jacket
This $350 jacket can connect to your phone via Bluetooth and can be controlled by an app. You can play music, get directions home, read your notifications to you and you can even programme it so it will only read aloud messages or alert of you of incoming calls about people you really care about. It has the ability to track your steps and the pressure on the threads in the jacket. Watch someone trying out the jacket here >>
Wearable Experiments
Wearable Experiments have created a piece of wearable technology that allows football fans to feel the players heartbeats. This is meant to create a fourth dimension for viewers at home. This has already been implemented across America for the super bowl and also across Europe.
Recently, they have released yoga pants which connect to your phone. The yoga pants vibrate to pinpoint parts of the body to focus on and the app gives you feedback at the end of your yoga session. And better still, it was created by a female – Billie Whitehouse
The Unseen
Bringing chemistry and fashion together, The Unseen was created by chemistry student Lauren Bowker. Lauren was studying fashion at university when she fell ill and changed courses to chemistry. Whilst she was studying chemistry, she created a jacket with a special ink that allowed wearers to see when they were being exposed to too much pollution.
When Lauren began was at university, she created a pollution-absorbent ink called PdCl2. This ink changes colour from yellow to black in dirty conditions then reverts back in the fresh air. This highlights the pollution we are exposed to every day. Read more about how she developed the ink here >>
The Unseen have previously created a shoulder bag that changes colour seasonally. The ink contains a formula which can track UV light levels, humidity and heat. Read more on Lauren’s journey here >>
University of Washington
Scientists at the University of Washington have created a fabric that can store data, such as security passwords, passcodes, I.D. pins, so you don’t need to type in the pin each time. Instead, the future could soon be, just swiping your sleeve in front of the device you want to unlock, and it’s done. Unlike many other smart clothing items, this fabric only uses conductive thread. Read more on the fabric here. >>
