Wearables resurface at the Parisian shows of 3 fashion brands
The love story between fashion and technology is reborn at Coperni, Anrealage and Junya Watanabe. Will it be more successful this time?
In 2014, Jony Ive, then Apple's design director, came to Paris Fashion Week with its Big New Product, the Apple Watch, to convince the fashion world that wearables were the future of fashion. That turned out not to be entirely true (at least in terms of style), but that didn't stop two former Apple designers, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, from coming back nine years later to try again.
This time the product is the Ai Pin - a self-contained smart assistant that attaches to clothing via a magnet and can therefore be worn just about anywhere you wish - which made its debut on the podium. jackets and trouser pockets at Coperni. The brand's founders and designers, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, became known during fashion week for their technological stunts: painting fabric on Bella Hadid to make a dress, releasing robot dogs on the catwalk.< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Compared to these antics, the pin seemed relatively subtle, especially since the models didn't actually interact with it, so it was impossible to judge except on its aesthetic . Which could be summed up as a “fancy employee badge” (the kind employees never really want to wear), but without a photo. Or, said one observer, “an Apple Watch on a lapel.” Another thought it looked like a glucometer for diabetics.
In any case, the pin didn't add any design elements to the clothes - the flat speakers were more interesting. by Transparent, incorporated into leather jackets like breasts, a funny, if juvenile, visual joke that sets a theme including metallic triangles, ruffles on the edges of zippers, and elements of performance clothing.
They could learn something from Kunihiko Morinaga from Anrealage, who doesn't just stick the technology on clothes, but integrates it into it (it's a very big difference). It recently trademarked what it calls its Anvisual photochromic technology, in which transparent PVC (polyvinyl chloride) clothing is transformed by ultraviolet light into multi-colored outfits, like a rainbow on display in real time. Or a crochet patchwork shirt and cape, a stained glass apron dress: pieces from the future.
Of course, we don't really know how everyone can carry their own light effects, but Mr. Morinaga's use of new technologies forces us to rethink old forms and assumptions (What is color? How do we perceive it?) which are useful in the best way. Just as Junya Watanabe's exploration of three-dimensional geometry through prismatic and tubular shapes for his eponymous brand was literally transformational.
The love story between fashion and technology is reborn at Coperni, Anrealage and Junya Watanabe. Will it be more successful this time?
In 2014, Jony Ive, then Apple's design director, came to Paris Fashion Week with its Big New Product, the Apple Watch, to convince the fashion world that wearables were the future of fashion. That turned out not to be entirely true (at least in terms of style), but that didn't stop two former Apple designers, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, from coming back nine years later to try again.
This time the product is the Ai Pin - a self-contained smart assistant that attaches to clothing via a magnet and can therefore be worn just about anywhere you wish - which made its debut on the podium. jackets and trouser pockets at Coperni. The brand's founders and designers, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, became known during fashion week for their technological stunts: painting fabric on Bella Hadid to make a dress, releasing robot dogs on the catwalk.< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Compared to these antics, the pin seemed relatively subtle, especially since the models didn't actually interact with it, so it was impossible to judge except on its aesthetic . Which could be summed up as a “fancy employee badge” (the kind employees never really want to wear), but without a photo. Or, said one observer, “an Apple Watch on a lapel.” Another thought it looked like a glucometer for diabetics.
In any case, the pin didn't add any design elements to the clothes - the flat speakers were more interesting. by Transparent, incorporated into leather jackets like breasts, a funny, if juvenile, visual joke that sets a theme including metallic triangles, ruffles on the edges of zippers, and elements of performance clothing.
They could learn something from Kunihiko Morinaga from Anrealage, who doesn't just stick the technology on clothes, but integrates it into it (it's a very big difference). It recently trademarked what it calls its Anvisual photochromic technology, in which transparent PVC (polyvinyl chloride) clothing is transformed by ultraviolet light into multi-colored outfits, like a rainbow on display in real time. Or a crochet patchwork shirt and cape, a stained glass apron dress: pieces from the future.
Of course, we don't really know how everyone can carry their own light effects, but Mr. Morinaga's use of new technologies forces us to rethink old forms and assumptions (What is color? How do we perceive it?) which are useful in the best way. Just as Junya Watanabe's exploration of three-dimensional geometry through prismatic and tubular shapes for his eponymous brand was literally transformational.
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