Wearable technology is not a new concept, but it’s a concept that is closer and closer to reality. Recently, Google launched it’s all-famous Google glasses, making us wonder, or, better said, rethink what the future will look like. Besides from the technology part of the invention, which is a pair of glasses that work like a smart-phone in front of your eyes, bringing the concept of augmented reality (which already exists on phones and tablets) on the lens of your glasses. These glasses also have a camera that takes photos and shoots films as well. This concept can change the way we live, that is something most people probably agree on. But, besides changing the way we live, it might also change the way we look. Is everyone in the future going to be wearing glasses (even if they don’t need them for medical purposes)? Imagine, a world where people with glasses rule.
What we need to have in mind when speaking about technology and clothes is how functionality and style combine. Throughout history there have been many attempts to make thing either functional, but not stylish or stylish but not functional. Usually things that are both work the best. Just look at the smartphones we have today. They both look and work great! The same is in the case of clothes. You can have clothes that incorporate technology but are not practical to wear and you can have really stylish clothes that incorporate technology and are perfectly-wearable as well. There are such things as laser-tshirts and GPS-shoes. Reading this, you realize that the first one is just for the fashion (it needs to be discussed on whether this is fashion or not) and the GPS-shoes are a technical thing. What we need to ask ourselves is whether this type of technology is useful or not. What is the difference between having GPS in your shoes from having this system on your tablet? We believe that technology should be used in clothing to make our lives easier. Just like kitchen appliances made our lives easier, and so should technology.
In order to imagine the future, we need to understand the past.
It’s hard to imagine what fashion and clothes in general will look like. Who could have predicted in the 1880 that 50 years later, women will be appearing on film in short dresses and with their hair cut short?
We attached a video from the 1930, where you can see how it was believed that fashion would change in the year 2000.
It’s really amazing to see how right they, even though not exactly right. Yes, today dresses (and clothes in general) can be dressed up and down for evening, for example, the “hair raise” actually took place, but in the 1970s and 1980, while dresses of transparent net are not something that uncommon today. We loved the girl that was wearing a light bulb attached to her head, it somewhat reminded us of the Google glasses. Anyway, they were quite wrong when it came to
men’s fashion. Suits and ties did not disappear, but they do come with phone and radio (and so much more). Wow, amazing how they could forecast all these things.
Of course, predictions are made regarding the status quo of the era they are made in. We can not invent things that have not been invented. In the 1930, people cold not have predicted the invention of the computer. If they could have, they would have invented it.
The things that are happening in an era and the social advances make us rethink the future: in the 1920s (as you can see in the picture) it was believed that the radio would play a huge role, because they could not predict cell phones. It is amazing that they predicted video calls and if look closely at the picture, you will see how the video call was connected to a globe (something like the GPS today).
In the 1970s, it was thought that in the future people would fly around carrying some sort of jet propellers attached to their backs. That was, of course, influenced by the recent moon and space explorations of that time.
Today we have a lot of wearable technology, we have so-called e-textiles, which are used to create effects like making a dress glow when you receive a phone call, but these are all just gadgets incorporated into clothes. These textiles go great with smaller and smaller processors and chips that help you improve your life, especially for people who do sports or business.
Wearable technology could make sports fairer, could make story telling different and will make human interaction different. How that would be, is a thing we can’t predict at this moment.
We believe that in the future people will discover a new sense of style, this is what we always try to bring up with our blog, where each individual discovers how he can use fashion to create style. Using something just for the sake of it is useless, this is why we want to help people discover and fulfill their own needs and desires.
As we said earlier, technology and style should go together hand in had in fields such as sports or medicine. We think it is possible that in the future there will be a code such as the driving signs that the whole world knows. For example, if someone’s clothes turn a certain color, everyone on the street should know that person is having some sort of medical attack and call the ambulance before the symptoms are made visible.
Can technology be stylish? Yes. But technology should help people or process things, and that’s how it should be incorporated into fashion.
In the end, we can only remind you that you know how they say: “The future is ours to create.”
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. What do you think the fashion of the future will be? Make your predictions and we’ll see what happens (or your grand children’s generation). Write your thoughts in the comments below!
2 replies on “Fashion Of The Future”
That 1922 drawing is really nifty!
We really like it too!