I got to interview Kristine Upesleja of Madison's innovative textiles and the FIDM textile science department today and I wanted to share what I learned with you! If you haven't read my article on the
melange wearable tech tradeshow you can learn more about the presentation she gave there as well! Since she is an expert in this field I decided to ask Upesleja some questions about the direction of wearable tech in the future. Read on to find out all the new and exciting things coming up in fashion's newest field! Remember you heard it first here!
I’m the Textiles & Materials Manager at FIDM/ Fashion
Institute of Design & Merchandising.
I established the Innovative Materials Collection in the
Textiles & Materials Department in
the Library. It includes garments made from coffee grounds, milk, recycled
cassette tapes, or the Tommy Hilfiger solar panel coat just to name a few items
in the collection. Once a year I curate an Innovative Materials Conference that
travels to the other campuses in San Francisco, San Diego and Orange County. It
was also shown abroad at the Academy of Art in Riga, Latvia.
Two years
ago I established my own consulting firm
MADISONS – Innovative Textiles & Materials Consulting. I’m passionate about
educating future designers, professionals and anybody who wants to listen about
the possibilities in the textiles and design world. My website
www.madisonsinnovative.com
is a source
of information. You can also find me on FB and Twitter.
What do you see for
the future of wearable tech?
The ‘term’
wearable tech is diverse. As I mentioned in my presentation when we talk about
wearable tech we mainly think about devices and accessories that are connected to our phones. But it is
more than that. It means to engineer fashion
which means bringing in new materials and new ways of making things. What comes
to mind is tech clothing, emotional tech, the Bio lab and 3-D printing as an
engineering tool.
How would the 3D
printer be integrated into that?
3-D printing
is on the rise. We soon will be able to custom print our own garments including
shoes
from home or
right on the spot in a store. Materials are changing from plastics to natural
fibers.
Korean
engineers have created a system for 3-D printing ultra thin fabrics for both
electrical circuits as well as wearable applications. Beyond the fashion world
of wearables the medical market has adopted 3D printing in form of band aids
and sensors.
What are the cities
where you see this innovation happening the most?
There isn’t a specific city I would point out. In high
fashion it is the Netherlands with Iris Van Herpen on the forefront. She
however collaborates with Julia Koerner, who is an architect professor at
UCLA’s SUPRASTUDIO. Julia has created her own ready to wear 3-D line.
Michael Schmidt ( LA) and Francis Bitonti (NY) created the
Dita van Teese dress. Bitonti is very active in the 3-D industry.
Major 3-D printing
company Stratasys is located in Minnesota.
The other
most important company is Materialise
in Belgium
Nervous System is located in
Somerville, MA.
Shapeways is Dutch founded, NY based.
Do you think the
wearable tech industry is available for new ideas and innovations?
Absolutely.
It seems that almost every day a new wearable tech conference is happening
somewhere to bring engineers and designers together and to try to figure out
how to collaborate and create something really wearable. But it’ll take time.
Right now it seems
like tech companies dominate this field with google glass and apple watch etc.
Do you think that will shift towards fashion in the future?
Nobody is
even thinking or talking about the Google glass anymore. It’s out out out!! and
never was in.
This is an
example of bulky, non-efficient wearable tech in fashion.
There is
still no aesthetic sensibility when it comes to wearable tech in fashion. This
is the big challenge for both engineers and designers. A completely new
approach and expertise is required. Designers need to explore electronics,
software, bioengineering, and an entirely new retail world.
If it comes
to phone related devices such as wrist
tech the development is so fast that almost every few months a new
generation of devices hits the market.
However what
we see is that tech clothing is on
the rise. It’s predicted to overtake sales of fitness trackers in 2016. ( Ralph
Lauren smart shirt, Athos shirt etc.)
