Last week’s episode of Project Runway was about ‘electrification’ of fashion indicating that wearable technology awareness slowly enters the world of fashion design.
First I was exited to see such prominent placement of wearable tech but after the first few minutes into the show I got hugely disappointed and irritated in the way the ‘innovative electrification’ of fashion was organized.
I am not commenting on the final creations of the competing designers as they tried to make the best out of a highly dis-organized challenge.
Giving each participant 300 bucks and send them to a electronic shop without prior introduction to wearable tech is rather pointless as I could observe on the remarks and visible confusion on the designer side.
Why-oh-why has this not been a little better organized? Is it because the Project Runway maker have no clue what wearable technology means but wanted to show how innovative, how well they are connected to new trends?
Why not giving participants a short intro about wearable tech – there are many sources and resources around the WWW. Why not giving participants a eTextile set from Aniomagic for example. They provide not only easy to use, sew-able lights and other components but also a easy to use programming tool anyone can learn within 30 minutes. Why spend time and money in a hardware shop that sells Christmas decoration?
The very predictable outcome: a Runway illuminated by walking Christmas trees dresses. I am not surprised as the only material a designer gets is a light chain from the left-over Christmas market or neon light strips from the safety section of a home builder store.
Did I mention how much I hate erratic flashing lights on clothing except on emergency and safety outfits?
The Project Runway challenge demonstrates how fashion design is still very much a ‘more of the same differently assembled’ culture rather than innovative, embracing new technologies and techniques.
Fortunately the number of truly innovative fashion designer is growing rapidly, fashion designer acquiring additional skills necessary to ‘electrify’ fashion in an astonishing, fascinating and captivating way.
Disclaimer: I am giving Aniomagic as example because their offerings would need very little prior knowledge for designer who never looked at eTextile techniques. Using the LilyPad component range would surly require more time to familiarize newcomer to eTextile design.