Tulip turned towards the tailor, her pretty face showing the merest hint of annoyance. How dare he ridicule her request for a dress in which the pocket could accommodate a TV? “32 or 40 inches,” he had smirked. Well, she would not give him an inch on this debate. But it set her thinking. She couldn’t fit an electronic device into her dress pocket. But what if the dress became the device by itself? If only she could weave technology into her clothes, it would not leave the tailor in stitches.
She had just read about socially active undergarments for women that tweeted when they were unclasped. Though it was for a good cause — to promote breast cancer awareness — Tulip realised that she needed to come up with something more conservative. In 2010, a ‘Twitter dress’ had already been worn by a Grammy winner, displaying images tweeted by fans. It became such a sensation that a year later, Microsoft came up with their version of a Twitter dress as well.
Called the Printing Dress, the apparel, primarily made of paper, doubled as a Twitter screen, displaying tweets as fast as they were churned out. But then, how could a dress made out of paper be adopted by technology? Wasn’t it too old-world? To prove this point, an artist had come up with her own version of a paper dress — only, this was made out of the pages of a telephone directory. The dress was not only considered haute-couture, but also exotic — after all, when was the last time anyone had come across a telephone directory?
It is not known whether the artist had planned a summer collection — a bright sunshine yellow range of apparel using Yellow Pages, but another printed revolution came along to transform the world of fashion. It was the world’s first 3D-printed bikini, called the N12 bikini, which could be printed out on a material called nylon 12, or N12.
All one needed to do was feed their drawing into the computer and the 3D CAD software would print it out as a bikini. Suddenly, shopping online for swimwear had become passé — the new trend was to just pull it out of a printer at home.
Of course, the accessories to go with such apparel — like Galaxy Gear, the smart watch by Samsung, and Google Glass — had already been launched. And those who chose to synchronise their dress with a hoodie could opt for Ping, which operated through gesture recognition and facilitated Facebook updates on the fly (er, on the go). Women could go for the M-Dress, which not only made for a smashing ‘little black dress’ for the cocktail circuit, but also doubled as an attractive mobile phone, with a cleverly designed slot for the SIM Card. (However, since it’s both a phone and a frock, the jury is still out on whether it is a phrock or a frone.)
Though it might look a little incongruous, an ensemble featuring the M-Dress, the Ping and the Galaxy Gear can take care of all of one’s communication needs. For those in the rebellious, maverick mode, Nokia’s tattoos could complete the look for a great Friday night. The tattoos vibrate when there’s an incoming call or a message on one’s Nokia mobile, so someone shaking hands with you could be at the receiving end of a mild tremor while you are at the receiving end of a call.
Tulip had seen enough. She had a killer idea — a kerchief that would also be a TV and would play soaps in 15 languages from all the leading channels. ‘And after watching their favourite serials, viewers can use the kerchief to wipe away their tears,’ she thought excitedly. ‘I just can’t wait to see the look on that tailor’s face when I ask him to stitch a dress that can accommodate my TV.’
sureshl.india@gmail.com
