Following Sarah’s last post 10 Really Good Reasons to be Female in IT here is a further reason: Geek Chic fashion showcase!
At same time that the new season collections are set to hit the highstreet, we are about to become part of an immersed and techno-ambient, nay fashionable world.
Designers show-casing last week in London have launched fully functional and gadgetary based clothes collection. A welcome addition to any Geek Chic wardrobe.
Whilst it is nothing new that supposedly ‘inanimate’ objects interact with us, just take a trot round Tesco and their video screens, the handheld price scanners and checkers at Waitrose, and even in York where I reside ‘helpful’ tourist information totems will start to ‘talk’ to you just as you walk past. What IS new is how technologies WILL start to interact with us and where ultimately gadgets will start to think for us, a part of our homes, cars, appliances, bodies and fashion stakes.
These observations have been prompted by the recent BBC news item about ‘Smart Fabrics’ and article in The Guardian and Telegraph of the more humorous side of Geek chic. Amongst the show-cased collections is a solar panelled bikini that allows its wearers to charge mobiles, MP3 players etc. Shame about the lack of actual swimming possibilities, but who cares when your strutting your battery charged, and MP3 plugged-in self by the poolside right?
Other fabric innovations are of a ‘smarter’ profile. One such garment is the eco-conscious accessories that charge themselves by day (as a handbag, fan, purse etc) to become a unique and stylish light by night with which to adorn yourself, or put up round your home. Habitat has nothing on that!
And so a new vision of fashion, functionality and aesthetics! It is easy to envisage how MP3 players, cameras and mobile phones will converge, and even become integrated into clothing; open to new levels of wear and tear – maybe not quite like the party in my pants iboxer of my early post though!
Imagine for example, where that pesky MP3 takes up room in your handbag/causes unsightly bulges in your Levis, these devices will be integrated into the fabric.
Picture it; its not an iPod, but an iBag, nay iGarment – how do you like them Apples?
However, as much as the future of technology permits an even more personalised integration of ‘man and machine’, this does raise some interesting questions in terms of ethics, surveillance, privacy and identity. Does this mean that I will be able to access others favourite playlists and contact information by wearing someone else’s jeans? or will our own genes provide the key for boundaries between interfaces?
Ultimately though, do we want this level of ‘cyborg’ mechanics attached to our organic selves?
Well we may be a longer way off from that level of techno-human integration. In the meantime I shall be coveting the latest iBag from Apple and hoping they do a Chloe version that can sort my emails. Nifty, not thrifty technology!
Anon,
‘Function and Form’ and of course FASHION that would be a dream situation for clothing kits…
wonder if Apple would consider an iFashion shop?…
proof that function doesn’t have to boring, and nor should you out up with losing your mp3 player down the side of inadequately designed jeans/shirt/top etc.
Lets launch a Girly Geek label!
YAYY!! integrate it all!! NOW!
I try to be upbeat about this, however why is it that girls’ suits don’t even have pockets on the inside of the jackets!?!!?!? this is the bane of my life. I carry: ipod/crackberry/decent headphones/sunglasses (I live in Oz)/keys/lipstick/money. It would be really nice if I could just shove *some* of these items in my pockets.
Roll on the day when I can slip my combined music/communcation device into my slimline arm/leg holder/bikini/skin holder.
Clothing designers should think of form and function a little more.
What we need is iIron or rather non-iron but not nylon please – or is crumpled still ‘in’?
not sure about fashion and geeks don’t we already have our super spec xray glasses image to maintain – like the idea of solar bikini’s though!