Smart Dressing: How Techno & Synthetic Fabrics Are Changing Our Lives

We recently came across an interesting article in Cosmos Magazine about “Life In 2020“. The article depicts how very different life may be in only a short time from now. A section on smart dressing stuck out to us and we wanted to share it with you.

“…Scientists are working on materials that will not only change our homes but will transform the way we dress through the creation of ‘intelligent clothes’. Special fabrics, fitted with monitors, will study our health throughout the day, while we sleep, work and exercise. For example, at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney, researchers have created a fabric that emits a groaning sound to warn sportsmen and women if they are stretching or moving in ways that could harm them.

“Another concept being developed by scientists involves embedding clothes with mobile phone chips. ‘The idea is that if you get injured out hill-walking or skiing, sensors will detect physiological and temperature changes to your body,’ says Jane McCann of Derby University in England. ‘The garment will alert the mobile phone chip to call the nearest hospital.’”

Synthetic fabrics are changing the way we live. Our lives are being altered by new synthetic, ‘techno-fabrics’ the same way in which technology is altering other areas of our lives at the moment.

Clothing, one of life basic necessities, is being modernized and changed to better adapt to current times. These new man-made fabrics have progressed to being able to be incorporated with natural fabrics to enhance and change their properties. In some cases these techno-fabrics are standing on their own.The website for the Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton states, “These textiles are entering museum collections as examples of fine art, haute couture and high-tech sportswear as well as innovative medical and industrial equipment.”

As we develop these synthetic fabrics further, basic tasks in life such as getting dressed will change as well. The way we relate to clothing and it’s innate functionality will enhance. We see this happening throughout menswear from Calvin Klein to Nike.

These materials have already filtered many areas of clothing. The July 23, 2007 issue of DNR states that, “New synthetic fabrics invaded virtually every runway, and not just in outerwear but across every category….Synthetics have been around for decades, but never before have they held up such a big mirror to our digitized, wireless, data-saturated era. These looks are not for the timid, at least for now. This movement, driven by innovation, is unlikely to fade away.”

Technology has drastically altered our life since 1994, with the ubiquity of mobile phones and the internet. Anyone see those relics on the street called pay phones? Would you have dared thought of a device as innovative as the iPhone only 13 years ago?

Imagine the change and impact to our lives of another 13 years in 2020.