A Designer’s Material-Aesthetics Reflections on Fashion and Technology

Until now, wearables have not become integrated into everyday fashion and so their meaningful role remains limited. In this book, fashion designer and researcher Pauline van Dongen shows how this can be changed and how the integration of both can be encouraged. By combining design research with philosophy of technology, Van Dongen provides a new way of looking at the role of technology in fashion, offering interesting alternatives for a sustainable future. Building on the concept of material aesthetics, she emphasizes that technologies are a material concern. Through reflections on her own experiences that are richly illustrated with many examples and many images, she gives practical insights with the aim of better informing the practice of designing wearable technology. Her analysis of unique design exemplars such as the Solar Shirt and Phototrope reveals what wearable technologies do beyond their functional promise and what they mean beyond their symbolic value.