Luxury fashion has ventured in to new wearable devices as designers try to come up with more sophisticated clothing and accessories in quest to dominate the market. The move appears to be trending in every life aspect including health and accessories – the intention is to make life easy.
In reference to Ayse Ildeniz, vice president of business development and strategy for Intel’s new group, they are aware that the fashion industry has landed in the driver’s seat. This was from a statement made in Las Vegas in January.
Designers Awareness
Luxury brand Ralph Lauren had plans to unveil their high-performance smart compression shirt by the name Polo Tech on Monday during the start of U.S. open. David Lauren, an executive vice president of his dad’s company said they took it in feedback from players and ball boys during training sessions and planned to start selling the shirts from spring this year.
Designer Michael Bastian and Gilt (an online retailer) were called in at Hewlett-Packard Co. to come up with a smart watch that could support Android and iOS for the users to receive instant notifications for mails, calls and texts. Reports indicate that it could be rolling out this fall.
Tory Burch is not left out. She partnered with Fitbit to design exclusive accessories to be used with fitness brand’s Flex, consisting of a brass pendant and bracelet, and patterned silicon wristbands.
The necessity of the luxury fashion design
Lauren hopes that Polo Tech accessories will become essential for trainees, bodybuilders or those wanting to keep fit as they will come with sensors to read heartbeat, respiration and other biometrics.
Information gathered by the shirt will be recorded in a “black box,” which will also capture movements and direction. The information will be transmitted into a cloud for display on tablets or smartphones, including stress levels and energy output.
Lauren said in an interview that the company is hoping to take the technology and find opportunities that their customers believe will help them to live better and healthier lives.
Lauren added that the tennis tournament is a good testing ground following sports technology improvement in the past year.
According to Lauren, they are going to introduce the technology in several designs of shirts over the next one year.
Intel’s is listening
The chip company will work along the design cooperative Opening Ceremony, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and luxury designer Barneys to establish new ways to merge technology developers and fashion designers to come up with wearables.
A luxury bracelet will be the first item to be sold at Barneys New York. Their intention is to attract other designers. In the next few weeks, an update on the bracelet will be disclosed, according to Humberto Leon, founder of the Opening Ceremony.
In reference to the NPD Group, the digital fitness group has grown to more than $330 million representing a market that is large enough for athletes and hobbyist. Accoding Ben Arnold, an NDP analyst, 52% of consumers have heard of wearable technology devices, such as bracelets, smart glasses, fitness tracking devices, watches, and a third have expressed their will to purchase.
According to Adam Roth, the CFDA’s director of strategic partnerships, there are several wearable products in the making and not everyone is useful but they may look beautiful or ideal.
