The Relationship Between Technology, Art, and Fabric Prints.

TREND: The influence of technology on fashion.

While it may seem obvious to most people, I never really thought much about the idea of technology influencing fashion aesthetics aside from the gimmicky clothing integrated with the latest gizmos and gadgets that always seem to surface in fashion once every few years or so for a quick dose of novelty.

The MUSICGIR iPod integrated suit by Bagir

I think there is a far better indicator in fashion of the technology of a period, and that is in the prints on fabrics used in clothing. Having just finished a comprehensive project covering the collections from New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010, I couldn’t help but notice that the prints from Richard Chai looked an awfully lot like the Light Abstracts images from djspyhunter’s flickr stream.

Richard Chai Spring/Summer 2010 collection

Richard Chai Spring/Summer 2010 collection

Screenshot from djspyhunter's flickr stream

Seeing the two separate sources of abstract images/prints side-by-side made me realize that as we progress technologically, we will also be able to see the direct result in terms of fabric prints. That is not to say that we should expect to see a direct influence from the Web 2.0 or Tesla Motor’s first mass market sedan on runway fabric prints. Instead, as technology as a whole improves so will fabric printing technology. That means to a certain extent the printed fabric of clothing can serve as a technological indicator of the times.

Crocodile Print Dress by Christopher Kane courtesy of TOPSHOP.com