From digital-display dresses to remote control couture, this book exposes the revolutionary interface between contemporary fashion and technology. As twenty-first century fashion makes a dramatic departure from traditional methods, designers no longer turn to the past for inspiration, but look to the hi-tech future. The result is techno fashion, the new wave of intelligent clothing that fuses fashion with communication technology, electronic textiles, and sophisticated design innovations that express new ideas about appearance, construction and wearability. Born out of the collaboration between fashion designers, researchers and scientists, this new dialogue could be the most significant design innovation in fashions history, or indicate its eventual demise. Either way, techno fashion promises to forever disrupt the historical narrative of fashion evolution.

Through interviews with designers ranging from innovators such as Hussein Chalayan and Tristan Webber to mavericks like Alexander McQueen, Bradley Quinn examines the impact of this new direction. The fusion of design and technology introduced by Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake has created another direction for clothing, creating a new breed of designer-cum-scientist who redefines the way we dress, communicate, and even respond to environmental changes. As technology begins to shape fashion's future, it redefines the boundaries between clothing, body and machine, forever transforming the ethics and lifestyles traditionally designated by codes of dress.

About the Author/Editor

Bradley Quinn Author and Journalist

Contents

Contents

Introduction

Fashion and the Built Environment

Yeohlee Teng

Lucy Orta

Hussein Chalayan

Twenty-first-century Bodies

Tristan Webber

Alexander McQueen

Hussein Chalayan

Surveillance

Simon Thorogood

Vexed Generation

Katrina Barillova

Cybercouture

Pia Myrvold

nothing nothing

Grey Area

Intelligent Fashion

i-Wear

Electric Embroidery

Sensory Signals

Techno Medicine

Military Intelligence

Working Intelligence

Transformables

Bits and Pieces: Patrick Cox, Galya Rosenfeld and
John Ribbe

John Ribbe

C P Company

Kosuke Tsumura: Final Home

Jeff Griffin

Japanese Innovation

Rei Kawakubo

Yohji Yamamoto

Issey Miyake

Michiko Koshino

Junya Watanabe

Electric Textiles

Daniel Herman

Shelley Fox

Elisabeth de Senneville

Kei Kagami

Nigel Atkinson

Rebecca Earley

Sophie Roet

Savithri Bartlett

Shape-shifting Textiles

Sportswear: Technology in Motion

Technology in Motion

Bridging the Gap

Fashion Active Lab

Sports Shoes

Notes

Index