PhD Defence Lianne Toussaint (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Photography by Roos van de Kieft
Wearing Technology
When Fashion and Technology Entwine
Date: Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 14.30 hours
Venue: Aula of the Radboud University, Comeniuslaan 2, Nijmegen.
On September 6, 2018 at 14:30, Lianne Toussaint will defend her doctoral thesis, Wearing Technology, When Fashion and Technology Entwine.
Tech Style
Since the nineties, fashion designers and engineers have been experimenting with the integration of technology into fashion. A robotic dress that protects your personal space, a shirt that sends hugs over distance, or trousers that help to correct posture; they now all exist in real life. Wearing Technology focuses on the emerging phenomenon of ‘techno-fashion’: garments that fuse technological functionalities with the socio-cultural role of fashion. Through a combination of literature study and interviews with designers and wearers, Lianne Toussaint explores the bodily, communicative, and ethical dimensions of techno-fashion. What does it mean to wear, rather than just use, technology? How does the integration of fashion and technology affect our physical relation to garments? The advent of techno-fashion is something to look forward to as well as prepare for. Its direct proximity to the body and powerful abilities urge an open yet critical stance towards its development and future implementation.
Pauline van Dongen,’Solar Windbreaker’ (2016)
Photography by Roos van de Kieft