Rethinking the Runway: Using Avant-Garde Fashion To Design a System for Wearables

Title of the Paper

Rethinking the Runway: Using Avant-Garde Fashion To Design a System for Wearables

Paper Information

• Subject Areas: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Fashion-Tech, Wearable Devices
• Keywords: Wearable Devices, Fashion-Tech, Avant-Garde Fashion, Haute Couture, Modular Hardware, Human-Computer Interaction

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:
  1. Designing avant-garde fashion often requires the use of technology to create interactive and expressive garments, but many fashion designers lack technical expertise (e.g., programming, electronic component integration).
  2. Combining artistic and technical domains is highly challenging, especially in the context of avant-garde fashion-tech.
  3. The inability to rapidly iterate and prototype limits designers' creativity.
• Research Importance:
  • Wearable devices play a significant role in influencing culture, fashion, and social expression. Avant-garde fashion provides an excellent experimental platform for exploring technology and expressive design.
  • Democratizing technology, such as enabling non-technical designers to use fashion-tech tools, can further drive creative design practices.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Although some tools (e.g., electronic embroidery, VR prototyping) have been developed to help designers get started, they face practical challenges in operational environments such as backstage and runways.
  • Many existing toolkits (e.g., Adafruit FLORA, Lilypad) require advanced programming and electronics knowledge and do not fully consider the daily workflow of fashion designers.

Solution

• Research Method:
  • Developed a prototype design system called Brookdale, which includes modular hardware components and a simple drag-and-drop programming software system to help designers quickly create wearable devices.
  • Conducted a 24-week participatory design study to validate the system's practicality among 17 designers with no prior experience in fashion-tech, assisting them in designing and showcasing runway garments integrated with dynamic lighting, motion sensors, and responsive materials.
• Innovation:
  • Hardware modules utilize "plug-and-play" technology and are designed with color coding for easy identification by non-experts.
  • Programming employs a drag-and-drop graphical interface to lower the entry barrier.
  • The system design emphasizes specific needs of garment design, such as module size and fit, as well as reliability in high-dynamic runway environments.
• Implementation Steps and Technology:
  1. Hardware Design: Includes input modules (e.g., light, touch, motion sensors) and output modules (e.g., lights, servo motors).
  2. Software Development: A drag-and-drop programming environment based on Microsoft MakeCode, allowing designers to create interaction logic (e.g., triggering light effects upon detecting motion).
  3. System Application: Brookdale was developed and deployed in collaboration with 16 designers from the New York Fashion Institute, ensuring integration with haute couture garment design.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:
  • Seventeen designers successfully used the Brookdale system to design 19 garments, which were showcased at an avant-garde fashion-tech show in New York.
  • Follow-up interviews conducted 16 weeks later revealed that the tool had a lasting positive impact on the designers' career plans and community engagement.
• Advantages Compared to Existing Tools:
  • Brookdale system is easier to operate, providing an intuitive solution for designers without technical backgrounds.
  • Demonstrated high hardware robustness in runway and dynamic environments.
• Experimental Results and Evaluation:
  1. Designer feedback indicated that Brookdale significantly lowered the barrier to integrating technology into their designs.
  2. Observations showed that designers could quickly transition from concept to physical prototypes and effectively use the tool for early experimentation.
  3. Runway experiments also exposed some issues, such as the need for greater flexibility and adjustability of components in high-pressure environments, and challenges designers faced in understanding nested logic blocks.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Brookdale's hardware modules require further improvement for complex interactions, such as developing smaller circuit boards and flexible PCBs.
  • The software needs optimization to provide a more intuitive way for designers to understand multi-sensor input logic.
  • Future work could expand into other domains (e.g., smart accessories and prosthetics) and investigate the long-term community impact of the tool.