Fashion Embedded Technology- 12.23.10
This post is brought to you by Old Navy. Thanks, Old Navy, for inspiring me to rant about tech fashion!
When faced with writing a post on technology in fashion instigated by Old Navy and their new Techno Hoodies, we went through everything we could find. It’s actually been a fascinating research project of sorts exploring what is happening in the fashionable technology world, and sadly i expected more! We need more wearable tech! Or washable, wearable tech? The easy thing was letting my mind wander in and out of scifi movies, combining things i’d find, imagining what could be next… so on the next page you’ll see a few examples of my favorite technology in fashion innovations!
Numetrex by Textronics is a workout line that also monitors your heart rate with the fibers woven into the fabric itself! And it transmits from the tiny transmitter you snap in to various devices… from a wrist watch to some work out machines… imagine if it could just connect to your iPhone? Or if you used these sensors to create music/etc that reacted to your heart rate?
Eleksen creates the flexible technologies that allow your clothes and backpacks to integrate in everything from cellphone/mp3 controls to full on keyboards…
Why dont my purses have keyboards built in? or my sleeves have split keyboards? so i can practically air type to text while walking?
Cute Circuit may make the most fashionable looking tech-gowns yet… integrating tons of controllable LEDs into gowns for all occasions. This is Safura, the rapidly rising star of the European music world, taking the stage at the Eurovision Song Contest in her CuteCircuit video gown which interprets the emotion of her hit song Drip Drop.
Here is their Galaxy Dress made up of 24,000 LEDs!
Now imagine if you could combine all of those into some whole new genre of wearable tech? I’d imagine something that looks far more like your every day wear, no need to look like a christmas tree walking down the street… but it somehow monitors your heart rate and interprets your mood, transmitting that data to your phone some how… perhaps controlling the music it plays to you… through your Old Navy Techno Hoodie headphones? And when you need to send a text, no need to try to touch type, just use the keyboard on your lap as you sit on the subway? Which would naturally be subtly embedded in your jeans? And maybe as you bike home your LED windbreaker already knows when you’re signaling and about to turn and displays a warning to those behind you? Is that all so crazy? Technically no reason why we couldn’t do that now!
