This designer lit up the runway with Intel technology
NEW YORK -- Fashion's future is looking bright.
During the second day of New York Fashion Week on Friday, architecture-inspired clothing line Chromat literally lit up the runway.
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After pushing boundaries with smart garments at her show last season, the label's designer, Becca McCharen, continues to lead the charge toward fashion innovation.
Partnering again with Intel, McCharen incorporated the tech company's Curie Module to illuminate her dresses.
Models wore thin hand-wraps equipped with StretchSense's soft and stretchable sensors that responded to their bodies. As they squeezed their hands the accessory reacted to the pressure by sending a wireless signal to the garment, telling it to light up.
While these items are strictly show pieces, making this technology available for mass production is not as far off as you may think.
Todd Harple, Intel's director of innovation and path-finding strategy, believes fashion technology is on the cusp of a breakthrough.
"We're rounding the corner of materials becoming more stretchable, flexible, and washable," he told Mashable. "Power is a big thing too. One of the things we really focused on with Curie is trying to get the power down while keeping the performance up so that we can have more sensors and interpret more data right on the body."
Bioluminescence -- the production and emission of light by a living organism -- was a major inspiration for the collection.
McCharen told Mashable that she was interested in how light is a factor in communication and protection with underwater creatures. She was curious to explore the different ways that clothing could replicate these functions.
As strong supporter of body diversity, the designer hopes that one day fashion and tech can work together to cater specifically to shopper's individual shapes.
"With so much diversity and range of sizing it's so hard to find something that fits," she told Mashable. "I love 3D printing. What if you could just scan your body, download the files and print out the perfect custom size. I love the idea of clothing becoming like an MP3 where you just download it and immediately have what you need."
It looks like McCharen might have found the inspiration for Chromat's next collection.
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Topics Intel
Noelle Sciacca is a Fashion Reporter at Mashable. Noelle writes on the intersection of fashion and the media. A graduate of Liberty University with a degree in Business Marketing, Noelle previously worked for SELF Magazine and Lucky Magazine. At Mashable, her aim is to make the most innovative, entertaining, and empowering fashion content on the web.
