Aesthetically augmented corsets

Francesca Lanzavecchia designed a line of incredibly beautiful back braces that focus on merging function with aesthetics. Her book, ProAesthetics: Disability Artifacts, explores the intersection between function and aesthetics that sparks a dialogue around disability aids and the context of the wearer. Normally taboo and hidden under your garments, Lanzavecchia makes these medical devices so beautiful that they could be worn as the outer garments themselves.

Gwendolyn Huskens is another designer exploring this topic. Her line of footwear called "Medic Esthetic" pushes our idea of how we wear and use foot braces. She considers the fashionable aspect and makes them so beautiful, it’s no longer necessary to be embarrassed and hide your ailment. In fact, I would wear these even without an ailment:

A wearable device that helps you walk

Honda recently unveiled a robotic wearable device that helps you walk. The seat is similar to a bike seat that connects a robotic leg to your shoes. It's strong enough to reduce the stress of body weight on the knees and gives you extra strength for actions like walking up stairs. Similarly, Cyberdyne created a full robotic wearable suit called HAL (Hybrid Assisted Limb) that enhances your natural physical capabilities by sensing and reacting to your nerve signals.

The technology is incredible, but aesthetically awkward if you had to walk around in public wearing one. This could be a great opportunity to integrate the technology directly into the aesthetics and textiles of the garment so if a wearer needed assistance, it would be as simple as putting on a pair of pants or slipping on a jacket. In fact, I would prance around town like a superhero if it looked like Dainese's gorgeous etched leather bike racing suit:

(source trendhunter.com)