Future Body Art

Tech leader Philips joined forces with tattoo master Henk Schiffmacher to create the ‘Electronic tattoo’. The SKIN Tattoo concept appears and disappears, rematerializing in new forms every time. The designs are created according to the person’s emotions. It comes in the form of a film that is laid over the skin as a kind of “second skin.” It’s practically invisible and if you have seen how liquid crystal images behave, then you have an idea of what it can do to turn your body into a dynamic art form.

In the future, our bodies will become a platform for new personal expression through technological advancements. This particular design probe explores the body as a platform for electronics and interactive skin technology. Stimulated by touch, an electronic tattoo traverses across the landscape of the body, navigated by desire..


This project was part of Philips Design Probes, a research initiative that tracks trends and developments. The goal of the project is to understand the post 2020 lifestyle, and challenges conventional ways of thinking.

Hussein Chalayan has often been dubbed fashion's resident mad scientist, and the British designer's avant-garde creations continually push the boundaries of what the human body can wear. One season he devises a coffee table that transforms into a wooden skirt, while another season he creates an entire collection from the sturdy envelope paper known as Tyvek. (Björk donned a jacket in said material for the cover of her album Post). 

Still, as Style.com's Sarah Mower notes, Chalayan has "demonstrated that he's reached the stage of maturity where his ability to articulate significant symbolism only enhances, rather than obscures, the excitement of his abilities as a fashion designer."

Chalayan's most accomplished technological achievement to date was on display during his Spring 2007 show in Paris. Collaborating with the animatronic design team that worked on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he took his audience on a lightning-speed journey through style history, configuring "robodresses" that morphed in seconds from a Victorian gown to a crystal-beaded flapper dress or from an hourglass metallic shift with a broad- brimmed hat to a Paco Rabanne confection complete with a cap and visor. For the grand finale, a ballerina dress was absorbed by an enormous hat that then spouted a puff of sparkling dust. 

"In a season when the future of fashion was being furiously debated," wrote Vogue of the spectacle, "this was more than a decisive moment. It was magic."

Ready-to-Wear Collection Fall 2007, Paris Fashion Week

(source: www.style.com)

The blue striped was my favorite.!

(source: www.antimonide.com/2009/01/31/hussein-chalayan/)

Hussein Chalayan is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitudes to new technology, and the Design Museum in London will be having a retrospective of his work. Leading the forefront of contemporary fashion design, the twice named ‘British Designer of the Year,’ Hussein Chalayan, is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitudes to new technology.

The exhibition was the first comprehensive presentation of Hussein Chalayan’s work in the UK. Spanning fifteen years of experimental projects, the exhibition explores Hussein Chalayan’s creative approach, his inspirations and the many themes which influence his work such as cultural identity, displacement and migration.

memories and emotions through wearable technology

WEARABLEABSENSE

would you like your clothing to be able to adjust your moods?

There are some new prototype clothes with wearable device embedded in the clothes will be able to read your moods through bio-sensors, and react accordingly.

Through the use of wireless technology and bio-sensors, users of the garment are able to retriece archived information from an 'absent' person's live via a mobile application.

photo by http://www.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/new-smart-clothes-will-be-able-to-adjust-to-your-moods/

This jacket responds directly to your preferences and attempt to help your mood with messeges could include audio files played through speakers sewn into the clothing, text, photographs or videos displayed by a scrollig LED array woven into the fabric.


-The project was a collaboration between Barbara Layne, the Director of Studio subTela at Hexagram-Concordia in Montreal and Janis Jefferies, Artistic Director of the Digital Studios at Goldsmiths College in London.

made in Greece

When your country has so huge problems that everyone is talking about, it is natural to affect you in many aspects. I'm sick of hearing bad news all the time about our economic, politic and social crisis plus; i'm tired of seeing people being pessimistic even about the little things.

I believe from every obstacle, there is something possitive to learn. My moto is "everything happens for a reason".So in order to overcome our problems, as a society, we have to revise our tensions, act smart and innovate to prevent our future problems.

While the economic crisis has shaken the Greek society, researchers from the Laboratory of AUTH and Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, create organic electronics (ie, flexible material with energy efficiency of polymer) made in Greece.

The goal is to provide the raw material from greek hands to get a low cost in mass production of a range of innovative products as new technology: tent panels saving solar energy, handbags and clothing that will charge electrical devices, photovoltaic smart new-generation that are cheaper and more efficient, electronic paper, flexible displays for all types of devices and literally hundreds of other products.

The RoleMak program (Reinforce Organic Electronics Research Potential in Central Makedonia) is worth 2.74 million funded 100% by the European Union, provides all this and more importantly to set up small production units of flexible materials to be manufactured cheaply in Greece and exported as finished products such as jacket with printed electronics which will keep the body warm, or new-generation photovoltaics that will be cheaper and more efficient, or as feedstock to produce massive screens, electronics, etc.

"Organic electronics will change the way we communicate in the coming period.This is a technology that we know and we can exploit. It is estimated that the past year the market of organic electronics has brought gains 1 billion and by 2016 will bring 25 billion, "explains the director of Nanotechnology Laboratory of the Aristotle University, Professor Stergios Logothetidis.

source: http://logothetidis.wordpress.com/

inventing the future

● Cute Circuit is a pioneer in the field of wearable technology and introduced many ground breaking ideas to the world of fashion by intergrating new beauty and functionality through the use of smart textiles and micro electronics. The company was found in 2004, it was the first fashion company to put LEDs on the red carpet in couture clothing and was also the first to sell illuminated fashion using LEDs in fashion stores like Selfridges. Francesca Rosella, who've worked for Valentino as a designer, and Ryan Genz, anthropologist, artist and ultimately interaction designer, maintain their passion for beauty and innovation on couture better than anyone. The're just launched their first Ready-to-Wear collection for s/s 2012.

They have made also some really amazing couture dresses for special occasions, using the finest fabrics and the highest micro technology. True masterpieces!

● The Aurora Dress

http://djstorm.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/aurora-dress-by-cutecircuit.jpg

Made with silk taffeta, chiffon and hundreds of svarovski crystals, the Aurora dress includes LEDs technolgy that creates many different patterns, from sparkly colours to an incredible fall of rainbow.

Watch the music play!

● Safura's Dress

This is a hand pleated silk chiffon dress with over 5400 LEDs embedded. It was designed exclusively for Azerbaijan's entry for the Eurovision song contest of 2010. The dress was controlled in real-time by the VJ streamed videos to the dress to highlight the emotion of the song.

http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2010/05/31/circuit-city-safura-led_dress_EJCQ1_22974.jpg

http://fashionologyuk.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/getattachment-aspx.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Ml70PqzMgvNivh3eM05G8bHVkBbIunXYx3ArJgM2oRGWyJjiyOW4RAk5iniVs0QCgnDtjvLEtKfPM5h9VNmaJxvuZqpt5hwwimZXgwAR13L4UBboTQF4AgPKxMOUrhU5uCuPSbLaA7Dc/s1600/Azeri+pop+star+eurovision.png

● Katy's Dress

http://aizakbuyondo.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/katy-perry.jpg

http://www.ecouterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/katy-perry-led-cutecircuit-dress-1.jpg

This is the commercial version of the K dress. It only costs 1,500 pounds! hahhaaha

You know my b-day isn't near but if you thought of buying me a present I gave you a clue : P

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/selfridges-sells-the-k-dress-by-cutecircuit

a book of inspiration

● Human ideals of beauty expressed through fashion inevitably influence technology design. Today, communication technologies that reside near the body also embody taste and fashion. Indeed, fashion becomes central as the technology moves from being portable to being wearable. Personal instruments must be not only modern but beautiful. Communication technology and fashion aesthetics have recently come together to address this brief - fashion designers and telecommunications operators are increasingly combining their overall vision of aesthetics. Various research laboratories are developing clothing that will integrate communication, therapeutic and cosmetic technologies. (from Mediating the Human Body - Technology, Communication, and Fashion. edited by L. Fortunati, J.E. Katz and R.Riccini, 2003)

This book has given me a lot of throught around the perception of beauty, opened my vision of aesthetics combinated with technology. Boundaries are wider, and human body was always feeling the need to overcome them in order to be free. This subject needs definately more research.

photovoltaic fashion from Greece

● At this point of time we have all the knowledge we need to 'dominate' earth's resources and maintain them in order to live well, innovate and step forword to certain new needs that occur. Every place in this world has its advantages and disadvantages. I grew up in Greece and here i still am, there is so potential to its recources. We have planty of sun, wind, waves that could produce limitless power and i was glad to find out about a a greek designer who throught of it.

http://www.5050ltd.com/who_we_are.php

Despina Papadopoulos

Studio 5050 was founded in the summer of 1995 by Despina Papadopoulos. The studios mission is to strech the boundaries of fashion, design, technology, art and ideas, and to engage in an open dialogue between these disciplines. Studio 5050 was featured in I.D.'s 40 January 2007 Issue, 'Celebrating Collective', as one of the world's most interesting and promising collectives.!
Despina created a series of 'philosophy machines' experiments in design and technology which probe the relationship between magic, technology and fashion.

Day-for-Night Solar Dress

an homage to Paco Rabbane is a celebration of beauty of electronics.! It is a modular and reconfigurable dress that is made out of 448 white curcuit boards. Each tile is designed to be a solar cell, a RGB LED and jumper connectiors. Acontrol board provides power, communicates with the tiles and links to a computer via RF. A microcontroller relays data to and from the dress via a 2.4 GHz RF link.  A m a z i n g . . . . . .

Could this really be a cocktail dress you wear for a night out with the girls in the near future?
The conclusions are yours... ;)

a Virtual Catwalk

a collaboration that couldn't go wrong...  

nicola formichetti.
creative director of Mugler, fashion director of Vogue Hommes Japan, Uniqlo and Lady Gaga. He sure shakes well every fashionista's imagination. Along with the multiplayer game company CCP, they created a bridge between the gap of fashion and digital world. Together, through the process of designing clothes for Mugler's model Rick Genest, they created an interactive life size avatar on a real-time virtual catwalk! A huge innovation that brings technology and fashion into the same body for once again.


http://www.narvicreative.com/35299/322884/works/nicola-formichetti-x-ccp



nicola formichetti's interview about the zombie boy concept:

Dazed Digital: How did you hook up with CCP?
Nicola Formichetti: A mutual friend introduced me to Mary Lee, CCP's digital fashion editor, and we began this collaboration. Our first collaboration was to create a life size avatar with clothes designed by me for my pop up store Nicola's during New York Fashion Week.

DD: Can you explain the technology behind this project for us novices...
Nicola Formichetti: We call it 'sophisticated technology'. Through the use of CCP's Carbon technology graphics, the virtual runway became a fully interactive, real-time virtual catwalk experience.

DD: What was the biggest technological challenge when making this film?
Nicola Formichetti: Nothing really. I was working with tech teams in Iceland, China and New York. Like how I work normally. Everyone was such a professional actually, we all used our own skills, there really wasn't much of a challenge.

DD: How is designing for an avatar different from a real life model?
Nicola Formichetti: When doing digital design you have more options to work with, you can change the designs on the spot rather then being limited by fabric and patterns, digital fashion gives you unlimited options immediately.

DD: What's the relationship between fashion and technology today?
Nicola Formichetti: The two worlds are just now beginning to come together and as we continue to push the boundaries, just like this virtual project, we will continue to explore what is possible and where fashion and technology will continue to merge. It's exciting!

DD: And tomorrow?
Nicola Formichetti: Fashion and technology will become one, virtual fashion will become a core part of the fashion industry.

DD: What was the inspiration behind the particular items Rick wears?
Nicola Formichetti: EVE is a serious game, I was inspired by the toughness of the the environment and the reality one would wear in CCP's future universe.

DD: What's next for you?
Nicola Formichetti: To continue to pursue digital fashion and all forms of technology that is emerging in the world. 

http://rrriot-girl.blogspot.com/2010/01/art-of-artificial-intelligence.html

   

As I mentioned before, my project, KinetiCouture, is for a class for my final BA degree, called Design Futures. This blog showcases my research development, something like a "public sketchbook". 

Kinetic Couture is a concept I created as a hypothesis, that electronic garments can highlight the interactive nature of the clothing and capture the imagination on the future meaning and purpose of clothing. 

My basic inspiration came when i learned about the Scorpions by XS Labs in Montreal. I found Di Mainstone's interview, artist and inventor who works with interactive clothing, very positive to my case.

"This said, interactive fashion is certainly getting increased industry profile - established investigative fashion designer Hussein Chalayan has tickled the imagination of the fashion world over the past seasons with his electronic couture experiments, whilst newcomer Angel Chang is designing technology driven fashion as the basis of her range. With this gradual and inevitable evolution, both the fashion industry and the consumer need to be allowed to fully absorb the meaning and possibilities of electronic and interactive fashion. Collections will not only have to be exhibited with fresh vision, to highlight the interactive nature of the clothing, but also be manufactured in an entirely modern way. Because of potential production issues it may be a year ors two before we see intricate electronic fashion in outlets such as UrbanOutfitters and Topshop, however I feel certain that the consumer is ready to accept new modes of fashion interactivity, with or without electronics."  click to read the interview

the next trend: fashion nerd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=_ewxw25pWFI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO48q2ZthBI