Technologies are strongly changing the fashion sector
Information technologies are invading new areas of life. Changing the business model and structure of many services and products. This time I took the fashion sector under the magnifying glass. Admittedly, the fashion industry has been quite quick to adopt technological solutions for its needs. Truly innovative, increasingly even practical products are emerging.
Wearable technologies (WT) is not a new topic. This year marks their 10th anniversary of the WT concept's appearance on the market. These include apparel, accessories and wearable devices (e.g. watches), dedicated applications. The market value, according to Statista, of smartwatches alone is estimated to be around $10 billion. Devices and apps to monitor heart rhythm, health generate value of about $867 billion.
It is no different in the fashion industry. We have more and more spectacular examples of ultra-modern products based on WT. Already in 2014, the renowned brand Ralph Lauren prepared a dedicated t-shirt for the US Open. The electronic T-shirt measures heart rate, distance covered, calories burned, blood data. Special biosensors from OMSignal are sewn into the material. Of course, all data are presented through the application on the screen of our smartphone.
Photo: Ralph Lauren
An interesting case is a project by Rainbow Winters (photo above). Clothes are made of synthetic, holographic leather. Their construction reacts to sound and light, as the intensity increases, the clothes begin to illuminate, change color.
German luxury clothing brand Moon Berlin has been implementing special advanced LEDs in their clothes for some time now. Not a big deal, but the women wearing them look cosmic. The diode also has a practical use – it lights the way. Innovative shoes "Invisible Shoes" designed by Andrea Chaves were produced using a 3D printer.
A kind of experiment with using WT saw the light of day recently on the Polish fashion market. Let's note right away, the project is strongly branding, one of its integral elements is a Surface Pro4 laptop from Microsoft. The element was used in the presentation of the Chillout collection by Kossmann. The clothes themselves are made of special high-tech fibers. I'm not a fashion expert, so I won't go into their structure. I was much more interested in the topic of laptop presence. It turns out that this particular model works with a dedicated Signature Type Cover keyboard. It is made of Alcantara, an ultra-microfiber material used in the production of luxury upholstery: furniture, yachts, airplanes and cars. It is used, for example, in the latest Maseratti models.
All indications are that gadgets or electronic accessories will quickly dominate the fashion sector. Not only because of the popularity of smartphones, fierce competition between the brands Samsung and Apple. First of all, they become a normal fashion accessory, like a belt, a watch. Secondly, they have increasingly functional applications: they measure health, provide us with extremely valuable information. The symbiosis of the world of fashion and technology is therefore inevitable.
