2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the emerging field of wearables. Much of the focus has been on accessories such as smartwatches and smart eyewear but wearables are also slowly insinuating themselves into the world of fashion as well. Not only are a devices’ aesthetics something designers have to keep in mind but it is also starting to influence fashion itself. Case in point is the dress by designers Fyodor Golan which will be on display during London Fashion Week 2014. Billed as the world’s first interactive dress, it is made up of 80 Nokia Lumia 1520 smartphones.
The dress is never the same at is uses either static pictures or live feeds from the smartphones to constantly change. The images change as the skirt moves, “creating a shimmer effect simulating the realistic tactile character of actual fabric.” A custom app that uses GPS helps ensure that the shimmer happens in line with the model’s movements.
Of their new collection and working with Nokia, Fyodor said: “This A/W 14 season we toyed with tradition against technology. We believe that you can create almost anything that isn’t influenced by gravity. The colour changes as the skirt moves and the idea of making the screens react to the word around it via photographs and video is something that we do not think has been done before.”
KIN, the company that worked with Fyodor Golan describes it as “a wearable and experimental piece of technology,” adding that “we’ve designed and programmed tiled video walls, and developed mobile apps, as well as bespoke special camera apps, but nothing quite like this.”
A skirt made of Nokia Lumia smartphones may not be the most practical example of wearable technology but it does show how technology and fashion are slowly starting to blend. Bendable and flexible displays and other materials will only help accelerate this in the future.
Source : Nokia