The 2016 Met Museum’s annual black-tie evening on May 2, called the Costume
Institute Ball – or the Met Gala – was based on the theme Manus x Machina:
Fashion in an Age of Technology. It explored the relationship between clothes
created by hand (manus) and clothes created by machine (machina). Wearable technology is where fashion and technology converge. Celebrities attending the Met Gala wore clothes with a technology-inspired theme, including metallics, sculptured
appearances, and futuristic designs. For example, Emma Watson’s dress by Calvin
Klein and Michelle Monaghan's dress by Rosie Assoulin were made from recycled plastic bottles (below).
Apple’s chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, joined American Vogue’s
editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, as co-chair of the event. Apple is known for the
Apple Watch and other wearable technology, such as the Google Glasses. Fashion
and technology have been collaborating for years. However, recently with the
advent of 3D printing, computer modeling, and laser cutting techniques, fashion
and technology are moving closer together.
SNS Research has just published their May 2016 report ‘The Wearable
Technology Ecosystem: 2016-2030 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies,
Industry Verticals & Forecasts,’ a 652 page document on wearable
technology.
The report’s key findings include the estimation that wearable
devices, particularly smartphones, will have a major resurgence – at a compound
annual growth rate of 29% from 2016 to 2020. Wearable technology will have
market opportunities across several sectors, such as healthcare, sports, retail
and hospitality, fashion, military, and public safety. Key enabling
technologies include low-cost sensors, wireless connectivity, active materials,
and energy to converge to mainstream wearable technology.
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:-
The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends
(2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan
Curse (2009).
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