Texile Innovations

VitalJacket by Biodevices monitors your heartbeat

Some time ago I went to the texprocess in Frankfurt, and only today got around to looking up the companies I had noted. The trade fair was amazing, and all the things my google searches put me on are fascinating, so I thought I'd compile them here!

The absolutely most interesting group I found was the Swedish group Smart Textiles, who work on mind-blowing research. I had to laugh when I read this quote on their website: “Electrically conductive fibers, interactive textiles, textile integrated medical electronics, textile acoustics, phase-change fibers, textile photonics. Taste the words; these are some of the research areas at Technology Lab.” What they do is super funky, though. Textile blood vessels? Technology is amazing. http://smarttextiles.se/en/

They also have a magazine, and if you click on only ONE link in this post, it should be this one. The entire magazine, packed with utterly mind-boggling work, in English, for free online. Seriously, it's more than worth the read. https://issuu.com/piffling/docs/stm2_eng_1


Moving on to other groups, here's one with heating, conductors, sensors, lights… http://www.frti.ch/en/technology/illuminated-textiles.html

Matrix Infusion Coating in particular is just so cool: http://www.outlast.com/en/applications/

“Research in anti-microbial textiles (…) has led to the development of bioprotective clothing materials(…). Biocidal functions can be divided into sterilization, disinfection, and sanitization in an order of the strength of the function. Biocidal functions for personal protection should be at least at the disinfection level, which can inactivate most infectious microorganisms.” (Links here and here.)
This is mainly for medicinal wear, but how cool would this be on winter gloves or protective face coverings??

Eco filament yarns: http://www.chainlon.com.tw/english/product/brand.php?dpid=10

You can’t tell me this isn’t adorable. http://www.chinareflective.com/product/SAFETY-RAINCOAT_CSW-009.html

Flame-resistant fabric is badass: http://pyro-tex.de/the-fiber/

http://organoclick.com/ develops non-toxic and sustainable methods for the textile and nonwoven (wood, etc) industry, particularly water-repellant coatings, fabric stiffeners and original fibers.

Suuuuuper cool is the Hövding helmet, which is a neck brace that inflates (much like a car’s airbag) into a protective helmet! It’s amazing; check this out: https://hovding.com/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikYFfxpu3I0

Not really textile-related since it dissolves in water, electric paint is still really neat. It can be used on a variety of surfaces, including skin, to create electric circuits. https://www.bareconductive.com/

LFLECT does neat things with reflective fibers: https://lflect.com/collections/LFLECT

Then there’s this strange and intriguing art/fashion concept of using the wearer’s movement to generate electric energy, which then powers a function of the garment. The hooded dress plays calming sounds near the wearer’s ears when the grotesquely exaggerated back is touched, fidgeting with the rope-like scarves causes one to light up, and pulling at the strap harness illuminates the pockets of the dress. Rather bizarre, but interesting. http://www.captain-electric.net/site/dresses.php

Biodevices’ VitalJacket is a wearable cardiomonitor, and not only is it a great medical device (since it easily monitors the wearer’s heart condition over hours, in a comfortable way), it’s also pretty gorgeous. Here’s the website, and an image of the shirt is above. http://www.vitaljacket.com/?page_id=156

For an even greater medical innovation, check out Mollii, the elektrodress that helps people with spasticity (cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and other disabilities). It looks comfortable, the feedback seems to have been overwhelmingly good, and a few hours of wear help with motor functions for days! http://inerventions.se/en/

You've likely heard of fabric spray, but in case you somehow missed it: http://www.fabricanltd.com/

I would love for thermochromic (temperature sensitive) paint to be developed for stove tops, so that you can see at a glance what temperature the surface has. It seems you can get thermochromic strips (here), but I haven’t found anything about thermochromically coated appliances or dishes so far. And if you haven’t seen this table (and the comments about it), you’re missing out!

Very much worth checking out are the INDEX design award finalists 2017: http://designtoimprovelife.dk/category/award2017/
They don’t, in general, have much textile or fashion innovation, but SO many amazing projects and technological advances.

Then there's auxetic textiles, which stretch in fascinating and highly artistic ways: https://youtu.be/j6iDcIYTqNQ

And that’s it for the day! With all this new stuff going on, I wonder how long it’ll take for someone to create electricity-conductive tattoos and embed LEDs into their skin to make them light up. Between 3D printed organs, textile veins, electric generators in our own clothing and fabrics that dissolve at the touch of water, I feel like I live in a sci-fi world already.