If wearing Google Glass isn’t enough for people who want to wear their technology, Nokia’s new, and somewhat bizarre, skirt may be more to their liking. The skirt features 70 Nokia 1520 phablets and was made in collaboration with fashion designers, Fyodor Golan, and interactive design agency, Kin.
The skirt is about the size and shape of a tutu worn by a ballet dancer, but this one is not meant to be worn while dancing. The displays on the phones alternate between static pictures and live feeds on all the screens of the phone. The display pattern swirls in time with the wearer’s movements just like fabric swishing about. According to the designers, “The dress is built using movement and tile effect[…]”. The skirt changes it’s display constantly and the screens change color according to the movement.
From the initial idea to the completed product, the project has taken a total of three months. An app was made specifically for the purpose of being used in the skirt which synchronized the shimmering screens with the model’s movement. Technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting were used in making the skirt and while it may be a work of fashion, the skirt required a lot of engineering. It was stated ini Nokia Conversations that, “KIN employed a combination of sketched drawings, 3D-printing, and Python and C# programming languages to build the skirt.” So while it may just be a concept for an article of clothing, the project was handled very seriously.
The skirt was displayed at London Fashion Week and it is highly unlikely that it will be available at any stores in the near future. But the idea and the engineering that went into creating something so unique are certainly astonishing. Fyodor Golan plan on working with Nokia again next year for the spring/summer shows and we can’t wait to see what this amazing partnership puts out then.
