CuteCircuit, a luxury fashion brand founded in 2004, was the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand that created the world’s first internet-connected clothing.
From LED-lit dresses worn on the red carpet by Katy Perry, to haptic tops, and handbags that displayed messages and Tweets from a phone, CuteCircuit saw great success for its innovation and products.
These designs range in complexity and form. Soundshirt, for instance, is a garment that allows deaf audiences to feel music during a concert through touch sensations. CuteCircuit states that these garments are the future of fashion which is about embracing potential to allow personal expression as a positive communication medium. “The present state of social media tends to make people draw inward or away from social contact,” explains Rosella, co-founder of CuteCircuit. “Fashion is the exact opposite of this. It makes people get out, dance, interact and surprise one another.”
As the blend of technologies merge with even more disciplines and fields, the bridging of technology and fashion provides an interesting futuristic insight into what lies ahead.
“Our vision is that all the devices we need to carry today, such as cameras, phones and trackers, will disappear in favor of microtechnologies embedded into the fabric of our garments.”
Analysis
The merging of technologies, especially electrical tech, into an area such as fashion is really interesting as the two historically were not intertwined with one another.
While wearable tech typically takes form in a small accessory of sorts, and not really involving itself in larger garments such as shirts, dresses, etc. this company is showing all the unique things that can emerge when it’s taken to this level.
As the NeuroLife sleeve is a larger wearable of electronics and a cloth material (in its preliminary phase), it’s interesting to look at what CuteCircuit is doing in order to design and maintain electronics in clothes for comfort, fashion, etc. The sleeve has a lot of embedded parts in it and the emerging trend of wearables to create some sort of fashion sense or visual interest is good to consider, though not to the extent that CuteCircuit is doing since the use and demographic is not the same. Ensuring that exposed tech is visually appeasing as well as making the sleeve form somehow comfortable, easily maintained, and aesthetic is important to consider when moving forward with the design.
