The New York Times ran a significant feature by Jim Dwyer on Cloud Couture: The Intimate Connection Between Fashion and Technology, an exhibition at Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BF+DA), which is located in the Pfizer Building in Williamsburg. The exhibition was on view from February 3–12.
Cloud Couture explores the future of fashion technology, and highlights new materials and technologies that are redefining the apparel and manufacturing industry in the 21st century. The exhibition was curated by Debera Johnson, executive director of Pratt Institute’s Center for Sustainable Design Strategies and executive director of the BF+DA; Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, adjunct associate professor of Industrial Design and Fashion and BF+DA research fellow; and Henry Yoo, adjunct professor of Industrial Design.
Cloud Couture features an interactive 3-D scanning station and digital draping software; sportswear and textiles that monitor vital signs and track and transmit data; and digitally-produced couture and fashion designs that connect to the Internet. The designs on display include the work of Pratt interior and industrial design students, ranging from reactive installations that change with touch to recent apparel designs for astronauts commissioned by NASA.
According to Dwyer’s article, the show “opens up the power and risks of advanced technology and clothing.”
Commenting on the introduction of monitoring and tracking technology into garments, Johnson was quoted as saying, “All of it has very interesting privacy implications.” She continued, “Say I’m a big brand. I’m going to implant technology into my garment to track where you are in time and space, and understand who you’re talking with and what they are wearing, so I can understand behaviors of my clients better. That is something the brands would love to do.”
Cloud Couture has also received coverage in Women’s Wear Daily and other high-profile media outlets. To read the New York Times article, click here.
More information about the exhibition is available here.
Image: Courtesy of Debera Johnson