Fashion Tech will be one of the highlights of the next edition of Premiere Vision Paris, through the annual Wearable Lab platform. The space will present an international selection of materials, products, and services that are a source of experiment for the fashion industry. The global event for fashion professionals will be held from February 12-14, 2019.
With ‘Augmented Man’ serving as a guiding thread, the Wearable Lab this year explores how clothing could allow us to surpass our own abilities, our own human condition, according to a press release on the show.
In hall 6, this 1,000 square metres space features three areas namely, an offer from 17 exhibitors, Skills, an inspiring and experiential exhibit, and a new programme of conferences.
The offer from 17 exhibitors is broken down in three zones which includes Smart Materials, where ten companies propose smart materials. They will discuss about passive intelligence without embedded electronics. The companies participating PV Paris include Cocona Natural Technologies, Dropel, Induo, Kyorene Graphene Fiber & Yarn, Madeira, Pyrates Smart Fabrics, Satab, and Unitex.
The next zone is Innovative Technologies where five companies will participate, specialised in the development of advanced technologies in the fashion industry. An active intelligence, where technology is embedded in a material, a garment, and an accessory will be displayed. The companies are De Rigueur Lab, Shieldtags, Euveka, KC Textil, and Verisium by Kaspersky Lab.
The third zone is Prototypes & Labs, which will provide a space to discover working prototypes, test them out, and discuss the coming issues and challenges through the R&D work of two pioneering organisations in the field, namely Aitex – Instituto Tecnologico Textil and Up-tex.
Skills will include an inspiring and experiential exhibit presenting four smart garments made by fashion tech designers who have worked on the definition and possibilities of ‘augmented’ beings; Maartje Dijkstra, Anrealage, and Ying Gao. A selection of forward-looking materials created with the matériO’ fabric library will also be displayed.
A virtual reality installation conceived by the international and interdisciplinary BeAnotherLab collective which will explore the subjectivity of reality by exchanging our own vision for another, will be part of the show. Thus, two participants, face to face, will be virtually displaced into the body of the other. Through a series of exercises related to cognitive and perceptual abilities, they will touch and handle their surroundings, from inside this other skin.
The programme of conferences will explain how can exhibitors help and how far clothing could go in helping us surpass our own abilities and our own human condition. The inaugural keynote will be presented by Pascal Morand, president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, a partner in the project.
