Designers the world over are rising to the challenge of making wearable technology appealing, interesting, and seamlessly part of everyday life. Here are four designers doing exactly that.
Amy Winters came onto the scene with her Rainbow Winters brand, but she’s been getting a significant amount of press recently for her “visual music” dress. Made of a leather material that lights up as ambient noise volume increases, it lends a synesthetic experience to the wearer and observer. Winters also has in her line a bathing suit whose patterns change based on sun exposure.
Rainbow Winters @RainbowWinters interactive wearable sound activated dress @kineticamuseum London pic.twitter.com/pOLY5Iurw0
— Brian Moreau (@brianmoreau) March 3, 2013
Mae Yokoyama is still a design student, but her work experimenting with solar panels and sustainable energy is generating buzz in the fashion world. Her most recent exhibition featured a necklace made up photovoltaic cells, turning the wearer into a veritable power pack.
Pauline van Dongen gets a significant amount of well-deserved press. Thanks to her collaborations with Dutch companies and researchers, her projects feature clothing that does more for wearable tech than any other single designer. Her latest projects include clothing with integrated solar panels which can be washed, and a knitted cardigan that tracks physical movements to aid in rehabilitation.
Ying Gao’s recent showcase featured dresses that “sense” when they are being looked at and thus react, changing patterns and shapes to provide visual stimulus, which in turn triggers their transformation. The dresses feature tiny motors which power the pattern changes, and are often likened to “jellyfish” – yet despite the inclusion of robotics, each garment weighed less than half a pound.
A gaze-activated dress: http://t.co/gRDoGcw1cQ pic.twitter.com/LXi5fhbe6U
— manovich (@manovich) January 13, 2015
For more coverage and information about these designers, please read the original article.
