Rainbow Winters is a fashion design house founded by the UK-based designer Amy Winters, who incorporates technology into the clothes.
Using sensors and smart textiles that adapt in response to sounds, stretch or sunlight and water, her designs can change colour and pattern. Her sound-reactive thunderstorm dress, which lights up in response to music, was on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Here, Ms Winters talks about her work.
How did the idea to combine technology into your work come about?
I trained to be a costume and set designer for theatre and I incorporated lights into an opera costume. It inspired me to think of how technology could inspire a performance so I started investigating new technologies that were more suitable for textiles. I began networking with labs to develop more interesting things.
I had a company with a friend back in 2007-2008 from college and we decided to work together to develop holographic leather. It became a full-blown business but I was more interested in the emotive and aesthetic capabilities in clothing and how it could extend our human functions. That’s when I started to think about sensors.
What has the response been like so far?
The everyday woman likes the more commercial pieces, like the petal dress that changes colour in sunlight. The museums and entertainment industry are interested in illuminated pieces. My focus is on the entertainment industry and providing that wow-factor showpiece and extending into merchandise. The thunderstorm dress has had the most impact, people understand it.
Why do we not see more technology in every day fashion?
Wearable technology has to be design-led. A lot of these things are designed by guys who think that if they shrink it, make it slim and make it pink, it will appeal to women. There are a lot of chunky, masculine wearables. We need everything to be user focused, a lot of these things are designed by engineers who don’t care if there is a bright yellow cable in a dress.
How do you see technology in fashion developing?
There will be more sophisticated sensors that will develop the idea that technology will be invisible. It will change the way we interact with our phone and will be less display-led. Wearable technology will become something that is much closer to who we are, like a second skin. If the technology is invisible it will be more wearable.
thamid@thenational.ae
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