Wearable Open Design
There are good arguments as to why wearables are closely aligned with the growing movement of open design practices. To being with, Johanna Blakley has argued that fashion is predicated on “free culture”, i.e. that the history of fashion points to borrowing, remixing, and re-inventing known patterns and methods. Other designers, such as Otto von ...
Poiret: The Original Modernist
Modernity created a number of key factors germane to the production of “fashion” culture today: a mobile urban society where individuals at leisure could observe one another, a fluid economy that supported upward economic and social mobility and the technological means for things to be reproduced on a large material and geographical scale (i.e. publishing, ...
Early Wearables: Bling Bling Gambling
When tracing the history of wearables one must excavate when technology begins to be adorned on the body. The first example, the wind up clock, makes its way from being worn on a chain around the neck (for women) or on a pocket chain (for men) to the first wristwatch introduced in Geneva, Switzerland, by ...
Pretty in Pink + SRL = Wearables
It’s nice to think how the two hobbyist worlds of sewing and electronics come together in the practice of wearables, where “Pretty in Pink” meets the “Survival Research Lab“. So, what do these distinct worlds—of physical computing geeks vs. wanna-be prom queens—have in common? 1. They are “fans” of all the gear that comes with ...
Futurist Modularity
The Futurists are an interesting bunch. They fetishized technology, war, pranks in general and violence. Hum…what is there not to like? Of interest is their explorations in fashion, particularly Giacomo Balla’s modular suit. Ages ahead of Andrew Bolton’s Supermodern Wardrobe (2002) in which the author argues that modern life is increasingly predicated on a need ...
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