Work wear is due for a technological upgrade, from touch-screen sleeves to collars that change color based on mood
Ben Martin for The Wall Street Journal
In the future of work fashion, data is the new black.
The clothes we wear to work will be sensor-embedded and connected, monitoring stress levels, reminding us of appointments, alerting us and others when there’s important work to be done and more, says Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, author of the 2016 book “Smart Textiles for Designers: Inventing the Future of Fabrics,” and head of a consulting firm specializing in wearable technology and smart textiles.
Much of this technology already exists in apparel used in the military, medicine and sports.
Blue-collar and white-collar workplaces are the next frontier.
TOUCH-SCREEN CLOTHES
Say goodbye to smartphone reminders.
Instead, the sleeve of your shirt, suit jacket or dress will glow, blink or vibrate with alerts.
Launched in 2017, Google’s Jacquard platform allows manufacturers to place a small, Bluetooth-enabled tag, which connects to an app, in clothing, backpacks, shoes and more.
A combination of specially developed threads, embedded electronics and software allows the wearer to tap, swipe or hold an area of the garment to read and respond to messages and receive notifications.
Levi Strauss& Co.’s Levi’s brand already uses the technology in a $198 denim trucker jacket, after first trying it in a jacket aimed at urban cyclists.
For that design, the company studied bike messengers to improve the experience of cycling to, from and for work, according toPaul Dillinger,Levi’s head of global product innovation.
Ivan Poupyrev, Google’s director of engineering and the inventor of Jacquard, envisions future applications for business attire. “You can check stock prices,” he says, or blinking LEDs could notify the wearer when it’s time to get to a meeting and provide directions to the conference room.
The technology will be subtle in appearance: “We found that brands were reluctant to put too much visible technology on the product,” Mr. Poupyrev says. “It’s really important that the product doesn’t feel like a gadget.”
MOOD-SENSING SWEATERS
Next time your boss is getting under your skin, your skin may just tell her how you feel.
Interactive clothes that light up or change color—supposedly depending on the wearer’s mood—may be coming to the office.
Sensoree, a San Francisco-based maker of therapeutic wearables, has developed a “mood sweater.”
The garment has a LED-studded collar that lights up in different colors based on galvanic skin response, or a change in the electrical characteristics of the skin prompted by stress, excitement, pleasure or other feelings.
Founder Kristin Neidlinger,a biomedia designer, says the clothes could help with nonverbal communication at work.
“We found it really good in team-building exercises. People really connect a lot faster.”
The company recently did a study of 12 small groups and found that people’s cardiovascular, respiratory and body temperature signals synchronized more when they were made visible by the sweaters. “They got the tasks done a lot faster with better results,”
Ms. Neidlinger says. Sensoree is seeking partners for a launch of the design.
The “mindfulness craze” might help the product gain wider acceptance, Ms. Neidlinger says, but not everyone is sold. “They’re like, ‘You’ve designed my worst nightmare. I’m trying to hide my emotions.’
But wouldn’t it be easier if you just show them?”
MATERIALS GROWN IN A LAB
Startups including House of Fluff, Modern Meadow and Bolt Threads are developing faux fur, leather and silk using everything from recycled plastics and polyester threads to mushrooms, microbes, collagen proteins and synthetic spider silk.
These lab-grown or vegan materials are touted as more environmentally friendly and humane. Wool and cotton alternatives are on the horizon, which could radically change the men’s and women’s business suit and dress-shirt industries.
Cotton requires vast amounts of water to produce and is treated with pesticides; the production of wool requires the shearing of sheep, which also creates methane that contributes to greenhouse-gas emissions.
Keanan Duffty,founding director of Parsons School of Design’s MPS Fashion Management program, says that biofabrics can sound “a bit ‘Star Trek,’ ” but their appearance in high-end work clothing isn’t far-fetched. A Salvatore Ferragamo collection in 2017 used fibers from orange peels as a silk alternative, he adds.
“I don’t believe that we’re going to use cotton in the next 20 years,” says Renana Krebs, the Tel Aviv-based co-founder and chief executive of Algalife, a startup that develops biodegradable materials from algae. She predicts an increase in renewable materials that are good for both the environment and skin showing up in workwear.
THE NEW POWER SUIT
For workers who perform strenuous, repetitive tasks, wearable robotic technology could help take the load off.
The Harvard Biodesign Lab is developing an “exosuit,” a lightweight, motorized, backpack-like device, to help alleviate back strain by 20% to 30%, says Conor Walsh, a Harvard engineering professor and founder of the lab.
A motor, sensors and a microprocessor system inside monitors the wearer’s movements.
When the device detects lifting motions, it sends a command to the motor to generate tension on straps across the back and hips, thereby assisting the wearer in picking up the object.
It could help logistics workers who are repeatedly hefting packages by reducing fatigue and mitigating the risk of injury.
This month, the lab plans to spin off a startup called Verve to commercialize the device.
Ms. Pailes-Friedman, the author and consultant, is developing mechanized clothing for people with physical jobs, such as nurses, along with Nashville-based HeroWear.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is make the exosuit less robotic and more in your clothing,” says Ms. Pailes-Friedman, an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute.
Rich Mahoney,chief executive of Seismic, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based designer of robotic wearables, expects to integrate its powered elements into uniforms and other clothing.
This kind of wearable support could also be used by white-collar workers who have difficulty being seated for long periods, saysYves Behar,founder of fuseproject, a San Francisco industrial design and branding firm.
DO-NOT-DISTURB APPAREL
Next up: clothes that signal when your desk mate should leave you alone—thanks to sensors that measure heart rate as a proxy for productivity and stress levels.
Anouk Wipprecht,a Dutch designer who creates “robot couture,” developed two sensor-laden dresses—one that has movable mechanical arms and another that emits smoke—that react when someone encroaches on the wearer’s personal space.
The designs are conceptual, but Ms. Wipprecht imagines potential workplace applications in high-stress fields. “If there’s a little indicator that the person might be in a really high-focused area at that point, then this is actually helping the person get their stuff done,” she says.
New York fashion-tech company Wearable X’s yoga leggings use sensors sewn into the nylon and a corresponding app to help the wearer with proper alignment and posture.
It’s possible the same setup could one day help office workers, saysBillie Whitehouse,co-founder and chief executive, by prompting the wearer to uncross her legs or perform back stretches throughout the day.
THE OFFICE SWEATER, 2.0
MIT's Self Assembly Lab and apparel company Ministry of Supply have developed a sweater made of a textile that adapts to the wearer’s body temperature. Photo: Ministry of Supply
Temperature-regulating technology could one day eliminate the need for that extra office sweater or scarf. Boston-based clothing company Ministry of Supply came out in 2018 with a jacket that uses Bluetooth to control a built-in thermostat and heating elements.
Founded by four MIT alumni, the company is now working with the school’s Self-Assembly Lab to develop a business-casual sweater that continually adapts to the wearer’s body temperature.
The material is made up of polymers that react when exposed to heat; its structure contains pores that close up to trap heat when the wearer is cold and open up to let in more air flow when a person is hot.
The vision?
“Something that works even if the batteries are dead,” says Gihan Amarasiriwardena, co-founder and president. Men’s and women’s versions are slated to go on sale in the second quarter of this year.
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