Pattern-changing swimsuits

Textile designer Yun Ding has created Aqua Chameleon, a line of delicate-looking swimwear printed with smart pigments such as thermochromatic and photochromatic ink that change patterns based on certain conditions. The patterns gradually shift from a geometric print into a decorative pattern by reacting to temperature, sunlight, or water conditions. These "swim costumes" challenge our notion of how a garment should function aesthetically by adding dynamically changing patterns based on the changing environment around us and displaying it back for all to see.

For more color-changing projects, check out Angel Chang's color-changing fashion line, or Joshua Hupper's AlphaMicron project that I posted earlier.

Video dress aimed to hit the market

Future-thinking fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and Swarovski have created a dress that is covered in leds. It's one of the few attempts I've seen at creating an illuminating garment that is actually quite beautiful. The dress is made of two layers, the under layer is covered with a matrix of leds and the outer layer is used to diffuse the light making it seem soft and blended together.

The dress is also not just another conceptual exploration. The designers will be making it available in Japanese markets from fall and winter seasons in this year. (source)

Read additional postings on Chalayan.

Fashion technology as narrative

Fashion designer Angel Chang combines technology, data visualization, and narrative in a unique way that influences the aesthetics and function of her fashion collections. She's been experimenting with color-changing inks, 3-D images, iPod clothing, and light-up gear in her recent fashion lines to help tell stories about her garments.

"I think of all the ways my generation of women are different from previous generations: we're working more, traveling more, dependent on our cell phones, hooked on the Internet, and obsessively checking our e-mail. In short, we are more mobile and heavily depend on technology for all the things we do in our daily lives. My aim is to show that clothes can actually do something -- beyond just looking good; they ought to facilitate and improve the way we live." she says. 

She uses technology in many ways to create textiles for her garments. In her Spring 2008 collection, she uses a variety of mapping data that she visualizes and turns into textile patterns. For example, this dress uses maps of battlegrounds that she prints using 3D and embroidery:

Chang collaborates with technologists to integrate smart materials and technology into her garments. The below dress from her Fall 2007 collection shows integrated circuitry for an iPod.

Chang also uses smart materials as narrative. In the below dress, she uses thermochromatic inks that disappear when heat is applied to them to tell a story about the history of military camouflage. 

More info via AngelChang.com

Electroluminescent dress

Designers Amy Winters and Kseniya Zagorodnyuk of Couture Clubbing believe that the demand for innovation in entertainment and fashion is growing, therefore, they collaborate with technology companies to design garments that incorporate new and emerging textiles. As a result, they've created some beautiful garments with technology-infused accents such as this egg-shaped couture dress found in their Paradise Lost line. The dress is accented with electroluminescent wire and it can be purchased for a cool 1000 pounds. The aesthetic of the accents is beautiful. Who wouldn't want to wear this gorgeous couture to bring in the new year?

"Walking City" kinetic dresses

Montreal-based fashion designer, Ying Gao, takes movement in fashion and garments to a whole new level. One of her recent collections, titled Walking City, includes three garments that respond to movement, wind and touch. The monochromatic garments seem simple, but they beautifully tailor an integrated complex web of air pumps and sensors that allow the garment to react and move.

Walk up close to the garment and it reacts to your proximity to it. Or blow softly and it reacts to the breeze. This brings a new aesthetic to the intangible forms that the garments react to that is both playful and gorgeous.

The following video shows a garment that includes a proximity sensor, which allows it to react to the proximity of a nearby person:

The following video shows a garment that reacts to wind. Breathe into a wind sensor and the garment opens and expands, mimicking you by appearing as if it's taking its own breath:

Additional resources via designboom.com and talk2myshirt.com

Headphones in your hoodie

Timothy Dubitsky created hood.e, a jacket with integrated headphones that broadcasts music into your ears from any mp3 player you plug into it. With an aim towards safety when walking through urban environments, Dubitsky integrated the headphones directly into the fabric of the hoodie so it plays music in your ears without blocking everything else out.

I've seen a lot of jackets with integrated headphones. Unfortunately, most of them simply allow for you to weave your own headphones into your garment to hide the wires and to keep it in place. Kudos to Dubitsky for designing a solution that is functional, solves a problem of safety, and that integrates the technology directly into the garment. My only question: will it handle the wash?

Additional source via Core77