From Europe, fashion and technology are merging into smart clothes.
There is a whole industry dealing with the so-called intelligent textile products. “In the last 10 to 15 years, there were many EU supported research projects on smart textiles but maybe they came too early,” says Christian Stammel, CEO of Wearable Technologies, a technology company developing intelligent products like watches, glasses, wristbands or accessories, based in Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany. Today, we have the smartphone with a strong computing power and the capability to connect different devices to the cloud. “That’s why the topic of smart textiles and smart clothes has become more important now.”
Another expert agrees. “Fashion makers always look for the latest new things they can use and science always tries to push the latest new innovations. That is why they work hand-in-hand and they will do so in the future,“ says Dan Plant, a research fellow at Imperial College, who graduated from the joint Imperial/Royal College of Art Innovation Design Engineering program in London, UK. He has engineered a new material, patented as Armourgel, an energy absorbing technology used in the production of protective sports apparel for cyclists, snowboarders and motorcyclists.