When techno fashion goes mainstream
Two designers from Europe are in the forefront of a new kind of technology that you wear. Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz founded the company CuteCircuit in 2004 and are now designing clothing that does more than look good. For example, the Hug Shirt can let someone give you a long-distance squeeze and the M-Dress is a cell phone that you wear.
The founders of CuteCircuit describe their company as a wearable technology and interaction design company. “We’re in the middle of the digital revolution, and how we deal with it is important,” Genz said.
“We want to use the technology to make the world a better place, and more fun.” Rosella adds, “Clothing is the closest layer to oneself. It’s the most intimate and the most exposed. It can be a way to connect us to people and places.”
Clearly, these two designers are cut from different cloth than their more traditional competitors. That is true both philosophically and literally. Most designers would not even think of clothing that would hug or take a phone call. Genz and Rosella not only think of things like this, they find the materials that will allow them to actually produce these innovative techno fashions.
Rosella and Genz are not alone in their belief that there is a future in wearable technology. Jane McCann, Director of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology at the University of Wales, says “A garment might have devices on it to help you find your way somewhere, or to tell you how fit you are. It could tell you where someone is to help you meet them, or tell you what’s on at a museum or club.”
None of CuteCircuit’s designs are ready yet for production and sale, although the two have made working prototypes of several of their high tech designs. They showed some of their work at the Fast Forward: Inventing the Future show at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry earlier this month. They believe that they are very close to the production of the Hug Shirt. “Maybe by Valentines day,” says Rosella.
Perhaps we are closing in on the day when our shirts will contain entire wearable computers, freeing us from having to carry those pesky laptops, cell phones, and MP3 players. When all we need to do is get dressed to be fully wired into cyberspace, we will have entered the era of true portable computing.
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December 21st, 2008
I love techno