Smart denim with touchable tech keeps you cool and tells you where to go
Denim makers are using technical innovations to make their products ‘smart’, allowing them to give you directions, tell you when to apply sunscreen, and a host of other possibilities
A young man in a white T-shirt pulls on a dark blue denim trucker jacket, tucks his smartphone in an inside pocket and puts an earphone in his right ear. Riding through the streets of San Francisco on a bike, he occasionally taps or swipes his right hand over the left cuff of his jacket, as the directions he’s listening to continually pop up on the screen of this advertisement.
The future of the popular fabric was the focus at a recent international fashion fair in Paris – after all most believe the word denim derives from the French “serge de Nimes”, a serge from the city of Nimes.
The fair featured many wearable innovations such as a waterproof jacket with sunscreen bands and a cable in the pocket to recharge a phone, or jeans that keep your body temperature stable.
Once mainly the purview of athletic gear – with moisture-wicking shirts and trousers and then clothing that can track motion, heart rate, and body temperature – the new trend for fashion designers is to take everyday wear and transform it using new technologies.