Designer: Zoe Rosenberg & Alexia Cohen
A bicycle jacket equipped with turn signals for safer riding in the city at night. Masterminds Zoe Rosenberg & Alexia Cohen. The Signal Cycle jacket incorporates the “Programmable LED Rows”
In 2013, Pratt Institute established the Brooklyn Fashion + Design
Accelerator to provide social entrepreneurs with
a place to envision, manufacture and market
responsibly conceived products that seek to
reduce environmental impacts and benefit society. Since then, BF+DA has supported hundreds
of emerging businesses – through business mentorship,
local production, sustainable sourcing and,
most recently, TEK-TILES® a research and development
initiative to discover new manufacturing
methods that will support human centered design
and the integration of technology into garments.
In total, the TEK-TILES® project is a two-year
investigation in advancing apparel manufacturing.
Its purpose is to create a taxonomy of manufacturing
methods that will speed the cycle of innovation and
the development of garments that support health
and well-being, improve worker safety and performance
and examine culture through fashion. We
are in an age that will have a massive impact on the
function of clothing. The Internet of Things (IoT) is
creating new communication channels for our products
to communicate with users. Rapid advances in
science, computing and connectivity are expanding
the boundaries and relationships between apparel
and people. Imagine an exercise glove for a stroke
survivor that “talks” virtually to his physical therapist,
and a shoe insert that predicts a foot ulcer well
ahead of time for a woman with diabetes, or a hotel
housekeeping uniform that ensures proper rest over
the course of work-shift and prevents back injuries.
These are but a few examples of how our clothing
will support us in the future.
