How To Stay Fashionably Connected

Keeping up-to-date with your friends via social networks when you’re on the go has never been so easy. Maybe too easy. Smartphones mean we never have to miss a megaLOL or a Twitter trend—we’re always endlessly connected to everybody else. And now the relentless march of staying connected has fashioned itself into our clothes. Soon it’ll no longer be good enough to just type the message on a keyboard, whether that be touchscreen or Blackberry. Instead you’ll be wearing your smartphone.

Sure, there have been some exciting red carpet and television moments for this type of interactive wearable tech, such as Moritz Waldemeyer's Twitter Dress for Imogen Heap, but tech fashion is starting to reach out to a broader market, meaning the norms like you and me can finally start sending text messages from our underwear. So behold, the garments that are keeping us connected.

The Printing Dress

This is an homage to the written word from printing press to digital text. It’s made almost entirely of paper (except for the vintage typewriter keyboard on the skirt), but don’t let the low-fi material fool you—when you tweet from this dress, the resulting text is projected onto the skirt. Sheridan Martin Small and Asta Roseway, its creators, think it will help us gain a new sense of social awareness, meaning now you can’t just start abusing random celebrities without it being displayed for all to see.

(photo by Matthew Dean)

KarmaTech's RFID Shoes

KarmaTech is putting RFID tags into shoes and RFID readers into floor mats, which operate different functions as you step on them. Operating the Facebook “like” button, confirming friend requests, uploading a photo to Flickr or updating your location on Foursquare are only a few examples. The project is still in the developmental stage, but who knows, it could be the future of apps. Apps in your clothes.

The Hug Shirt

CuteCircuit's Hug Shirt enables long distance hugging. Rather than just giving a virtual hug via a social network, you can just hug yourself and that hug will be transmitted to whomever you wish via bluetooth. Sensors in the shirt read the strength of the touch, the warmth of the skin and the heartbeat rate of the sender, transposing it to your loved one stuck in Tierra del Fuego or wherever—providing they’re wearing one of these shirts too.

Pocket Tweets

Pocket Tweets is an app that allows you to turn your latest Twitter post into a speech bubble displayed on your phone. Now all you need is a shirt with a speech bubble shaped hole in the pocket like this one and people won't even have to check their Twitter feed to find out your latest thoughts. Then again, if they're standing close enough to read your phone screen, you can probably just tell them. We guess this could be one way to gain curious new followers or make (involuntary) conversation with fellow commuters on the morning train.

Ping Social Networking Garment

This Ping top allows two-way communication to Facebook without the added use of a phone or any other hardware. The basic function is putting on and taking off the hood to send messages. The garment then taps you on the shoulder to let you know when someone has responded. A Facebook app allows you to customize what actions and parts of the garment will do the required functions. Now you can be perfectly in the know about your Facebook events and probably save on texting at the same time.

Foursquare Kicks

Still forgetting to check yourself in at that café on Foursquare? Casey Halverson has tweaked his Nikes to do it for him. The shoes don’t check in to that many locations yet, but he’s trying to find ways to expand his Foursquare miles. The question is whether we actually want people to instantaneously know where we are every time we change location? This could get either creepy or quite embarrassing. Proceed with caution.