Almost exactly a year ago I had the pleasure to introduce you to the Vega One collection from Canadian clothing designer Angella Mackey.

Angella acquired a diverse background such as new media art, electronics, fashion and product design, elements that enable her to create aesthetically delighting, wearable technology enhanced fashion.

Her 2012/13 collection, succeeding the Vega One rain-coat and cape, expanded into a all-season line of garments ranging from coats, capes and smocks to comfortable neck-wear accessories.

Each style features the Vega illumination, a soft, bright light accent to add a sparkle to the outfit, a sparkle doubling as little safety feature in low light condition.

Vega, based in Gothenburg, Sweden is planning to expand the retail option beyond the online shop which carries the new collection and move into old fashion, brick and mortar shops around the globe.

Most styles are ready-to-wear, off the rack with the option of made-to-measure.

Still in my catch up mode to hunt down interesting material for talk2myShirt I literally stumbled upon a beautiful textile dress made by Chung-Hay Luk and presented at the eTextile and Wearable Computing Showcase last May, the Sound Illuminating Dress.

The Sound Illuminating Dress is a cleverly designed strapless dress which made the technology involved part of the style decision. Part of the dress is kept in dark fabric while the other part containing EL (electroluminescent) wire at the seam is made from light, white color which wraps in an irregular shape around the front.

The light effect is activated by ambient sound picked up from a microphone. Instead of flashing the light Chung-Hay Luk choose to have a subtle, sophisticated, pulsating light intensity change in the rhythm of life music.

Watch the short video clip below you be surprised.

I have not been a big fan of EL wire designs up to now but seeing Chung-Hay Luk’s design I have to revise my low opinion about EL wire in garments – it’s a matter of aesthetic design understanding what a material can deliver.

Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the fifth brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere gave the inspiration for Canadian clothing designer Angella Mackey who resides currently in Gothenburg, Sweden for her first illuminated fashion design, the Vega One.

The Vega One is a medium to lightweight Spring dress coat made of a satin finish 60% cotton and 40% polyester fabric and to justify the name – includes two sets of 2 super bright LEDs, one on the front and one on the back.

The light elements are nicely discrete integrated into the coats’ design and offer solid or flashing modes selectable via a switch hidden on the front of the coat.

The power for the electronics and LEDs comes from two button cell batteries which are build into Light Strip forming a soft unit that can be removed when the coat needs a cleaning.

The front LED light color is white while the color of the back is red. This color scheme indicates one of the options Angella designed  with the Vega One coat: for better visibility and safety. Or use the light elements for style/aesthetic purpose, adding sparkling, twinkling focus points to the coat.

To celebrate the launch of the Vega collection which will extend with the Vega cape and raincoat, Anglea Mackey’s shop offers a $100 discount from the full price of $449, valid until April 1st 2011!

It’s encouraging to see more and more products coming to the market that integrate some of the wearable technologies researchers, developers and innovators in the textile domain have been experimenting over the past decade.

The Vega One coat is made in Borås, Sweden, a small town just outside Gothenburg with a rich textile tradition and the University of Borås famous among wearable technologists for their activities in Smart Textile education and research.

Who didn’t wish to have a bit extra heat while bracing the arctic cold outdoors. Not so long ago many  folks in Europe and in US got a taste of the cold force of mother nature.

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., manufacturer and marketer of heavy-duty, portable electric power tools is not the typical brand we expect to embrace wearable technology but thinking about it more closely, tools-technology and work-wear go nicely hand in hand.

The M12™ Cordless Heated Jacket is the answer to all the cold days home improvement folks and professionals have been waiting for. The M12 is a multi layered soft shell jacket providing water and wind resistant.

Integrated are three carbon fiber heating zones, two on the front and one at the back giving extra heat when needed via three selectable heat settings.

The electrical power comes from Milwaukee’s range of portable power tools battery packs and the power tool charger. This makes the M12 a fully integrated product for the semi-professional home improver and professionals working outdoors on construction projects.

You might say working outdoors will heat you up and keep you warm anyhow but think again – there are times you need to wait or supervise others while chilly winds are blowing around you.

This surprisingly good looking work jacket comes also to an amazing low price starting at $119.- (excl. battery and charger)or $182.95 (incl. battery and charger)

Austrian Designer Wolfgang Langeder and the Fraunhofer IZM / Stretchable Circuits in Berlin, have joined forces to develop Smart Urban Wear with focus on an innovative display on clothing.

‘The utope project approaches a textile utopia: The exterior of clothing becomes a display. This creates the possibility to change its surface like a chameleon skin or to use it like a computer display.

The first model in the Smart Urban Wear collection is the ‘Cybernomade Suit‘, an intelligent business suit.

The integrated display interacts with a smart phone tucked away in a pocket inside the jacket and indicates an incoming call or SMS on the jacket outside.

Besides the sophisticated look this interactive style element which is building the bridge between the soft, digital world and the physical world, the indication of an income call or message does not require humble excuses when talking with someone and the buzzer goes on in our pocket.

Personally I prefer to see pleasant to look at light on my conversation partner coming to life telling me he/she will pick up the phone instead of trying to find lame excuses for putting our conversation on hold.

I am curiously looking forward to the expansion of the Smart Urban Wear collection from Wolfgang Langeder in cooperation with the wearable technology wizards at the Fraunhofer IZM and Stretchable Circuits.

Without pretending to be a oracle that knows what’s in the fashion stores of the future I do see light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to illuminated clothing.

The idea of illuminating clothing for aesthetic purpose has been around for some time and Cute Circuit started the commercialization of illuminated clothing earlier this year with their Twirkle collection.

2011 seems to see more light coming down the runway thanks to ‘Moon Berlin‘, a Berlin based fashion-label founded by Brigitte Franken and Christian Bruns with the aim to combine light technique with high fashion in a sensitive way.

Using light as a sophisticated design element to create many different aspects and effects, Moon Berlin cooperated with Stretchable Circuits, a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institut which developed the soft circuit technique used in Moon Berlin’s first illuminated fashion collection which will be launched in 2011.

A sneak peek on MOON Berlin’s illuminated fashion can be seen in the video below.

Semi professional and professional athletes need to collect their bio and other workout related data during their training to optimize their program to successfully comped for the precious metal at sporting events.

Most of the recording is still done by hand with data coming from multiple sensor devices attached to the athletes body. It’s working but cumbersome to set up the sensor devices each time before starting the training.

In our digital age where everything can be easily recorded and beamed to the ‘cloud’ for number crunching and presentation anytime and anywhere, smart workout apparel like the e-Shirt developed by Emxys at ESA’s Business Incubation Centre Noordwijk in the Netherlands, is pointing into the future of smart workout apparel for athletes.

TrainGrid consists of an e-Shirt with integrated sensors to determine in real time the athlete’s electrocardiogram, heart rate, skin temperature, body position and location via GPS. All the data are transmitted via Bluetooth to a mobile phone or computer to share with a coach, doctor, friends or on a social network.

A developer Kit is available for € 1000.- (around $ 1300.-) a steep price tag but the kit is not intended to be a commercial product but for developers to start making apps for iPhone, Facebook, Android – you name it.

Maybe smart workout clothing can motivate many to go out and move around a bit and share training routes and schedule, compare performance and the fitness status instead of sitting on the couch and share what movie you watch right now. Yeah I know, I am an optimist …

Amy Winters is a new media artist and fashion designer whose work lies at the intersection of fashion, visual arts, music, film, dance and theater. The British/Swiss artist graduated from Central Saint Martin’s in 2006 with a BA in Theater Design.

Her first ready-to wear collection was on the runway during this month London Fashion Week, a capsule collection of wearable printed garments which change color in reaction to sunlight and water.

Based on Hydrochromic and Photochromic technology, Amy’s collection stands far out from the designs I have seen so far utilizing these chameleon affective materials.

Beautifully integrated into the style of a dress, using the technology to enhance and not to be an add-on.

Her Spring/Summer 2011 collection – yes the fashion world is already busy to get out the next season’s fashion – is inspired by the vibrant color of the Rain-forest, light rain, cloud bursts and tropical thunderstorms.

The water-reactive ink disappears revealing the color underneath the dress whilst the sun-reactive ink turns the Rain-forest dress purple.

I love the aesthetically sophisticated look of her collection which shows the full potential of Hydrochromic and Photochromic inks applied to clothing.

Amy Winters is a fashion designer to follow closely if you are looking for the Haute-Tech touch in your wardrobe. Check out her amazing collection and other projects at Rainbowwinters.com

Two years ago Mary Huang, at that time student of Design|Media Arts department at UCLA started weaving and knitting with light.

The interview I have done with her was inspiring and shed already some light on her future relation with fashion and technology.

Fast forward into our present day, Mary’s Rhyme&Reason collection evolved technically up to the point at which she started a ‘made to order’ business enabling techno fashionistas to own and wear illuminated dresses with a magical light touch.

Each piece of her collection (scroll down on her Website and browse through the different styles) is handmade so every garment will be unique. Slight customizations to the design for each individual are also welcome.

Mary incorporates dozens of bright white LEDs into each garment with the connections made of conductive yarn woven through the knit or sewn onto the fabric for an invisible finish.

Included in the dress is a custom made Li-ion battery that lasts for around 8 hours of illumination as well as a battery charger. Making a dress takes around one month.

The prices range from around $ 600.- for a scarf to $2200.- for a coat.

Rhyme&Reason can be see on Sept 24 + 25 at the Center for Performance Research 361 Manhattan Avenue, Unit 1, Brooklyn, NY during the Indelible Dance performance.

The video below is a short teaser of Mary Huang’s Rhyme&Reason collection that captivates through the magic of illuminated fashion.

For fashionistas looking for the extraordinary wardrobe touch, Rhyme&Reason is something to consider adding to the growing Haute Tech collection of her wardrobe.

It looks like CuteCircuit is heading into a bright fashion future with their recent launch of the twinkling Twirkle Shirt collection and soon to be launched M-Dress.

The latest Haute-Tech dress CuteCircuit is preparing to launch is according to Grazia the K-Dress. I guess the ‘K’ of this dress comes from Katy Perry’s sparkling dress CuteCircuit made for her red carpet appearance during the Met Gala of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The K-Dress is a scaled down version, using less LEDs but from my perspective look gorgeous with the light element running down one side of the dress, pleasantly to look at.

UK retailer Selfridges announced to exclusively launch the K-Dress as part of its Christmas offer.

According to information from Selfridges ‘… the lights in the dress can create a stunning dynamic range of colors fully controlled by the wearer using the tiny push button controller.’

The light up element  of the K-Dress is capable to display waves of color shades, changing the intensity of the light from discrete to eye-catching, in short, creating a magical style element controlled via a tiny button on the dress.

Knowing myself how challenging the integration of LED light elements into clothing is I am truly amazed how soon CuteCircuit made it happen to bring such sophisticated, technology enriched fashion not only on stage put make it available to the general public, to feel and be like a star by wearing it.

The K-Dress will retail for £1,350 or around $2,100.- a steep price point at first look but for this type of high fashion wardrobe, a small amount for a very unique wardrobe item.

[via: StyleGuru]