Living in Vancouver forced me to live with the rain almost 300 days out of the 365 days in a year. I never liked the rain ever since I was born because of the wetness and puddles on the streets. Studies say that approximately two percent of the population in Canada resulted in SAD (Seasonal Affection Disorder) who suffers from depression during the cold rainy season. In result, many people would rather stay indoor than enjoy the rain in the nature. It inspired me to base my final project in this direction— a concept raincoat. Working together with Ellie, we hope to encourage more activities in the rain and promote the idea that raining can be amusing and beneficial to the environment. Our vision for our raincoat design is that it embraces functionality, aesthetics and playfulness. Our concept is to incorporate hydro-chromic pattern on the raincoat, and embed the weather forecast technology into the raincoat to signifies the user to wear the raincoat.

Here are some existing designs that inspired me:

Luminescent Raincoat juxtaposes electricity and water in a raincoat that luminesces in response to droplets of rain. Embroidered water sensors act as inputs to a system with sealed electroluminescent panels that illuminate based on patterns of rain. The raincoat/cape and hood recall the retro-futuristic designs of Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges in the sixties while incorporating computational behavior beyond an aesthetic notion of what technology looks like.

Hydrochromatic Umbrella by SquidLondon

Similar to the thermochromic ink I’ve previously used, this hydrochromatic ink responds to water. I’ve contacted this company and they agreed to send me a sample of their hydrochromatic ink. Hopefully they will be here as soon as possible so we have a better idea of how we can apply to the raincoat.

Ambient Umbrella — a weather forecast umbrella

Flower shaped button made of aluminum foil

So what happens to all these wonderful conceptual interactive fashion pieces once they disappear off the radar of the blogosphere? Some apparently get used in commercials.

I love this quirky South Koren commercial developed around Ann de Gersem‘s Life Dress (made in 2006).

For those of you unfamiliar with the Life Dress, it was designed:
“to give its wearer the possibility to instantly create a personal space, in which she/he can seclude her/himself from the chaotic surroundings.”

Many of the new wearable technologies are based on really interesting concepts.  They are very entertaining and can be very inspiring, but who would actually wear them in real life?

During Sabine Seymour’s presentation, there are a few points that stood out to me:  the functionality of the garment and other people’s perception towards the garment.  As I am contemplating on my final project, it is really important to keep these in mind. I still want to stick with the idea of a purse with glow up pockets, which won’t look overly techie because only the user can see the glow up icons inside the purse. I really like Annabelle’s idea of using icons instead of my original concept of using text. It is much more universal for everyone to use.

As I was researching about interactive wearables the other day, I came across this DIY light up purse. Probably a lot of girls have had this problem of searching for a small thing inside your purse in the dark.  This light up purse has a simple contact sensor so when the purse is open, the LED lights up.  It inspires me about my final project. What if the purse has different pockets for different objects (cellphone, keys,wallet, etc.) and there will be LED text on each pocket. When the purse is opened, all of the LED texts light up and indicates where all the things are?

After the demo of connecting the Lilypad to a simple switch, I researched a bit on my own and I found this post that teaches how to DIY conductive thread.

I’m still very lost in coming up with an idea for my final project but when i was researching , I came across an article that i would like to share. Reminiscing the old days when my brother and I used to make paper airplanes and boats, this interesting article talks about future planes, vehicles and TV being made of a super paper, Buckypaper, that is 500 times stronger than steel.

It was my first time silk screening. The first try didn’t work out too well. The ink wasn’t evenly spread.

Before the t-shirt is put on / After heat is applied, “ME” faded away and brailles reveal

I couldn’t believe I found this! My idea of incorporating magnets into jeweleries is already out there. Using magnets to attach two hands is a neat idea but if it was in a way in which the two hands could hold, it would be much better. With this idea, it would be interesting to see if the hand is snap to a stranger’s hand