Striking the perfect balance

Kathryn Bauer, a recent graduate of New York University's ITP program, presented a project for her master's thesis, titled Ovu, The project tracks and detects fertility easily and fashionably.

One of the many things that makes this implementation so beautiful is that she considered the form of the garment and its implied meaning for her concept. She could have just as easily implemented the idea using a leg or arm band to get it working as a proof of concept. Instead, she chose a garment that implies intimacy and sex, a perfect match for fertility tracking and its context. Kudos to Bauer for striking a perfect balance between concept, integrated intelligence, and garment connotation.

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)

The antithesis of original function

I recently discovered work by Joon Youn Paek who has some terrific explorations that challenge the use of everyday products by augmenting their original functionality. Pillowig, makes a humorous statement on our rapidly growing sleep-deprived lives by offering a functional pillow that you can wear as a hat. And Polite Umbrella adds charm by allowing you to shrink one side of an umbrella or the entire thing when passing by someone (I laughed out loud when I watched the demo of it in action).

One of my favorite projects is his exploration into sports garments and equipment, called Spoetry. He claims that the project "promotes self-expression by modifying sports gear", but a more interesting outcome that he hasn't articulated is that his augmentations force the wearer to interact, move and gesture in the exact opposite way that was intended in the original product (they also happen to be gorgeous). For example, when two people are riding on a bike, the person in the back normally sits facing the person in the front so they can hold on and see where they're going. His tandem bike helmet forces the passenger to sit facing backwards, stripping them of the ability to see where they're going and to hold on for dear life.

A somewhat decent implementation of solar

One of the biggest challenges for personal computing devices, especially with wearable technology, is power. It's difficult to obtain and it's expensive and bulky to store. So, I'm always on the quest to find alternative sources of power.

One of the most readily available resources is the sun and there have been a variety of explorations into solar cells and panels. The problem with solar, although improving, is twofold: (1) the current can sometimes be abysmal to obtain along with the wattage, (2) most of the options for solar panels that are currently available and that generate enough power are large, bulky, and expensive. Not ideal for a soft and flexible moving garment.

With those limitations, some attempts have been made such as the eclipse solar bags. But they look as though someone slapped a large bulky solar panel on the side of a standard bag. Little attempt was made to truly integrate the technology into the product or garment. Even worse, are the solar bags from Treehugger. If you've ever carried one around, although technologically functional, they are heavy, bulky and seems to be void of any fashion consideration whatsoever.

One garment that has potential is the Zegna Ski Jacket that incorporates solar panels into the collar. What I like about this is the attempt to integrate it into the design of the garment and the implied gesture of "popping your collar" to expose the panels and activate them. However, I'm not sure that this is the right gesture for ski culture.

Overall, garments that sense and react should leverage the natural gestures implied by the garment, its culture, and its context so that they feel like second nature as you are wearing them as your second skin. Zegna does a good job encorporating a technology that is challenging and limiting into a functional fashion line.

Shock-absorbing flexible plastic

d3o lab has an incredible new material that absorbs hits and shocks. It's a soft, putty-like plastic that you can squish in your hand. When it experiences blunt force, such as smacking it with a hammer, the plastic instantly hardens.

d3o's flexible plastic is already integrated into many brands and products such as Quicksilver, Northface, Armadillo to name a few. I particular love Ignite's soft hats and beanies that can be used as a snowboarding helmet. The technology and function does not compromise the aesthetics. I'm definitely getting one of these for the slopes: