DRKN is one of the most popular Swedish fashion brands of the younger generations. The designers behind the brand reach out to the world of video games for inspiration: their latest line of shirts and hoodies, set to be released in the coming weeks, is created based on the upcoming military shooter FPS “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”. This modernist approach to fashion design is popular all over the world, even if it’s not true innovation – it’s just a novel approach to branding and decoration. There is, in turn, a lot of creative work going on behind the scenes of the fashion industry, with companies trying to marry apparel, technology, and the protection of the environment. Here are some of the most exciting products that will change the way we dress in the coming years.
Smart apparel
Embedding technology in the clothes we wear is the holy grail of the fashion business. With sensors getting smaller, and our lives increasingly connected, the definition of “wearable technology” changes before our eyes. There are quite a few exciting pieces of clothing available today that have already successfully merged technology with textile. One of them is Commuter x Jacquard, a denim jacket built by Google and Levi’s that can connect to your phone via Bluetooth and can control the volume of the music playback, for example, through a few swipes on its sleeve.
Today, we can invest in stylish and innovative pieces of clothing that are “smart”, like the Tommy Jeans Xplore line with embedded location tracking technology, the Nadi X yoga pants that will correct your yoga pose through haptic feedback or Neviano’s swimsuits that have a UV sensor and will tell you when sunbathing becomes dangerous.
Innovative textiles
High-tech is just one of the areas where the fashion industry is changing – the other is that of the materials used. Today, there are several businesses that seek to improve the way the industry works, reducing its pollution and waste production and making it more sustainable and green.
One of the completely innovative approaches to textiles that may catch your eyes is the one at Orange Fiber, an Italian company that took a waste product available in great supply in its home: discarded citrus fiber from the production of juices. The method invented by the company turns this waste into a sustainable and beautiful textile that can be used to make scarves, blouses, and other items.
Another exciting innovator in the area is Alga-Life, a “cleantech” firm making fiber from algae. The company uses specific cultivars of these microorganisms to create not only textile but innovative pigments, too. Aside from these being completely natural and eco-friendly, they are also biodegradable, virtually waste-free, and use up to five times less water than traditional fabric.
The fashion industry is constantly changing, not only in style but also in its approach to manufacturing. These innovative textiles are a novelty today but they will probably become the norm in the near future.
