Where tech meets fashion: wearable smart devices make a stylish statement
Popular brands collaborate with hi-tech companies to create smart devices that are stylish enough to wear every day
A generation hungry for the latest trends and information has blurred the boundaries between the worlds of fashion and hi-tech, leading designers and engineers to develop wearable technology that merges substance with style.
Jewellery makers, luxury brands and sports companies have eagerly embraced collaborations with a host of technology companies. Such partnerships include Guess and Martian Watches, Tory Burch and FitBit, and Swarovski and MisFit. The resulting products are stunning yet highly functional, and it is often impossible to tell that they are electronic pieces.
Tapping into wearable technology has not been without its short circuits, however. The most significant example is Google Glass, which was highly sought-after when it first appeared in 2013, but eventually got caught up in privacy issues and concerns. Although a revival was attempted through design improvements, including special frames launched last year by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, some technological elements could not be changed, such as the prominent prism on the right eye piece. Sales and support largely fell through, and the company announced that it would stop selling the glasses on January 15.
Google has insisted this is not the end of smart glasses for the company, and that certainly will not be the case for consumers in general, with Sony having launched its own, more aesthetically pleasing version of the wearable technology. Sony's SmartGlasses allows users to wear their existing glasses and simply clip on the device when they want to use it, taking style concerns out of the equation.
MisFit similarly overcame a technological issue in a stylish manner. During the development stage for the Swarovski Shine activity tracker, there were concerns about the device’s battery life. In a true collaboration of fashion and technology, the designers realised that the crystals adorning the piece could be used to concentrate solar energy to generate days of battery power for the tracker.