Rodarte lights up his collection

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During fashion week 2010, fashion designer Rodarte lit up the runway with gorgeous glowing heels that he incorporated into his showcase collection. I've seen a lot of "light up" clothing that is poorly executed and somewhat inconsequential. What I like about this attempt is the connection between electronics, high fashion, and self expression. Aside from Rodarte's heels being absolutely beautiful (I'll take two please!) is that he integrates the electronics into the design to add more richness to the solution as opposed to focusing solely on the electronics only. In other words, he uses the technology as an additional aesthetic that helps create a richer context and story for self expression.

Read more on Alison Lewis' blog here. Images via switch and TheFrisky

Smart textiles integrated into your dashboard

This project, sent in from one of my colleagues, makes it clear that there are no boundaries to how technology can be integrated into textiles to create beautiful, useful and richly tactile experiences. Car Design News shows off Toyota's FT86 concept car. Here's an image of the interior dashboard. It includes traditional garment hardware, red zippers, located at each corner of the passengers side dash that control airflow and integrates the stereo controls directly into the leather. Hot.

Click the image to zoom in.

Amy Thompson creates Plastic Analogue

This collection was recently sent to me by my friends at n-ktr. This gorgeously functional, yet slightly unwearable collection called Plastic Analogue created by Amy Thompson instantly reminded me of an analog version of the wearable robotic device that Honda has been investigating. Each piece is mechanical, exposing the function, joints, and seams as the aesthetic centerpiece. What would happen if this type of aesthetic was applied to the work that Honda is doing?

Read the post on Honda's wearable robotic device.

Stretch sensing creates a new aesthetic

I ran across this project while researching stretch sensing technology that is all the buzz right now. This gorgeous project, Aeolia, integrates stretch sensing directly into fabrics. "Each of the back forms incorporates the Merlin stretch sensor into an aesthetic exploration of textile technique mapped to the body." source What's interesting about this exploration is that the circuitry itself is integrated so beautifully and seamlessly into the fabric, that it creates a completely new aesthetic that also has the potential to fit comfortably and flexibly against the body. I would love to get my hands on a sample!

Whatch videos that demonstrate the material here.

Low-resolution modeled footwear

I girl can never own enough footwear. So, in my never-ending quest for shoes that I can't live without, I ran across these beauties created by United Nude founded by the drooling-ly fabulous architect Rem Koolhaas. What's interesting about these shoes is the way in which the surface was designed. The designers at United Nude have been pushing the limits of 3d modeling techniques. The surface pattern of this shoe named "Lo Res" was created by scanning in a 3D model of a shoe, then reducing the model's polygons down to the lowest resolution and smallest file size. As a result, the surface celebrates the model's minimal polygons as if it was stolen from a Second Life avatar.

Related posts: Digitally Printed Fashion

Vital Jacket monitors heart rate

"All sorts of huge machines are used by hospitals to monitor a patient’s vitals, but with the pace in which technology is miniaturizing, there are no real doubts about fabrics becoming the next genuine machines...

We’ve seen wearable technology on a maturing track, and the Vital Jacket is yet another case in point. Combining textiles with innovative medical diagnostic technology, BioDevices has unveiled this wearable vital-signs monitoring system." source

I love how this concept is both functional and aesthetically beautiful. They weren't shy about hiding the sensing materials and circuitry and use it as the main aesthetic element. As a runner who uses a hard-cased heart monitor, I would replace that with this product immediately. It provides freedom of movement and it's gorgeous.

For related postings, The Future of Things has a couple of interesting articles about bio-sensors integrated into clothing and the challenges inventors and designers are facing: