DaLenee Fashion Blog

An article written by Jessica Brinton published on The Australian (online newspaper). This article offers predictions for fashion in the future and what technology would be able to do. I am going to talk about a few of my favourite ones. 1. Online shopping in the future You can buy products online and they will materialise right in front of you. How does that work? I assume it would be through an evolved 3D printer (connected to your device). This will reduce the unnecessary amount of produced clothes that are never bought or worn. Save the planet! 2. T-shirt making you a cup of coffee Need a coffee in the morning, throughout the day or late at night? What would be the definition of ‘coffee runs’ when your own T-shirt can make a coffee for you? Technology always makes living easier and more convenient for everyone and it is as expected that technology will work with fashion to create such products as a coffee-making T-shirt. 3. Grow your own leather trouser Once again with the micro-organisms to create clothing. However just realised that this would be the ideal set of clothing worn by individuals who do not want to associate with animal products (e.g. vegetarians and vegans). Technology and fashion will be a thing of the present and future. I think technology will one day be incorporated with everything but the future of fashion is so much more exciting with technology - and we can never know what amazing things will come out of it.

In the future, I hope manufacturing continues to become more eco-friendly and for designs and products to be more sustainable and recyclable (dispose of them without harming the environment). We should be more careful on what we produce and what we buy as there is many unworn clothes (millions!) around the world.

The scary thing going forth is that what we know is possible now could be considered the norm of the future. But in the future, what would we consider as ‘possible’? Would we be able to design clothes that allow us to fly? Clothes that allow us to become superheroes? Technology is advancing so quickly that it is unpredictable what will become of fashion. However, I’m excited!

Metadata is huge in determining what is trending and what will fashion designers look into designing. It is looking at how online customers interact with products online (e.g. 34 customers viewed a black leather shoe whereas only 3 customers viewed a brown plastic shoe) - it’s obvious that the black leather shoe is much more popular and will do better for sales. Brands will analyse metadata to determine what is trending and what will ultimately allow them to earn more sales given a competitive edge.

Everyone becoming a one-person factory? Once again, with 3D printers - it gives designers the option to not only design outfits but also to manufacture them through printing. But there’s one thought on my mind and that’s - how does the quality of a 3D printed fashion piece compare to one that has been made by the talented human hand? Machines can be precise but craftsmanship comes a long way. If designers were to 3D print their designs, I would imagine them as mainly prototypes. Prototype or not, I think this will dramatically evolve fashion to allow more productivity and perfection of designs.

Digital Fashion Week is a trend moving forth. Fashion shows are far more accessible as now you are able to use the internet to stream. Fashion brands can look to continually uphold their reputation by hosting streams. As before fashion was less accessible and we were required to physically attend a show, now we can view in the comfort of our homes. More fashion, yay or nay? Yay!

In the article above, it explores how future clothing emitting aromatherapy fragrances can play a part in a positive mind, for example evoking memories, enhancing alertness or increasing calmness.

https://www.launchmetrics.com/resources/blog/5-technology-trends-transforming-the-fashion-industry Absolutely enjoyed this read. I’ll be going over this article in my next 5 posts. Please stay tuned!

What I gathered from this article and the opinions of the designers above is that: 1. New fashion designers will always bring something ‘new’. 2. It is not about just creating ‘new fashion’ but also finding new ways to “communicate it, share it, and purchase it”. 3. Future fashion cannot be predicted because it depends on evolution (unpredictable) and things like economy will always change. 4. There could be a rise of more powerhouse fashion brands (young and independent designers) rather than having 2 or 3 fashion brands owning everything within a region. 5. Fashion designers are looking into more personalised designs which represent themselves. 6. 3D printing will not only allow fashion designers to design but also manufacture their designs.

“Many brands are making unisex clothes” - Lauren Sherman The unisex clothes is very neutral for both men and women. Personally myself, I like to wear guy clothing from time to time as they appear to be designed with more comfort. Hopefully these gender neutral clothing will boom further in the future.

I couldn’t be happier with the fashion movements taking way across the globe. The article predicts 3 global fashion movements: 1. Brands With A Purpose, and Organic Minimalism Fashion is moving in a direction where new brands are emerging with an eco-friendly approach by minimising the use of environmental elements. Any means of using less resources and labour work to manufacture - it can refer to as ‘ethical manufacturing’. I believe this is huge going forth as clothes are being produced second by second - looking at the state of the Earth, we want to be more conservative. 2. Gender Ambiguous Minimalism Gender neutral clothes are becoming more common and increasingly popular. In the old days, we would see a great divide by what defined ‘male clothing’ and ‘female clothing’. It would be unacceptable for males to wear female clothes and for females to wear male clothes - I am glad society is moving past that and more prominent designers are coming to offer unisex lines. Anything to help close the gap between gender imbalance is a positive to me. 3. Futuristic Fashion As technology improves, fashion incorporates technology and becomes more futuristic. It is an exciting step forward, although I am interested in how futuristic fashion will change the world of fashion. I am more so interested in the futuristic component of it that can be used to improve one’s health. Feel free to have a further read by clicking on the link. Thanks for the read. DaLenee

CuteCircuit are already introducing wearable technology to fashion shows. You can use a communication device (e.g. mobile phones) to change the images and patterns on the outfit. A light show and a fashion show - both in one event? CuteCircuit has done it!

What do all of the above have in common? They are all made by micro-organisms! According to BioCouture, they consider microbes the factory of the future. This means we can look at mass producing a lot more clothing by using less resources and energy. It doesn’t even stop there, Suzanne Lee of BioCouture even believes these living micro-organisms can be used to nourish the body and monitor it for signs of diseases. That is incredible!

Hello everyone, After reading Rebecca's article on the Future of Fabric, I am surprised about the technology we are now currently using to innovate fabrics. There are now textiles known as ‘Smart Textiles’, they are not like the traditional fabric we commonly see today but are designed to perform things I’d never have expected. Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman stated that these ‘Smart Textiles’ would be able to “communicate, transform, conduct energy and even grow”. If you haven’t heard of Rebeccah, she is an associate professor at Pratt Institute having closely researched into smart textiles and wearable technologies. In my opinion, technology has came so far that everything around us is technology - now it appears we can further encompass technology by wearing it in the form of smart textiles. Smart textiles is mainly branched into Aesthetic and Performance Enhancing but looking into the future, it will be branched into more categories as it is predicted to do much more! Aesthetic includes fabrics designed for appearance, e.g. fabrics that light up and fabrics that change colours. It’s amazing how fabrics can do this with energy gathered from the environment such as vibrations, sounds or heat. This will definitely be something to look forward to in future fashion shows. Performance enhancing includes fabrics which are more inclined for physical activities, e.g. body temperature regulation, wind resistance, muscle vibration control and more. They all help to improve athletic performance so the wearer can maximise their potential. And lastly, I mentioned that smart textiles would do much more, and I present to you my most favourite part of smart textiles going into the future. It’s that the health and beauty industry are also looking into using smart textiles for their own benefit. This means there will be things such as drug-releasing medical textiles (how helpful would this be if you were one to forget when to take your medicines), moisturising and anti-aging textiles (maintain your youth by wearing clothes - how simple!) and perfume textiles (break out a sweat? no problem!). I think smart textiles will present many opportunities for humans to live a better and more efficient lifestyle. I will provide a few examples in the upcoming posts! Thanks for reading. DaLenee

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesstylefile/2014/05/07/what-is-the-future-of-fabric-these-smart-textiles-will-blow-your-mind/#392032054914 An interesting read on the future of fabrics and how smart textiles have made their way to “provide added value to the wearer” (Gaddis, 2014). An article written by Rebecca Gaddis and published on an online article website known as Forbes. I will be discussing my thoughts about this in the next post so please stay tuned!

Hello everyone, My name is Darlene Senesombath. I am a Fashion Design student at Ultimo undertaking studies on the future of fashion. If you are interested to hear about the future of fashion, please follow and stay tuned to my journey of reflections.