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The History of Techno Fashion

The evolution of wearable technology can be traced back to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, when the American designer Gilbert Rohde created the Solo Suit. The suit was embedded with Beryllium-copper wire that regulated body temperature and made the fabric change colour accordingly.  Similar projects and advancements within futuristic designs were unfortunately halted by the 2nd World War, but the technological progress of the 60s made way for a new generation of innovations within fashion production. Our journey through the history of Techno Fashion begins with StarLab at the turn of the millennium.

Tech labs are a key player in the development of Techno Fashion. However, they are usually overlooked and don't get the credit they deserve, which led me to writing this short article about one of the first blue skies research labs that dared to envision a different future for clothing designs. 

controversial social philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky draws on the history of fashion to demonstrate that the modern cult of appearance and superficiality actually serves the common good. Focusing on clothing, bodily deportment, sex roles, sexual practices, and political rhetoric as forms of "fashion," Lipovetsky bounds across two thousand years of history, showing how the evolution of fashion from an upper-class privilege into a vehicle of popular expression closely follows the rise of democratic values.

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