wearable technology: Tech style trends: The future is wearable

Wearable tech is moving beyond fitness devices and onto runways. At London Fashion Week in 2017, US technology company XO launched sub-brand TwentyFour15 — a line of app connected, fibre-optic, colour-changing apparel. Using an app connected via bluetooth, users can change the colours of the LED lights embedded into the clothes or sync the movements of the lights to music.

As fashion and tech continue to intertwine, a roundup of some iconic collaborations.

Glow-In-The-Dark Dress

In 2016, actress Claire Danes made a show-stopping entrance at the Met Gala in a one-of-a-kind Zac Posen gown. In keeping with the theme that year — ‘Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology’ — the whimsical Cinderella-like ballgown was crafted from a fibre-optic woven organza, allowing the high-tech garment to light up in the dark. “Each panel of fabric, the yarns are connected to a small little battery and that’s what charges it,” said Posen. “Somebody has to actually climb under the dress to manually turn on 30 separate light panels, but once they’re all on, it’s electrifying.”

Spray-Painted Dress

Taking this one step further is Dr Manel Torres, managing director of Fabrican and inventor of the spray-on fabric that adorned model Bella Hadid at Coperni’s Spring Summer ’23 finale. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, the brains behind the Parisian lab el, tied up wit h Fabrican for that magical ramp moment during Paris Fashion Week where a team of specialists, led by Torres, spray-painted a white, minimalist Coperni dress directly onto her body. According to a magazine piece, the spray uses Torres’ Fabrican liquid, which contains fibres suspended in a polymer solution that evaporates upon contact with a surface. According to Torres, the fabric feels like suede, but the texture can change depending on what fibres (natural or synthetic) are used and how it is applied.

A Phone To Match Your OOTD

Lenovo (Motorola’s parent company) has been working with flexible OLED screens for a while. At Tech World in 2022, they unveiled a rollable concept where a smartphone or a laptop could be rolled up or down to cater to screen preferences. Imagine turning your laptop into a mini TV for an hour or so and then reverting back to the original shape. Building upon this, in October last year, Motorola unveiled a rollable concept phone that can literally wrap around your wrist for a hands-free experience.
But that’s not all — it can also match your outfit. Using an AI model that runs locally on the device, users can upload photos of their outfit of the day (OOTD) and generate one-ofa-kind images for the phone’s wallpaper, giving the term “fashion accessory” a whole new spin.

Programmable Digital Dress

Last year, during Adobe’s annual Max conference, the company unveiled Project Primrose — an interactive dress made using wearable textiles. The textiles are flexible allowing the wearer to display patterns and images on their body like a programmable screen.
“Unlike traditional clothing, which is static, Primrose allows me to refresh my look in a moment,” said project director Christine Dierk. The designs can be animated through a click of a button or even movement, she shared.

Smart Yoga Pants

New York-based wearable technology startup Wearable X has created a pair of yoga pants that can give real-time feedback on the accuracy of yoga positions by emitting vibrations at your hips, knees and ankles. Called Nadi X, the pants retail for about $259 in the US.