Beauty and the Bits: Smart Clothes Fashion Show
About the show
Beauty and the Bits was a 1997 wearable-technology fashion show at the MIT Media Lab. It brought together students from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, Creapole in Paris, Domus Academy in Milan, and Parsons School of Design in New York with researchers from the Media Lab.
The participating teams submitted close to 100 concepts that incorporated displays, sensors, input devices, and electrical connections into clothing and accessories. Some garments included working technology, while others presented speculative ideas about the future of wearable computing.
Nuria Oliver was a technology collaborator on Van and WearASL, together with Joshua Weaver and Barbara Rosario. The concept combined cameras and wearable computers to translate American Sign Language into speech and speech into Braille. More information is available on the dedicated WearASL project page.
Alongside her technical contribution, Oliver also took part in the show itself, wearing one of the featured outfits.
Nuria Oliver wearing one of the featured outfits at the Smart Clothes Fashion Show.
A smart-clothing design presented at the fashion show.