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Fashion, Jewelry

Henry Holland Distributes Wearable Tech At Runway Show

September 23, 2015

Henry Holland NFC Ring London Fashion Week SS16

When British fashion designer Henry Holland showed off his Spring / Summer 2016 looks this weekend at London Fashion Week, the show became an interactive experience for a few lucky VIPs. The designer crafted and distributed 10 NFC enabled rings. The rings were handmade to look like insects, matching the “Urban Safari” theme of collection and were preloaded with £500. Three of the models walked the runway with a special leaf-shaped brooch, which was a NFC receiver. After the show, the VIPs could walk up to one of the 3 different looks, hold their ring next to the model’s brooch, and purchase the look. They were then able to walk out the door with their purchase.

According to an interview with The Telegraph, Holland stated, “A really big thing for me was making the tech invisible, especially if I’m incorporating it into something as important as my show. From my point of view it was really about creating two items – the ring and the brooch – that were really desirable pieces that people would want to wear themselves, but just happened to have those capabilities.”

This year, increasing customer engagement at Fashion Week events has become a predominate theme. Social media is being used more and more as a tool by designers to engage a global audience, granting them instant access to see the newest looks. Holland has been pushing things even further; he also wants to allow people to immediately own the new looks instead of having to wait 6 months. While only 10 people had this ability during his SS16 show, at House Of Holland’s menswear show last spring, the entire collection was made available for purchase immediately. Earlier this year we posed the question of where Fashion Week events were headed – pushing towards consumer or towards trade. As New York and London Fashion Weeks wrap, it seems the momentum is clearly towards a consumer focus.

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by Doug Parker
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Fashion

Chromat’s Intel Powered Sports Bra Reacts To Your Body Temperature

September 14, 2015

CHROMAT Bra Dress NYFW

This weekend at New York Fashion Week, Chromat showed their vision of the future of fashion tech. While some brands are focused on LEDs and similar ways for wearers to express themselves, Chromat’s garments are designed to react to you and your environment. Powered by Intel’s new Curie chip, which was designed for wearables, Chromat showed off two fashion tech looks: a temperature adjusting sports bra and a dress that reacts to adrenaline. The sports bra is the more practical of the two. The Curie module inside the bra monitors perspiration, respiration, and body temperature. Based off of those readings, vents on the bra can open to provide more air to help your body better temperature regulate. Once your body’s temperature is controlled, the vents can close. The adrenaline reacting dress features a large 3D printed structure on the back, this structure can expand to become larger when the Curie module senses the wearer’s adrenaline levels rise. The concept is to physically mimic the body’s fight-or-flight instinct, in the same way animals will increase their stance when they are preparing to fight (think: a bear standing on its hind legs).

It is interesting to see how different designers are interpreting fashion tech. It illustrates how powerful technology can be in fashion, powering both design and increased functionality. While it is unlikely that you will be able to head to the store to pickup Chromat’s sports bra, it helps set the stage for what will come. Also, a big shout out to Chromat’s model casting, which was racially diverse and included plus sized models.

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by Doug Parker
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Zac Posen NYFW LED Dress Made With Code
Fashion

Zac Posen Shows LED Dress Coded By Teen Girls At NYFW

September 11, 2015

Zac Posen NYFW LED Dress Made With Code

One of the biggest hits at designer Zac Posen’s New York Fashion Week showcase this week was an LED dress. The dress, beautiful in its own right, was made even more striking because of the people behind it; a team of teenage girls coded the dress’s amazing LED display. Through a partnership with Google’s Made With Code initiative, mentor and fashion engineer Maddy Maxey reached out to NYC’s Flatiron School, Black Girls Code organization, and Lower East Side Girls Club. The girls were presented with a drag-and-drop coding interface and were given a day to design LED animations, but it was not until later that they were told what it was for. Fifty of the girls involved were even in attendance at Zac Posen’s show.

We have talked about it before, but getting women of all ages more involved in STEM is vital. According to Made With Code less than 1% of women study computer science. This is horribly disproportionate and worrisome, especially for a field which is having more and more of an impact on our culture. Made With Code attempts to make coding more accessible to girls through gamification and educating them about real-world applications of computer science skills. If you want to tryout the interface the girls used to code the dress, Made With Code has posted it on their website. Head past the break to check out the LED dress (worn by model model Coco Rocha).  

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

MIT Develops Method To Easily Tweak 3D Printable Designs

September 4, 2015

MIT-3D-Printing_1080

If 3D printing is ever to become mainstream, especially for fashion, there needs to be a way to make simple tweaks to designs. Whether it is to switch from a v-neck to a crew, change heel hight, or alter a shirt size, customization is key. Currently the process entails editing complicated CAD files and then waiting for the software to determine if those changes will result a feasible object. But researchers at MIT have found a method to make altering the CAD files much simpler and consumer friendly. Designs are displayed along with sliders that allow you to alter predefined perimeters. Even better, the software analyzes your choices in realtime and will not allow you to select a combination of setting that would result in an infeasible object.

While the example from MIT shows off customizations to toy train, it is easy to see how important this technology will be for printing clothing and accessories at home. Unlike a vase or a toy car, fashion is almost never a one-size-fits-all business; there needs to be an ability for 3D printable fashion to be customized by anyone. MIT has created a vital element for on-demand manufacturing to succeed. This is not the only 3D printing news out of MIT this month. The university has also discovered a way to print with glass, print with 10 materials simultaneously, and print directly onto and around objects placed on a printer bed.

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by Doug Parker
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Fashion Tech Path Mainstream Culture Adoption
Fashion

Fashion Tech’s Path To Mainstream Culture

September 4, 2015

Wearable Tech

While we couldn’t make the trek across the Atlantic for yesterday’s Interlaced 2015 runway show and discussions, it is a great opportunity to look at fashion tech and contemplate what the future might hold. Theoretically fashion tech has so much potential, but currently it feels nonexistent in our daily lives. Besides enhanced textiles, there are very few fashion tech items being sold to the public. Part of that is a technology and cost issue, but it also is a perception issue, and that is changing.

The past 12 months have been huge for wearable technology. Up until now, most devices have been $150 or less and were extremely specialized in functionality. With the release of a slew of Android Wear devices and the Apple Watch consumers are beginning to become more comfortable with wearing technology and paying a premium for it. A smartwatch is really the first piece of personal technology that is on display. A phone is thrown into your pocket, but a watch is in plain sight constantly. There is no discrete way to use it, once you raise your wrist to look at the time or interact with it, it is obvious you are using a smart watch. From personal experience,  

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by Doug Parker
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Fashion

Interlaced Is Fashion Show Dedicated To Fashion Tech

August 26, 2015

Interlaced 2015 London Fashion Tech Show

Next week a fashion show with catwalk dedicated entirely to fashion tech will happen in London. The September 3 event is called Interlaced and will serve not only as a opportunity for designers to show off their work, but also as a touch point for the industry to discuss their path forward and to speak with potential customers. With so much cutting edge work in wearables and fashion technology being done by small companies funded by incubators, small VCs, and crowdsourcing, their work often flies under the radar. Interlaced is designed to bring these companies to the forefront. Participants in the event will represent 3D printing in fashion, wearable technology, sustainable fashion through technology, and funding.

The organizers want to unite innovators in fashion tech and prove that wearable-technology is not a dirty word in the industry. Early products created negative connotations of technology being used without justification; as a result designers are finding the need to omit the word “wearable” when dealing with smart clothing. To that end, Interlaced will include discussion sessions. Amongst the topics being discussed are whether ‘wearables’ needs to be rebranded, retail strategies, and how to find a mainstream audience. The organizers also view Interlaced as an opportunity to start a dialogue with end-users to understand what they are looking for and inform them of where the next wave of fashion is headed. Tickets are still available for £99.

While it is great to see a standalone fashion show showcasing fashion technology, it is too bad that such an event cannot take place later in month, during London’s Fashion Week. There are isolated events and conferences dedicated to wearable technology and fashion tech, but I think to start making real inroads, things like Interlaced need to be timed with major fashion events.

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by Doug Parker
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Shift Sneakers rehabstudio
Shoes

Shift Sneakers Teases The Future Of Shoe Design

July 20, 2015

Shift Sneakers rehabstudio

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your sneakers could became reflective when you run at night, glow if you were cycling, or change colors to match the outfit you are wearing? Rehabstudio, a creative technology company out of the UK, has shown off a concept for future sneakers that visually adapt to your needs. The Shift sneaker is fairly clever; by combining several different textile technologies (both conductive and reactive) into one fabric, the material would be able to change colors, impart new properties, or light up. The upper of the shoes is constructed of a material with conductive woven threads. Imbedded among these threads will be touch sensitive fibers and malleable micro LED displays. According to the company, Phase Change fibers and Shape Memory material will be employed to enable interchangeability between designs and allow those designs to be locked onto the sneaker. Finally Meta materials will manipulate the fabric tissue to alter how light bends off of the shoe and adopt to variables such as temperature or surfaces.

While this all sounds complicated, the end result would be a sneaker with millions of different looks than would be controlled with a few taps on your phone! Rehabstudio envisions that the Bluetooth connected sneakers would have a large degree of customization available out of the box, with more being able to be added through in-app-purchases. For example, they envision a “Running Pack” that would allow you to set your target pace and the shoes will glow green, red, or blue depending on your speed versus that pace. Another concept is the “Selfie Pack” that using a photo would instantly alter the shoes to match your outfit. While just a co ncept, Shift could be a glimpse of where footwear is headed. Not only is the ability to continuously customize your footwear an exciting concept, it also would mean that one shoe would would serve the purpose of several (sustainable fashion), which is good for the wallet and even better for the environment!

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by Doug Parker
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