Cheers to the man-machine trans-human tomorrows! By using a technology used in commercial stun guns, Adam Whiton created a jacket that protects women from assailants. It creates a powerful but non-lethal 80,000-volt shock. The wearer is protected by the inner layer of the jacket while the assailant experiences a painful shock, disorientation, and loss of balance. Twenty-first-century fashion is becoming aligned with ambitions to maximize the body’s potential, enhancing the performance and equipping the body with new skills and greatly enhancing intellectual and psychological well-being.
Future body ideals will be based on the heroes of Science fiction, demonstrating superhero strength, speed, and stealth, rather than reflecting true human physiques.
Stories about Superheroes have fascinated people for almost a century now. Their stealth, power and superhuman talents inspire designers, such as Golce & Gabbana and their Spring/Summer 2007 collection that featured strong silhouettes and tough materials and polished-metal pieces, and technologists like O’Neill, an innovator in swimwear designs. The determination to replicate Superman, Captain America and Iron Man’s power will continue long into the future due to the fact that their wardrobe is not only functional but also comprised of the ultimate high-performance attire.
What makes superheroes clothing so desirable though?
Yes, superheroes do have enhanced senses, the ability to camouflage themselves, fly to air at great speed or project energy bolts. However, it’s their clothing that makes them distinctive and unique. Batman is Bruce without his costume and all his toys. The superhero’s wardrobe is form-fitting, shape-shifting and enhanced with communications technology.
The garments are indestructible with an armour like protection. Those attributes though can now be produced by technology, integrated into garments and this allows fashion to reproduce some superhuman abilities, for example, the No-Contact Jacket made by Adam Whiton.
Also nowadays it is possible even to soar through the sky Superman-style by using Atair Aerospace’s flexible wingsuit.
The futuristic aircraft Is made of advanced aerospace composite materials. It is so small and lightweight that you can wear it as a backpack. The high-tech garment permits skydivers to fly to a target miles away from the drop point. Even though their success was questioned by the BirdMan Rocket Team who claimed to have created the first ever jet powered birdman flight, AeroSuit stayed in the history as the garment that made flying possible. In the future it is expected that the engine will develop even further, become more powerful and allow the wearer to lift off like a rocket, resembling a superhero taking flight.
Protective clothing has developed dramatically in recent years as well. In the past metallic fibers and polymeric materials and padded surfaces created the experience of fortified fashion rather than comfortable clothing.
These days though protective clothing is being more and more inspired by the natural world. Lightweight, resilient synthetic fabrics like Kevlar, which is a liquid that is converted into an extremely strong fiber, usually used in combination with other materials, Aracon, high strength fiber used for bullet-resistant vests, and Twaron, fiber currently used in automobile, sport, and aerospace, are the future. According to Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomiminry 3.8 group, in the near future protective clothing will become comfortable and efficient. The biomimicry becomes established as an area of innovation and creativeness as it offers a wider understanding of nature’s shielding processes so that to create protective garments.
Another method of resisting bullets, preventing punches and repelling knife slashed is the new technology called nanoscale. Researchers at MIT have found out that nanoparticles of such metals as iron can be controlled with magnets to create garments. The magnet changes the textile’s properties and makes it from a soft-textured material to rigid matter and protects the wearer. If the magnetic field, which is controlled by the wearer, is reduced, the garment returns to its labile shape almost instantly. Even though so far garments using this method and technology have not been commercially fabricated, the project has developed far beyond theoretical phase. Although the term ‘smart’ garments might sound shiny and fresh, smart fabrics is an industry that has been around for quite some time now operating under the radar in the B2B world, leading market research experts.
It is predicted that the smart garment industry will reach $2.9 million by 2022 even though it is still in its infancy. Projects like Google and Levi’s Project Jacquard, which connects your phone with your jacket cuffs, proves that the future of fashion lies in the smart garments.
Smart garments
Even though there are no garments so far developed to enhance human power and make us stronger, so-called ‘smart’ garments are an important part of the superhero suit. Imagine a T-shirt that can ‘see’ and ‘smell’ on behalf of you and enhance all your senses. This will become an indispensable part of the chemical industry, allowing the workers to find leaking gases and toxins and prevent harmful situations of happening.
‘Smart’ object will be of great help to blind people as well by warning them of approaching objects.
Fashion designers are becoming the creator of fictional superheroes. However, their garments will be worn by real people in real situations. The most recent ‘superhuman’ designs were the EMEL + ARIS, who make beautifully tailored Smart Coats that use FIR heat energy absorbed by the skin, which would be perfect for you if you’re always freezing like Iceman, the Moodmetric Ring developed by Niina Venho and Henry Rimminen, which promotes happiness, in case you’re always in a bad mood like Batman, high-end luxury 3D printed jewellery made by Banneya that is perfect for anyone who likes Wonderwoman’s style, and the Smart Nadi Leggings made by Wearable Experiments especially for you if you’re as flexible as Mr.
Fantastic.
Many of the limitations people are facing today will become a thing of the past. Forthcoming fashions will change the future dramatically. They will echo what we humans know to be true about ourselves: that we have the possibility to be more than we let ourselves to be. Fashion becomes more aligned with humanistic values and personal achievements. Wearable technology is an indispensable part of the future of fashion as it will provide wearer’s with the opportunity to achieve personal happiness.
