I don’t think it comes as a surprise that fashion is a huge interest of mine. And naturally, as a student in interactive multimedia, I also have a huge interest in technology. Wearable technology is something that you would think interests me, but I RARELY see technology and fashion melding into something that’s actually worth talking about. It’s usually something stupid like light up clothing or Diane von Furstenberg having her models wear Google Glass on the runway.
Seriously…wtf?
Wearable technology isn’t that engaging because, really, it mostly seems like an experiment in what technology can do to make fashion look even more ridiculous than it already is. Everything I’ve seen just seems like it’s a “what sort of circuitry can we put on an existing garment?” sort of thing.
There is nothing cool about adding lights to a coat
Not too long ago I did come across Durex’s Fundawear project which was, in all honestly, the first time I saw wearable technology as something useful. It wasn’t just “shit added to other shit.” It actually strived to solve a problem, and a really major one, and it seems like it was implemented impeccably.
The only thing that’s kind of a downer, is Fundawear isn’t available.
Enter United Nude’s Lo Res project. The shoe created for this project is pretty much, in my opinion, the perfect union between fashion and technology.
The beautiful low-poly shoe created for United Nude”s Lo Res project
To give you the TL;DR version: the Lo Res project scans real life objects and uses custom software to create low poly 3D models based on the 3D points on the real life object. The result are these beautiful low-poly looking objects.
The reason why I love this shoe so much is because it really shows how technology and fashion can come together and make something beautiful. Wearable technology before was just a “we’ll do it because we can” sort of thing; it never really seemed like there was real thought behind what was done. United Nude instead used technology to make something with great aesthetics, that also happens to be wearable.
I seriously hope that fashion and technology can meld in these sorts of ways more. It’s wonderfully innovative, beautiful, and practical. Which is what fashion, and technology, should be to begin with.
