‘Butterfly Dress’ by Turkish design duo
ISTANBUL
According to the Intel website, at first the butterflies flap slowly and then more fervently whenever a person approaches. Finally, the butterflies can release en masse in a dramatic launch triggered either by the approaching person or via a mobile device communicating with the dress over a wireless network.
The Butterfly Dress fits the nascent wearable technology trend of mechanized fashion. Recent products and prototypes are doing everything from boosting athlete performance, sensing sweat and reading biometrics, to mimicking nature and using spider arms to keep cocktail party creeps at bay.
“We love to play with fabrics, designs, colors, movement and aesthetics, but the future of clothing as we know it is about to change,” Tuba Çetin says in a promotional video. “To be part of this change we need technology.”
“It’s an intelligent dress. It is able to detect the presence of an approaching person. We look forward to becoming the first luxury designer label in the world to really use wearable technology concepts in our collections as a whole, not just a one-shot or a hiatus,” says Ezra Çetin.
Çağrı Tanrıöver, a software development engineer at Intel Labs Europe’s Istanbul office, worked with Ezra+Tuba to find a way to integrate technology into a new design.
He said the technology can be programmed to perform user-defined tasks and it has wireless capabilities and input/output ports that allow it connect to things like servers and sensors.