Student Mae Yokoyama from the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design created this beautiful piece made almost entirely of solar panels. What I love about this work is that she allows the size and rigidity of the circuit components to inform the structure of the necklace and leaves them exposed to create the aesthetic.

The “collar is made of solar panels, accumulating energy during daytime. When the sun goes down a string of pearls is illuminated, turning the functional look of the solar panels into a subtle and fashionable necklace.” Continue reading at Konstfack.

Photos by Andreas Nyquist and Mae Yokoyama, from Konstfack.

Daan Roosegaarde is currently an artist in residence at V2_labs in the Netherlands. He’s known for his incredibly beautiful electronic works such as (one of my favorites) Dune, which consists of hundreds of flexible led-tipped stalks. Collaborating with fashion designer Maartje Dijkstra, his most recent work explores the relationship between technology and intimacy titled (logically) Intimacy.

“Intimacy, developed by Studio Roosegaarde and V2_Lab, is a project that straddles the world of fashion, wearables and the electronic arts, while exploring the relation between technology and intimacy in contemporary tech-society. The project consists of high-tech garments made with wireless, interactive technologies and smart foils, which can become transparent. The distance towards the garments determines their level of transparency, creating an intimate experience and a sensual play of disclosure. Roosegaarde’s ‘e-fashion’ works as a second skin that transforms the body of the wearer into a tangible interface. This interface acts as an emotional meter that measures and makes visible the level of transparency, disclosure and thus intimacy experienced by the user/wearer in social interaction.” (source)

Continue reading on V2_Labs.
Photos by Lotte Stekelenburg, model: Kimora - Jimmy Model Management, make up: Joyce Kern, images from V2_Labs.

Continuing on the topic of alternative power harnessing, the latest exploration from Joanna Berzowska and the folks at Extra-Soft Labs is a series of power-generating garments titled Captain Electric. Sticky, Stiff and Itchy harness energy both passively and actively through the activity of fidgeting, fussing, stretching and pulling at our clothes.

“Using inductive generators, we convert kinetic energy from the human body into electric energy and store it within a power cell integrated into the garments. Rather than attempting to conceal the generators and their operation, we chose to overtly integrate them into the garment concept and design.” (captain-electric.net)

Here’s how Captain Electric describes each of the garments:

Sticky
Sticky is a hooded leather dress that impedes natural body movement. The sleeves of the dress are tethered to hard shells on the chest and hips. This restriction forces the body to move in more pronounced and powerful motions, actively generating energy to fuel the dress. The accumulated power feeds a series of LEDs integrated in silicone forms sewn into the pocket, concealed from view.

Stiff
Reminiscent of the posture caused by muscular stiffness, the silhouette of Stiff draws emphasis to the back and shoulders of the individual. As she pushes her back against the wall or experiences pressure on her back from another user, the energy generated activates an mp3 player and speaker integrated into the hood, which plays soothing and comforting (though often conflicting) messages.

Itchy
Itchy’s tailored leather silhouette is decorated with large reconfigurable wool necklaces. The face is surrounded with layered structure, drawing attention to its features while also offering a sense of comfort and protection from other peoples’ gaze. The layering of necklaces is evocative of bulky wool turtlenecks and their itchiness compels the user to grasp them and move them back and forth on the body.

Read more on Captain Electric.
Images from Captain Electric.

One of the many major challenges of mobile systems such as wearables, is the power source. Scientists and engineers are constantly figuring out smaller, more efficient, cheaper and more powerful ways to power our devices. One area of investigation is around the power that is generated from our own body movements. According to Henry Fountain of the New York Times, it doesn’t take much, even a couch potato can generate power. For example, the act of breathing can generate about a watt of power. The challenge is how to harvest that engery and put it to good use.

“Michael C. McAlpine of Princeton and colleagues have developed a promising approach for converting body movements into electricity: printing piezoelectric crystals onto flexible, biocompatible rubberlike material. Continue reading on The New York Times.

I would love to get my hands on one of these!

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski.

Artist Lucy McRae created this evocative piece titled TransNatural. Trained as a classical ballerina and also as an architect, there’s no questions why she is fascinated with the human form and investigates architectural structures and engineering applied to the body.

“TransNatural is an art and design exhibition looking at the crossover between nature and technology. Opening Amsterdam at the TROUW February 19th. Image Lucy McRae. Photo Maarten Willemstein. www.multiplexart.nl” (source)

Read more on McRae’s site.

“Tis the season for the flu, and if the regular strain wasn’t bad enough, we have a new, porcine terror to contend with. These brightly patterned medical face masks, however, may ward off H1N1 and its brethren simply by virtue of being stylish—looking like Wacko Jacko in his latter days notwithstanding. Designed by Marjan Kooroshnia, a Swedish textile-design student, these face masks have a bonus feature: They’re printed with thermochromic ink that changes color with any uptick in breathing temperature.” (source)

If you’ve ever experimented with thermochromatic inks, I am skeptical that this concept will even work as the variations of temperature from your breath might be too small. Some of the inks are fairly sensitive to heat so the pattern might change no matter what temperature your breath is. Regardless, it’s a nice concept.

Read the rest of the article on couterre.
Images from couterre.

During fashion week 2010, fashion designer Rodarte lit up the runway with gorgeous glowing heels that he incorporated into his showcase collection. I’ve seen a lot of “light up” clothing that is poorly executed and somewhat inconsequential. What I like about this attempt is the connection between electronics, high fashion, and self expression. Aside from Rodarte’s heels being absolutely beautiful (I’ll take two please!) is that he integrates the electronics into the design to add more richness to the solution as opposed to focusing solely on the electronics only. In other words, he uses the technology as an additional aesthetic that helps create a richer context and story for self expression.

Read more on Alison Lewis’ blog here.
Images via switch and TheFrisky

Architect Forrest Jessee is dabbling in architecture structures applied to garments in this gorgeous and cocoon-like functional pattern. “Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s practice of Dymaxion Sleeping, which involves four segments of half-hour naps every six hours, Jessee redefined the sleeping ritual while challenging the roles of private and public space by designing the portable Sleep Suit. Structural pleats made of EVA foam which absorbs shock in sports equipment is used to “dress” or contain the body much like a sleeping bag. By testing and recording sleeping positions, areas of comfort and discomfort are identified, and thus determined the thickness of the foam where the support is needed. I can’t help but be reminded of the napping challenges endured by taking on the benches, crates, floors and chairs during my architecture school days.” (source)

View all the photos and read more about this project on Pleat Farm.

I met with Desney Tan at Microsoft Research today, who walked me through a few mind-blowing demos and prototypes he has recently developed. One of his prototypes demonstrates the capabilities of using on-body musclecomputer inputs that can be integrated into garments. Listening to Tan articulately describe a bloom of possibilities and how he sees the evolution of interfacing was incredibly inspiring. Just imagine the potential.

Read Tan’s publication for more info.

This project, sent in from one of my colleagues, makes it clear that there are no boundaries to how technology can be integrated into textiles to create beautiful, useful and richly tactile experiences. Car Design News shows off Toyota’s FT86 concept car. Here’s an image of the interior dashboard. It includes traditional garment hardware, red zippers, located at each corner of the passengers side dash that control airflow and integrates the stereo controls directly into the leather. Hot.

Click the image to zoom in.