Tech is the new Fashion
As Adobe unveiled its new shapeshifting digital dress, Technology is taking another turn along with fashion. Nerds are starting to have taste.
Culture has become the fabric of technology. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a decent amount of clothing brands opting for more looks involving technology. But, you probably haven’t seen anything quite like this yet. Adobe unveiled a digital dress. You read it right. The same company that created the most famous PDF app is making its way to fashion runways. To put it simply, this dress has multiple tiny screens embroidered into the cloth, which are able to display different patterns and digital visuals. After wearables such as smartwatches, rings, and even shoes, this dress prototype is opening a brand new lane for fashion.
This article delves into technology becoming a pedestal for fashion through the example of this Adobe digital dress and the future of tech in this particular and static space.
TECH AS A FASHION STATEMENT
At the occasion of their annual Adobe Max event, the software company presented their Project Primrose, an interactive dress allowing the display of various undulating designs. Adobe research scientist Christine Dierk modeled the piece, which revealed the designs one after the other with the press of a button or automatically after she makes a specific motion. This stunning feat of technology represents a canvas for creativity and leaves room for endless possibilities. Fashion, being a means of expression, the promise of the tech company is to introduce a more dynamic and interactive way of expressing oneself. You can imagine people creating multiple designs and trying them all at once.
Adobe Illustrator is a staple software for designers, and this ground-breaking hardware is yet again another Adobe tool bringing those designs to life in real clothing pieces. As technology is improving, flexible displays are starting to push the boundaries of what’s possible and allow infinite creativity thanks to their modularity, flexibility, and compactness. These attributes make them adaptable to more surfaces and various use cases. The tinier the sensors and chips become, the more quantity of technology you can embed, and the more you can apply it to other fields.
FASHION: THE NEW ELDORADO FOR TECHNOLOGY
Photo by Mike Coppola via Getty Images
If you’ve been following the fashion space as much as the tech one over the last five years, you have probably noticed a trend: both have started to overlap and create a whole new aesthetic and purpose. The presence of tech in the fashion scene is increasing each day, and it will seemingly continue doing so. In the last five years, we’ve seen the most prominent celebrities and brands embracing this successful relationship. Artists like Frank Ocean brought along a green roboto baby at the 2021 Met Gala. This bold fashion statement made the look more dynamic, edgy, and bizarre at the same time, which greatly set him apart from the other looks. He himself wore dark tones and plain pieces, which made the slime green, grills-wearing baby robot stand out even more and complemented his look. The fact that the robot was moving made the whole imagery iconic. This level of curation has opened up a fresh new lane for designers, bridging the gap between technology and fashion.
Even sportswear giant Nike used technology as its muse to amuse consumers. They released their iconic fictional sneaker that was first seen in the 1989 film Back To The Future II in 2011, called the Nike Mags. They are self-lacing shoes and can be activated with only the help of a button. They leveraged technology to make the shoes not only practical but also gave them a futuristic look. Taking inspiration from this adaptive tech, the company released self-lacing basketball shoes in 2019 and 2020.
Furthermore, they concocted an exclusive LED Nike Nocta jacket for Drake, which makes the swooshes on the piece glow and animate with different colors. Just like the dress made by Adobe, these wearables are paving the way for the next generations of clothing once they reach the general public. Just imagine your hoodies or shoes adapting to your body shape or even featuring the designs you crafted yourself through an app that the manufacturer would provide you with. Imagine all the computing your phone is able to provide accessible directly from your attire. Fad or reality?
Scientists, engineers, companies, and universities are spending their financial and human resources crafting new technologies that are based on human interactions with technology. As a result, it gave birth to products such as the Primrose digital dress, which is one of the first of its kind to be a solid enough prototype in this field. Unfortunately, it still is evident this will not be released and is only kept for research purposes. However, it represents a rough draft of where fashion is heading.
Technology is slowly making its way to the fashion scene in the most beautiful and avant-garde way. But some might find it cringy and distasteful. A big question remains: how do you wash this piece?