Wearable tech is more than just "LEDs and flashing lights," materials alchemist Lauren Bowker discusses the fashion industry and new tech
When you think of wearable tech images of Google Glass, Nike Fuelband and the Samsung Galaxy Gear spring to the forefront of most people’s minds, but believe it or not non-iron and waterproof materials are also forms of wearable tech.
“The electronic phase of wearable technology has been a buzzword for the past 12-15 years and it’s become a gimmick, quite stereotypically plastic and not really aesthetically centred. In the 1950s chemical fabrics were created and that in itself is a wearable technology,” explained Seetheunseen materials alchemist and The Drum 4 Minute Warning speaker, Lauren Bowker.
“You only have to look in Marks & Spencer to find a skirt that doesn’t need ironed or coats that are water and dirt repellent, those in themselves are wearable tech, they just haven’t been called that and given the gimmick.”
According to Bowker there is so much more to wearable tech than “LEDs and flashing lights” and that brands and designers need to start “opening their eyes” to see beyond the electronics before a real movement in wearable tech can begin.
With YSL CEO Paul Deneve and Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts both joining Apple within the last six months many believed the worlds of fashion and tech were finally beginning to merge, but in conversation with The Drum ahead of her panel at The Drum’s 4 Minute Warning conference next week Bowker raised her concerns.
“Despite these hires Apple still won’t be looking to create products that are couture and that are going to lead fashion. They’re trying to create a mass market led product; it won’t be the next McQueen, Apple’s signature is hardware technology so they’re going to make a hardware product, even something like a watch will probably still be made of plastic.”
Having exhibited worldwide from Paris Fashion Week to The Royal Academy of Engineering Bowker has seen the fashion industries reaction to wearable tech first hand and reveals “they [fashion designers] don’t really want it”. She adds: “The idea of wearable tech was thrown on the fashion industry in the Blade Runner-esque years and everyone repelled against it. Fashion is an industry that very much sticks to the rules, they’ve got it and it works for them, there’s a hierarchy as fashion is a cult business. For wearable technology to succeed the key players in the fashion industry need to be shown a different route, away from the gimmicks.”
Working on the chemical and biological side of wearable tech Bowker reveals that there are “interesting little cohorts coming together around London” and though they are tech start-ups she believes once “you get one that is a tech start-up and an amazing fashion house then there will be an emergence of other designers wanting to take that technology.”
As we delve deeper into a digital world Bowker believes we need to look at our current education system to create “new courses for those who can code but can also pattern cut” as currently the worlds of science and art remain on two separate spectrums.
Thinking back to her days at school Bowker said: “You couldn’t take textiles with something like chemistry as you wouldn’t fit into the system. Textiles is seen as a lifestyle and to study it is quite a long process with four or five days’ worth of lessons and time in the studio, whereas chemistry is maybe three days, so it doesn’t all physically fit in a week.”
She adds: “The younger generation will be the ones who will shape wearable tech and hopefully our generation can start to show them different ways to think about technologies and materials. We need to start changing people’s minds about what wearable tech is and what it means.”
Lauren Bowker is just one of a number of speakers taking part at The Drum's 4 Minute Warning conference next week. Topics up for debate include future macro trends, smart cities, connected stuff, the future of mobile, wearable tech and extra life senses. For more information and to book tickets visit the 4 Minute Warning site.