Sabine Seymour publishes a new book

I met with Sabine Seymour at the Smart Fabrics conference in Miami this year where she told me about a sequel to her highly acclaimed book 'Fashionable Technology' (Springer 2008) titled Functional Aesthetics. After the torturous wait for the book to be ready, it's finally available the end of this month! It will definitely be a requirement for every wearable technology designer's library. Pre-order it here. "Functional Aesthetics ... contains new state-of-the-art and revealing artistic and design examples focusing on the aesthetic and functional aspects. Chapters like Contextual Prerequisite, Body Sculpture, or Transparent Sustainability provide in-depth studies of often visionary projects seen as stimulation for new developments in the matured field of 'Fashionable Technology'. The book presents inspiring projects between the poles of fashion, design, technology, and sciences. It includes a list of relevant information on DIY resources, publications, inspirations, etc." continue reading.

Image from amazon.

Woven electronics for commercialization

[gallery] "Researchers have been experimenting with “intelligent” textiles for quite some time by integrating standard electronic components. However, for the most part the electronic parts have only been attached to or sewn into plain old clothes like coats or T-shirts – an endeavor ultimately doomed to fail because of one practical drawback: they’re difficult to wash. Moreover, it takes a lot of handiwork to produce them, which bumps up the price of the clothes.

Scientists from Professor Gerhard Tröster’s Wearable Computing Lab, however, have now gone one step further: they’ve developed a new technology to attach thin-film electronics and miniaturized, commercially available chips to plastic fibers. The researchers eventually succeeded in integrating a large number of microchips and other microelectronic elements directly into the architecture of the material. In order to weave the E-fibers into conventional threads, the ETH-Zurich scientists used customary textile machines." Continue reading on ETH Zurich.

Images from ETH Zurich via talk2myshirt.com

Wearable technology for runners

[gallery]Continuing on the theme of wearable technology for runners, I was recently at the San Francisco marathon (no, I didn't run it, but supported a friend who did) and noticed that every runner was wearing a small bit of technology on their shoes. The technology is a flexible and disposable RFID tag by UPM Raflatac that you wrap around your shoe lace. A "reader" is placed at the start and finish line. When you cross either, the tag on your shoe is read by the reader at the exact moment you cross the lines. The accurate racing information is then sent to a database that keeps track of your start and finish time and calculates your pace.

Aesthetically, the technology is visible on the inside, which displays the RFID antenna in the shape of a dogbone (as they call it). The pattern and texture is actually quite beautiful. Next time I run a race, I'll be wearing one of these inside out.

Nikes tracks your marathon progress

[gallery] I've always been a fan of the combination of sports, technology and footwear. There is so much potential to integrate technology in meaningful and useful ways in sports gear. Designer Michael Robinson envisions doing just that with his concept titled Nike+ 26. It includes a series of 26 lights embedded in a pair of running shoes. After each mile you run during your marathon, a light turns on giving you ambient feedback on your progress.

NIKE78 - Michael Robinson | ‘NIKE+ 26′ from NIKE78 on Vimeo.

Continue reading on fastcompany.com. Images from fastcompany.com.

Turning wear into pattern

[gallery] "The ‘Decay’ project explores how traces of time and use can be embedded in textile. By wearing a carbon fibre suit over a white blouse, textile designer Marie Ilse Bourlanges captured the gestures of the body bending, stretching, scratching and rubbing. The transfer imprint on the blouse was then translated into a pattern of lines that ebb and flower across the textile." Continue on nextnature.

Images from nextnature.

An analog interaction rich with narrative

Fashion designer Catherine Chow has been inspiring the fashion and art community for years with her avant-garde approach to her garments and her longing to push the boundaries of everyday materials. So, I wanted to resurrect one of her projects that she did a few years ago that fast-tracked her to fame and that is still so beautifully inspiring...her zipper dress. The dress, a wedding gown, consists of a single zipper that requires it to be unfurled and unzipped to remove. I love the simple (and analog) interaction of this garment and the story that the interaction tells. Since the garment is a wedding dress, it comes with all of the connotations, history and cultural context of wedding traditions. In this case, the brilliantly simple interaction whimsically enhances the tradition of "the wedding night" by providing an evocative experience of carefully unfurling it for the "big reveal" that becomes a form of seduction and foreplay on this important night. It's a great example of striking the right balance among the context of the garment and its cultural traditions, the implied interaction, and the narrative the experience reveals...er... tells. Image from metropolismag.com An interesting interview at fashionprojects.org More on Catherine Chow