This Wardrobe’s All Wired Up

Fashion and technology met on a runway here yesterday in an unprecedented collaboration of international designers and computer researchers. The result was an amazing display of wearable computers, from a Levi’s denim jacket equipped with a full stereo system--the world’s smallest synthesizer and speakers--to pscyho-sunglasses that could virtually read the wearer’s mind to a funky barrett with e-mail capabilities.

Alex Pentland, the MIT professor who headed up the “Wearables Symposium and Beauty and Bits Fashion Show” at the university, brought together his research students with fashion teams from four design schools--Parsons in New York City, Creapole in Paris, Domus in Milan, and Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo--to create the ultimate in functional fashion.

“The explosion of creativity was amazing,” said Pentland. “The fashions were purely conceptual, but they offer a vision of what will come in the future.”

Among the cyberfashion pioneers’ predictions brought to life for an audience of more than 200 journalists was a clingy yellow dress woven of metallic silk organza that plays like an instrument in response to the wearer’s movements. Synthesizers sewn into the dress emit techno-tones to amuse and to harmonize with the wearer’s environment.

Other outfits were woven of fabrics endowed with electronic properties, capable of everything from playing music to powering a microprocessor.

A “Red Roadster” ensemble, designed like a car, included a hood with a solar array for powering a cell phone encased in matching red vinyl and a navigational system wired into a shiny black brooch worn on the chest and headlights woven into knee pads to illuminate the wearer’s path.

In the event of a near miss with another pedestrian similarly equipped, the Roadster costume was also equipped with air bags in both the shoulders and the slick, tight capri pants.

All the outfits were designed with specific jobs in mind. The “Reporter’s Ensemble” included a display screen, speaker and microphone, and the jumpsuit front pack contained a camera and a global positioning system for finding exact geographic positions in relation to the rest of the world. The red and black ensemble included black leather gloves with keyboardfingers.

Although most of the clothing won’t turn up at a store near you for another five or 10 years, Pentland was confident that the musical jean jacket would be available as soon as Christmas. The cost of the technology for the jacket could be as low as $75 but the price to consumers could soar much higher.

The idea to use fashion to debut some of this hot new computer technology from the MIT Media Lab was first proposed three years ago when Pentland visited a colleague at Creapole. One student enlisted early on to the unique project said she was excited by the way fashion was being used “to draw technology into everyday lives.”

The fanciful creations are being viewed over the next few days here by some of the world’s most forward-thinking designers and clothing manufacturers.

The new collaboration between techno-nerds and fashion mavens will give, at the very least, new meaning to the term “looking smart.”