The first part of my research was attending the event Wearable Technology Fair in London. The talk about fashion was extremely interesting and I could see some of the prototypes for a lot of different ideas. It was quite mind-blowing experience because even though I knew wearables were quite innovative and there are people seriously working on it I was not yet prepared for what I saw there.
The event gave me an amazing opportunity to learn who is working in this part of these two industries and what their role are and advanced wearables are and how they can change the fashion industry.
Second part of my research was at university reading websites and looking for books on the matter. My research showed me that wearables are everywhere in the fashion industry and the possibilities are endless BUT there is a serious problem with lack of knowledge about each other, lack of common language (because fashion people might not understand engineer's language and vice versa), lack of investments and a tiny bit of ego involved.
Most of the wearables out there are mainly smart watches and wristbands that can monitor your heartbeats and how many calories you're burning. Other thing I found out, most wearables are considered quite masculine and even ugly, which is one of the reason people don't buy them as much as they should.
People tend to look fashion as a form of identity and self-expression. People don't want clothes because of their utility and that's something wearables also needs to think about and develop. Because people need that desire to buy something.
The third part of my research was going to another event called "Fashion Tech Meetup" where other specialists talked how fashion could benefit from this technology and how start-up can benefit from fashion expertise. It was amazing, because we had a little Q&A and I could ask questions and talk to people and ask them if I could interview them. I try to absorb information about how is the relationship between these two and how are they handling it.
After the event I start to look for blogs that are talking about it and how they talk. Most of them are focused on one or the other, or they focus on only one specific point of view, which is the big problem.
For engineers the right name is "wearable technology" for the fashion industry is "fashion-tech" there isn't a middle ground.
My next step is to interview the people who are involved it and working on it.
The event gave me an amazing opportunity to learn who is working in this part of these two industries and what their role are and advanced wearables are and how they can change the fashion industry.
Second part of my research was at university reading websites and looking for books on the matter. My research showed me that wearables are everywhere in the fashion industry and the possibilities are endless BUT there is a serious problem with lack of knowledge about each other, lack of common language (because fashion people might not understand engineer's language and vice versa), lack of investments and a tiny bit of ego involved.
Most of the wearables out there are mainly smart watches and wristbands that can monitor your heartbeats and how many calories you're burning. Other thing I found out, most wearables are considered quite masculine and even ugly, which is one of the reason people don't buy them as much as they should.
People tend to look fashion as a form of identity and self-expression. People don't want clothes because of their utility and that's something wearables also needs to think about and develop. Because people need that desire to buy something.
The third part of my research was going to another event called "Fashion Tech Meetup" where other specialists talked how fashion could benefit from this technology and how start-up can benefit from fashion expertise. It was amazing, because we had a little Q&A and I could ask questions and talk to people and ask them if I could interview them. I try to absorb information about how is the relationship between these two and how are they handling it.
After the event I start to look for blogs that are talking about it and how they talk. Most of them are focused on one or the other, or they focus on only one specific point of view, which is the big problem.
For engineers the right name is "wearable technology" for the fashion industry is "fashion-tech" there isn't a middle ground.
My next step is to interview the people who are involved it and working on it.