Health and catering professionals can wear anti-microbial, self-cleaning fabrics that can protect themselves and their clients from infection. You can even get clothes that are odour protective, or that change colour when heated up.

So where next? What will be the next big thing in fabric technology to transfer into the mainstream and promotional clothing markets, if any? And perhaps more importantly, will it make any impact on the market once it’s here?

It’s a question that researchers at Central Saint Martins College in London have been endeavouring to find out. The Emotional Wardrobe is a research project undertaken by a number of academics at the college. Part of their remit was to determine what the catalysts and drivers of future “consumer wearable technology that permits communication and expression” might be.

The project acknowledges the split in the western clothing market – the low-cost, highvolume sector, and the emergence of high-end specification clothing. It’s the latter area that the project focused on, as this is where the next potential innovation in clothing is being developed – digitally-augmented clothing.

Now you’re probably thinking digitallyaugmented, or ‘smart’ clothing will look like the futuristic clothing worn by the crew of the Starship Enterprise. It won’t. In fact it will almost certainly look exactly the same as the clothes we normally wear, except it will have electronic circuitry in it. Take, for example, the clothing that incorporates MP3 control panels already being produced by Nike and O’Neill. You’d be able to turn the volume of your music up but you’d never be mistaken for a storm trooper.

That said, MP3 player control functionality is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ‘smart’ clothes. The Emotional Wardrobe project set itself the task of looking at how new technologies such as wi-fi and bluetooth could not just increase functionality, but actively change the way in which clothes are worn for an expressive or communicative purpose. In other words, will technical clothes become fashionable, and if so, how might this come about?

“The integration of smart functionality into clothing and other textile products will fundamentally change cultures of clothing, people’s relationships with them, and the way clothing is designed,” states the project’s rationale. However, developing these clothes in the first place requires technical people talking to creative people. At present, university courses tend to have either a technical or a creative bent – very few incorporate both disciplines. But it’s clear that the UK education system is taking ‘smart’ clothes seriously. Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh is even launching an MSc in Intelligent Textiles and Clothing Systems for anyone interested in developing their technical knowledge in this fastdeveloping sector.

However, simply putting the technology in place isn’t enough – if it doesn’t capture the imagination of the market, it’s already dead in the water. So research into how the buying public is likely to react to this kind of technology is key. Dr Sharon Baurley, one of Central Saint Martins’ lead researchers in this area, is looking into how consumers – particularly teenagers – might actually use this kind of technology, if it’s made available to them. She’s interested in finding out the ways that people could appropriate it, and how the world of computers might affect the conventions and cultures of clothing. Developing the clothing concept, Communication-wear, Dr Baurley aims to extend the idea of mobile communication by embedding communications technologies and smart textile systems into clothing. She believes that new forms of remote communication/interaction could be enabled and her findings may go some way to shaping how the market will develop over the next few years.

One clothing line already on the market, however, may provide some answers. The H4 collection by surf wear brand O’Neill is on the cutting edge of wearable electronics and may well indicate the way this emerging market might go. The fourth generation of its wearable electronics line, H4, features seven pieces, including a jacket with built-in walkie-talkie; a jacket whose wearer can operate a mobile phone via voice activation; another where the wearer can operate an iPod; a ‘campack’ that you can fix to your ski goggles or helmet that allows skiers/snowboarders/riders to film their downhill exploits; and a beanie hat with integral earphones.

In these items, the wearable technology is being incorporated into clothing that is usually sold on performance and quality more than price. Furthermore, these clothes are for people with enough disposable income to fund a hobby such as skiing. So it’s easy to see why this demographic is ideal to test the water with wearable electronics: they’re likely to be into gadgetry and have the cash to fund it.

But this is not the only target market. The H4 range also includes a ‘Back to School Backpack’. And it’s enough to send parents running for cover – it features wireless iPod control joystick on the shoulder strap as well as iPod and PSP storage compartments. With the clue in the name, it could well be the latest must-have item in the playground.

MP3 and phone control functionality are clearly the favourites in the wearable electronics most likely to take off. However, there are many other possibilities with ‘smart’ clothes. Another project at Central Saint Martins has seen Lisa Stead, a former men’s and boyswear designer for suppliers to many high street stores, develop a garment that changes its appearance in reaction to a change in an emotional state, providing ‘interactive personalisation’ for the wearer. Collaborating with the Electrical Engineering Department at Imperial College, London, and Elumin8, an electroluminescent panel company in Dorset, the garment could potentially benefit autistic, deaf dumb and blind teenagers for communicative and theraputic purposes.

It’s not just young people who could make use of this kind of wearable technology. Jane McCann, director of the Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology group at the University of Wales, Newport, thinks wearable technology potentially has a huge reach. “There’s a whole new area of research opening up in the development of ‘smart’ clothes and wearable technology, to do with health monitoring, communication, and garments that warm up and cool down to adapt to extreme temperatures,” she said at the group’s launch.

Part of the group’s research is looking at how functional clothing could improve the quality of older people’s lives. “Smart clothing of the future will be able to monitor an individual’s vital signs; determine body movement, poster and geographical location; regulate temperature, offer impact from falls and communicate this information to care providers 24 hours a day,” the group surmises on a recent project, titled ‘Design Enabling Autonomy and Independence through Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology’. Older people are being involved in this research to ensure it has the potential to meet the actual needs and wants of older people rather than professionals’ perceptions of what they want.

As research groups continue to look at the potential demand and impact of this new technology, as well as developing the technology itself, it seems the eyes of industry will be watching their progress closely. This won’t be the last we’ve heard of ‘smart’ clothing, but where it goes from here will be an interesting journey.

For details of the Emotional Wardrobe project go to: www.emotionalwardrobe.com

And for information on the Smart Clothes and Technology Research Group go to: http://artschool.newport.ac.uk/smartclothes/

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