WEARABLE FASHION PROJECT

GLOW

Sound interactive fashion collection that illuminates when it senses sound around you.

OVERVIEW

This fashion tech capsule collection playfully visualizes sound on a the smart garment. When it senses sound/music around you, the LEDs illuminates and animates. We developed a modular wearable e-textile that is easily detachable from the garment, and it includes a microcontroller, mic sensor, and bluetooth connectivity. It is connected to a mobile app which can customize the color and animation of the LEDs.

ROLE
Co-Founder, Wearable Media
Creative Direction, Lead Research, Apparel Design and Technical Illustrations, Sample Production, Collaborated on software and hardware engineering. 

TIMELINE
2018–2019

PARTNER
Yuchen Zhang, Wearable Media

CREDITS
Photographer Christopher Z.
Model: Esme

WEARABLE FUTURE

New innovations in technology is profoundly changing the landscape of consumer wearable technology, and it will have a major impact on what people will be wearing in the future. It rapidly increased in the last half of the 20th century, with a range of consumer devices on the market. With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), a savvy technology generation, and the increased role and benefits wearable electronics have, it's an exciting opportunity for our studio to design a high tech fashion line embedded with electronics that is discreet and fun to interact with. 

RESEARCH + CONCEPT

Our love of sci-fi, music, and fashion was at the root of our conception. We wanted to incorporate sound interaction in a garment in a compelling way. Our studio was located in a prime location in Soho in NYC, so it gave us lots of opportunities to observe street fashion, as well as visit high fashion stores to research price points and estimate material costs.

Our design process starts with creating a mood board. We were inspired by images of architecture, fashion, futuristic landscapes, and minimalism. We distilled the ideas into several garment sketches, and selected four designs to create our first capsule collection. We also wanted the electronic components to be modular so that it can be easily removed either for washing or wearing the garment without the illumination.

TIMELINE

This collection took approximately 4 1/2 months to design. We divided the process into 7 phases. Several iterations for the garment and electronics were made during the sampling and prototyping phases.  

MARKET RESEARCH + BUSINESS MODEL

In tandem with the ideation and design process, we also conducted market research to understand the smart apparel landscape, as well as make a competitive analysis of what other fashion tech studios were creating. We also drafted a business model to understand our value proposition, revenue stream, and customer segments for this product. We utilized this information when we presented and pitched to incubators and investors. 

In 2017, we found that the global wearable technology market will grow to $34 billion US dollars by 2020, with the current global apparel market capping at $900 billion US dollars. 

Competitors in our arena included Cute Circuit, Emel + Aris, Google Jacquard, and Wearable X. 

The customer segments we planned to target were creative professionals who are fashion and music lovers, and businesses within the entertainment field. 

To learn more about people's general thoughts about smart apparel technology, we conducted user interviews with two methods. We organized video interviews to speak with fashion designers, creatives, and students at Parsons School of Design. We also tried guerrilla interview tactics by speaking with people we see on the street or at events in NYC. 

We learned that the majority people in the design and creative fields were excited with fashion technology, but felt there was a barrier entry to understand how it works, as well as the high price points of smart apparel & accesories products on the market . With fashion designers, we learned that they're eager to incorporate it with their designs but felt they lacked the training in physical computing to do so. 

IDEATE

We ideated on three core design principles to follow in our design process:

1. Unisex & Size Inclusivity

Our designs should be genderless so that anyone can wear it. It also needs to be non-size conforming so it can complement a variety of different body shapes and sizes. 

2. Discreet Electronics

The electronics should be integrated into the apparels as discreetly into the fabrics as possible for the experience to feel seamless and high fashion, and not gadgety. 

3. Sustainability

The textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world. In 2018,  the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that landfills received 11.3 million tons of textile waste. We want our designs to emerge from sustainable materials as much as possible so we strived to use upcycled fabrics to produce the collection. 

DESIGN + PROTOTYPE

I started the design process by draping and sewing a prototype. We tried on the prototypes and adjusted the fit where needed. I then created patterns and technical apparel illustrations for sample production. 

Co-founder Yuchen Zhang worked on the design and engineering of the modular e-textile components. The silicone molding techniques we learned from our first project, Ceres, was used here to enclose and diffuse light from the LEDs. 

The main piece that the electronics were housed on is a transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material, which we laser cutted. We discovered that using the silicone enclosure for the neopixel LEDs diffused the light gently, and created a seamless glowing effect, without exposing the individual neopixel LEDs. We also soldered a mic sensor and wires to an Adafruit Feather Bluefruit microcontroller, to connect the LEDs and programmed it to illuminate when sound is detected. 

PROCESS

Concepting, Sketching, Garment Design, Tech Pack, User Flow, User Testing, Rapid Prototype for Software and Hardware, Textile Prototype, Iteration, Sewing, Silicone Molding and Fabrication, Casting, Soldering, Laser Cutter, 3D Print on Form Labs, Physical Computing, Collar Design

TECHNICAL

Adafruit Feather M0 Bluefruit LE, NeoPixel LED Strips

MATERIAL

Cotton Blend Textile, Mesh Textile, Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), Silicone, Zipper, Webbing for Strap, Heat Transfer Vinyl

Once we had a good working prototype of the modular e-textile, we integrated it into the collar for our jacket designs.
The wires were fed through a discreet channel inside the jacket so that it isn't exposed.

TECHNICAL INTERACTION FLOW

We mapped out the start and end process on how to operate the garment. 

SAMPLE PRODUCTION

For our first round of sample production, we worked with a local garment manufacturer in NYC. But for the final samples, we had connected with a garment manufacturer in Hangzhou, China, so we moved our production there. 

Part of the production process is for us to deliver technical illustrations of the designs as well as a tech pack which gives specific information for production including fabric swatch type, pattern pieces and sewing instructions, and notions such as buttons, zippers, etc. to use. 

USER TEST + DOCUMENTATION

With the GLOW sample collection ready, we let friends and colleagues wear it out to events or for fashion photoshoots. We also created our first pop-up on Canal Street in NYC with ON CANAL by WALLPLAY, and invited visitors to try it on and experience GLOW. 

We observed that people were excited and curious, and they gravitated towards it when it illuminates and interacts with sound. Some of the pop-up shop visitors were beaming to try it on and took Instagram selfies. We also wore it to electronic music festivals, and concert goers would get excited and run over to ask us what it was. 

OUTCOME + REFLECTION 

We learned that fashion-forward creatives were quick to adapt to GLOW. We tested both a rental and purchase platform. We discovered the demographics for our customers were fashionable women in tech who are in the 40-50 age range, and wanted to rent the jackets to wear during their presentations at tech conferences. We also sold our first one to a creative technologist artist in Berlin, Germany.

In general, the market for fashion tech apparels has been slow to adapt. I learned that for GLOW, in part we needed a better distribution channel, and stronger marketing campaign to increase sales. Also, the user interviews helped us gain some insights, but I would've liked to have built in more time for the interview process to have a deeper understanding of the needs of the customers in the fashion market. Launching our first product from concept to reality was a great opportunity for me to learn about all the components that drive a physical product design production including design, manufacturing, branding, entrepreneurship, and business development. 

In 2018, we were selected as finalist for the LVMH Innovation Award at Viva Technology event in Paris, France. We traveled there to present GLOW in a showcase booth that was part of the LVMH maison pavilion. From this experience, we generated publicity and were featured on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Arabia with Will.I.Am, Dr. , Dr. wearing our collection. We were also invited to showcase the collection at The Future of Everything Festival with the Wall Street Journal, and had the opportunity to design our first pop-up store to feature the collection with TaoBao/Alibaba at the Maker Festival in Hangzhou, China.

Our first physical pop-up shop with Taobao/Alibaba at the Maker Festival, Hangzhou, China. 

We also collaborated with Superficial, an art and design studio creating digital work in fashion. They created a micro-film using the long jacket design from GLOW.

GLOW is supported by the following: