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Science and Fashion Unite At Paris’s 2013 Fashion Week Iris van Herpen’s runway show titled “Voltage” opened with a model swaying through the electrical currents of a Tesla Coil.  Fashion and science collide in this dress which is made out of thousands of tiny plastic hairs.  “My work very much comes from abstract ideas and using new techniques, not the reinvention of old ideas,” van Herpen commented. “I believe it will only be a matter of time before we see the clothing we wear today produced with [3-D printing].” Click here to see more about the Iris van Herpen’s Spring 2013 presentation.

Science and Fashion Unite At Paris’s 2013 Fashion Week

Iris van Herpen’s runway show titled “Voltage” opened with a model swaying through the electrical currents of a Tesla Coil. 

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Fashion and science collide in this dress which is made out of thousands of tiny plastic hairs. 

“My work very much comes from abstract ideas and using new techniques, not the reinvention of old ideas,” van Herpen commented. “I believe it will only be a matter of time before we see the clothing we wear today produced with [3-D printing].”

Click here to see more about the Iris van Herpen’s Spring 2013 presentation.

Lessons For Building A Tablet Magazine That’s Actually Worth Using

Tablets might save magazines someday, but we’re not there yet. In May, Hearst International reported that it was selling around 600,000 tablet editions a month. That’s not bad, but it’s nothing compared to the 22 million magazines the publisher sells every month in print. That disparity will diminish as more people buy tablets, but there’s another significant hurdle standing in the way of the tablet magazine: no one has really figured out how to do them right.

So when Opening Ceremony, the taste-making international clothing boutique, was planning its new once-a-year magazine and attendant iPad app, they decided to do something a little bit radical.

“We are not a fashion company,” Yanai likes to say. “We are a technology company.” He is so fond of this line, he repeats it during each of my three meetings with him. Finally, I ask him what kind of technology he’d like to see on Uniqlo’s shelves. He goes wide-eyed and blue-sky on me. “One-size-fits-all clothing,” he suggests, thinking of fabric that automatically adapts to the wearer’s contours. “Clothes that do not require any laundry. Just rinse it in water, shake it off, and all the dirt is gone.” He thinks a moment longer. “Or depending on your mood for the day, maybe fabric where the color may change.” Uniqlo is gaining on Zara, H&M, and Gap as the world’s king of casual clothing. But can Tadashi Yanai ride toasty, dry underwear to $50 billion in revenue by 2020? Cheap, Chic, And Made For All: How Uniqlo Plans To Take Over Casual Fashion

“We are not a fashion company,” Yanai likes to say. “We are a technology company.” He is so fond of this line, he repeats it during each of my three meetings with him. Finally, I ask him what kind of technology he’d like to see on Uniqlo’s shelves. He goes wide-eyed and blue-sky on me. “One-size-fits-all clothing,” he suggests, thinking of fabric that automatically adapts to the wearer’s contours. “Clothes that do not require any laundry. Just rinse it in water, shake it off, and all the dirt is gone.” He thinks a moment longer. “Or depending on your mood for the day, maybe fabric where the color may change.”

Uniqlo is gaining on Zara, H&M, and Gap as the world’s king of casual clothing. But can Tadashi Yanai ride toasty, dry underwear to $50 billion in revenue by 2020?

Cheap, Chic, And Made For All: How Uniqlo Plans To Take Over Casual Fashion

Jean-Paul Cauvin calls himself the binôme, or right-hand man, of the French designer Julien Fournié. Fournié and Cauvin recently teamed up with Dassault Systèmes, whose 3-D simulations last year demonstrated how you could tug an iceberg across the ocean. Why this unlikely partnership? Together, the team developed FashionLab, which enables fashion designers to envision their garments in 3-D from the earliest stages of the creative process. As New York Fashion Week drew to a close, Fast Company spoke with Cauvin about the need for designers to embrace the brave new world of technology-assisted fashion design. Why Fashion Designers Need To Embrace Their Inner Geek

Jean-Paul Cauvin calls himself the binôme, or right-hand man, of the French designer Julien Fournié. Fournié and Cauvin recently teamed up with Dassault Systèmes, whose 3-D simulations last year demonstrated how you could tug an iceberg across the ocean. Why this unlikely partnership? Together, the team developed FashionLab, which enables fashion designers to envision their garments in 3-D from the earliest stages of the creative process. As New York Fashion Week drew to a close, Fast Company spoke with Cauvin about the need for designers to embrace the brave new world of technology-assisted fashion design.

Why Fashion Designers Need To Embrace Their Inner Geek

“We want brands to view us as a place full of their fans and influencers,” says CTO and cofounder Pasha Sadri. To that end, last fall it introduced the Polyvore Intelligence Report, a monthly set of analytics that breaks down the demographics of Polyvore users and tracks their top trends and items. The report is sent for free to select retailers, designers, and editors, revealing what shoppers want now. (Hot: fisherman sweaters and studded handbags!) 

Most Innovative Companies: #28 Polyvore

Photo Issue 2011: David Lauren is turning his father’s empire into a digital leader—and shaking up the fashion industry. Lauren wearing a simple and elegant white suit allows him to be projected as a towering figure.“Ralph Lauren’s $13 Billion Bet” (September 2011) Photo By: Francois Dischinger

Photo Issue 2011: David Lauren is turning his father’s empire into a digital leader—and shaking up the fashion industry. Lauren wearing a simple and elegant white suit allows him to be projected as a towering figure.

“Ralph Lauren’s $13 Billion Bet”
(September 2011)

Photo By: Francois Dischinger