Grado Zero Espace & Fashionable Science

The big question in wearable technologies is: when is it going to hit the market? There is a large chasm between research, application, design, and market-ready goods. Fortunately there are some companies out there who are specifically looking into design solutions to apply current research. And, it’s not as simple as it looks. When Flint Lockwood in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (I have a 5 year old…) invents “spray on shoes” it’s as easy as pie. Truth is, there is a lot more to it than chemical formulas and “shazam”. Which is not to say that there is not also a real wow factor to a lot of the research being done out there. As we know, Fabrican has invented spray-on textiles… but I’m still not spraying on my outfit every morning.

This is where Grado Zero Espace comes in. They are a Florence-based wearable tech company involved in R&D, but with a real fashion-forward approach and application. And why is this important? Although integrating technology into textiles, bringing it closer to the body, the skin, and to our everyday behaviours, physical changes, site-specific experiences and environments — the technologies and industries that come together to create new relationships.

Further read: Grado Zero Espace Interview on Fashioning Technology.

This series of blog posts are an analysis of the works recently presented at the V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media Text_Lab “Clothing without Cloth” event I curated which included: Emily Crane (UK), Carole Collet (UK), Christien Meindertsma (NL), Grado Zero Espace (IT), Pauline van Dongen (NL) and Freedom of Creation (NL).