Different from functional clothing, smart garments not only need to meet the basic needs of sports and health levels such as comfort, waterproof and warm through scientific and technological innovation fabrics, but also need comprehensive sensing, touch, intelligent interconnection and other cutting-edge technologies to achieve the ultimate unit of human-clothing interaction.
Therefore, in the past, smart clothing has been a very rare case of cooperation between Internet giants or technology companies, and even been jokingly called "IQ tax", and has not formed a real popularity and market demand; for the fashion industry, in addition to staying on the wearable smart device or the so-called scientific and technological beauty, smart clothing is still facing market popularity, public demand, technical level and other restrictions, and there is a considerable distance from the real world. IDC has previously predicted that smart clothing will only reach about 3% of wearables by 2023.
But nowadays, there is still more and more cooperation cases between fashion brands and technology companies, so that the increasing technology content of high-end ready-to-wear appears in the public eye again and again, and even in the fashion week agenda. How far is the era of smart ready-to-wear?
On the evening of March 1, Beijing time, at the Dior Fall/Winter 2022 ready-to-wear show with the theme of "The Next Era", Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of women's wear, based on the innovative technology of the D-Air laboratory, transformed the original structural design of the Bar Jacket classic set into an extraordinary system that adjusts the body's humidity and heats up when necessary.
Dior Fall/Winter 2022 ready-to-wear show
It also includes suits with electronic controls, tights using thermostatic technology, and high-tech fabrics decorated with embroidery elements, which give more technology to high-end ready-to-wear.
D-Air Labs is a start-up that makes protective clothing such as the Antarctica Suit, which allows scientists to conduct scientific research at temperatures as low as minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit. For this collaboration, Maria Grazia Chiuri has said that the dialogue between Dior's classic Bar Jacket and the pragmatism of D-Air is indeed experimental, but it is also a different way of thinking, helping designers find new solutions, saying: "Through this collaboration, I also want to show the human side of technology. ”
This is not the first time that fashion brands have cooperated with technology companies, whether it is Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, kate Spade, or Levi's, Joe's jeans and many other fashion brands, they have repeatedly explored the possibilities of cutting-edge technology and fashion aesthetics by giving garments higher technology content, and are moving closer to the uncertain future of smart ready-to-wear.
Through a collaboration with Royole Technology, the global leader in flexible displays, flexible sensing, flexible screen mobile phones and related smart devices, Louis Vuitton presented the first flexible screen handbag in the Women's Collection in the Early Spring 2020 women's collection, and has since been exhibited at the Viva Technology Summit in Paris, France.
A flexible screen handbag in Louis Vuitton's Women's Collection for Pre-Spring 2020
At that time, the collaborative series was named "Canvas from the Future" - users can play pictures, videos and touch interaction through flexible displays, so that luxury handbags are not only accessories with travel storage and decoration, but also have the human-computer interactivity of wearable smart devices to a certain extent.
In addition, it includes a smart T-shirt designed by Ralph Lauren with hardware units, circuits, and sensors to detect the user's heart rate and breathing rate; Google's collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent through the Jacquard project to create a Cit-E smart backpack with a smartphone that can control the smartphone; and Kate Spade's cooperation with startup Everpurse to launch a women's bag to charge the iPhone, and Joe's jeans The introduction of jeans.... has repeatedly sparked a discussion about smart ready-to-wear.
Ralph Lauren Smart T-Shirt
But it is also an indisputable fact that almost no fashion brand or product line has entered the market in a big way, stirring up widespread demand and popularity.
So, how far is the era of smart ready-to-wear? How can the R&D strength and phased achievements continuously invested by many technology companies be further accepted in the fashion industry? Are there still untapped helpers?
Among them, another force that works with technology companies to promote the development of smart clothing is that many sports brands participate in the form of "sports + social interaction", which may bring further enlightenment to smart clothing. Especially in the past two years or so, from the growth momentum of the digital social ecology and even the online interactive economy such as intelligent interconnection during the epidemic period, to the increasing emphasis on scientific sports and healthy lifestyles around the world, it may help to complete the promotion of wearable smart devices from "wear" to "wear" again.
Among them, sports brands such as Nike and adidas as an example, in addition to embedding intelligent sensing devices in sportswear to record various sports data, through online and offline social interaction experience and theme activities, enhance the community attributes of the smart sports fashion segment.
In March last year, when many technology companies were still focusing on wearable smart devices such as smart watches, Google launched a smart fabric Project Jacquard, and joined hands with sports brands adidas and EA to use Google's Jacquard wearable technology to launch a smart insoles called Adidas GMR, which entered the market for $40.
Google unites sports brands adidas and EA to launch smart insoles
Adidas GMR Connects to a smartphone, and the GMR tag connects to the phone's Adidas GMR app, which can be set up and linked to a FIFA Mobile profile, where users unlock a range of Adidas GMR activities – for example, a record of kicking moves or running miles, as well as leaderboards related to speed and mileage.
Although there is considerable difference in comparability with fashion brands that have always paid attention to fashion aesthetics, stylistic characteristics, and even history and culture, through the interactive experience and social attributes other than sensing and control, it can undoubtedly bring a greater market cut to the current concept of smart ready-to-wear.
Similarly, it includes applications such as the earliest Nike+ iPod and later Nike+Running – by putting sensors into sneakers, you can record various sports data such as running time, distance, energy consumption, etc., and receive various medals. Since then, with the update of the app and a series of offline activities, Nike Run Club Community has also given runners around the world the opportunity to communicate and interact more deeply by sharing stories, setting the number of kilometers completed and inviting friends to participate in challenges, and completing goals together.
Nike Run Club
It also includes a long-distance running theme activity of "Nike + Race For All Mankind" jointly sponsored by Nike and Apple, and hundreds of offline running activities organized around Nike + Running.
It is also worth mentioning that unlike the embedding of external sensor devices in clothing, the research and development of intelligent fabrics that have reached more than 20 years has gradually spread from academic research projects to the commercial market. Apple, which was granted a patent to make fabric buttons for homePods, is currently working on how to weave sensors and switches into fabrics and can be used in smart bags, furniture, clothing and more, according to a new patent in late February. The patent, called "Fabric Control Device," is primarily about the details of embedding anything into the fabric.
Although Apple has not yet disclosed the specific products that this patent will invest in, whether it will be produced independently or will be involved in fashion, luxury, sports and other fields in the form of cooperation. But what is certain is that when the fabric becomes a control device, it will undoubtedly bring impetus to the era of smart ready-to-wear again.
Long-term R & D investment, as well as repeated participation, trial, cooperation, in different categories of clothing to add sensors, smart clothing has attracted sports brands, fashion brands have joined, and Dior, Louis Vuitton and other luxury brands in haute couture present more and more high technology content.
But when will smart ready-to-wear truly usher in a new era? Under the overall technological progress and industrial evolution, there is still a comprehensive uncertainty. As Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at NYU Stern's School of Business and founder of the digital think tank L2, puts it: "The overlap between the two fields is not as great as one might think." Technology is essentially about creating utility and affecting billions of people. Fashion is about creating a moment, a trend, a romance, and spreading it to a few influential people. ”
Therefore, whether it is a technology company or a fashion industry, even though smart watches and smart ear wear devices have condensed a considerable market size, smart garments may still face the test of change from quantitative change to qualitative change.
For technology companies, from the wearing logic embedded in sensor devices to the latest smart fabrics, compared with smart devices worn on the wrist, smart garments will test tightness and agility, and how to further protect consumer safety issues? In addition to recording, controlling, and synchronizing the social interaction experience of smartphones, what practical features does smart technology need to bring to greater stimulation of mass demand?
For the fashion industry, tentative participation is destined to grasp only a small part of the market, or to present a momentary technological beauty under a limited theme. If we want to promote the full arrival of the era of smart ready-to-wear, how to reasonably allocate brand resources in the future when market feedback is still uncertain? Joint cooperation, capsule limitation, choosing your own cooperation method and product planning strategy are all factors that need to be considered.
Finally, for the consumer groups with the most say, mixed reviews still exist. From meeting the needs of practical functions to the real sense of human clothing interaction, the future of smart clothing may be the ultimate unit of the Internet of Things in the 6G era. WWD
Written by yalta
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