PFW: The Intelligence behind Chalayan x Intel’s Connected Accessories

The whispers from the city of light are that Paris Fashion Week‘s tech pride and joy was the collaboration between Hussein Chalayan x Intel. The duo unleashed never-seen-before Intel powered wearables during Chalayan Spring/Summer 2017 runway show. Designed to interpret stress with creative visualizations, the wearables are a great example of technology and luxury fashion converging.

The theme of the "Room Tone" show and collection presented Sept. 30, 2016, at Parish Fashion Week centers on "the here and now of London life," consisting of a series of five studies that are simultaneous reactions and proposals on how certain attitudes or realities can be experienced or optimized. Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 event runs Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2016. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
The theme of the “Room Tone” show and collection presented Sept. 30, 2016 Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 | Photo Credit: Intel Corporation

This is not the first time that Intel has worked so closely with the creme de la creme of the fashion industry. They have made a name for themselves working with the likes of Chromat and Anouk Wipprecht, making them the go to brand for creative designers seeking to infuse or compliment their collection with technology.

With the Intel Curie module, sensors located on the glasses at Hussein Chalayan’s runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, in Paris gathered biometric data from the wearer, measuring the body’s real-time physiological reactions to perceived or real stress. Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 event runs Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2016. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
Glasses with the Intel Curie module worn at a Hussein Chalayan’s runway show in Sept. 30, 2016, in Paris | Photo Credit: Intel Corporation

This season, Hussein Chalayan x Intel collaboration introduced the fashion industry to the latest connected accessories. The innovative concept behind the glasses and the belts is that they aid in the awareness and proactive management of stress. Designed to be stylish and stress-sensing, the connected glasses are powered by the Intel® Curie™ module. The tiny, low power hardware product that provides designers and makers the ability to add functions to a wide range of devices. Intel Curie also features an on board Bluetooth LE connection that communicates the wearer’s biometric data to another device like a smartphone. On the runway the ‘other’ device was demonstrated with a belt.

Designer Hussein Chalayan collaborated with Intel for his Spring/Summer 2017 runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, at Paris Fashion Week, showcasing never-before-seen glasses and belts powered by Intel technology. Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 event runs Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2016. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
Designer Hussein Chalayan collaborated with Intel for his Spring/Summer 2017 runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, at Paris Fashion Week, showcasing never-before-seen glasses and belts powered by Intel technology. Photo Credit: Intel Corporation

The Design Behind the Science

Intel’s connected glasses worked by gathering biometric data from the wearer using sensors by monitoring the brainwave, heart rate and breathing data in real time. The glasses are equipped with capacitive electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes to measure asymmetrical brainwave activity, an optical heart rate sensor to measure heart rate variability and a microphone to measure breathing rate. As for the connected belts, they were powered by the Intel® Compute Stick, a tiny computing device the size of a pack of gum. The Compute Stick allowed the belts to capture the biometric data from the glasses and translate the information into visualizations that interpret the wearer’s stress level.

The intelligence behind the accessories shown at Hussein Chalayan’s Paris runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, are powered by the Intel Curie module, a tiny hardware product that provides designers and makers the ability to add functions and capabilities to a wide range of wearables. Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 event runs Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2016. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
The intelligence behind the accessories shown at Hussein Chalayan’s Paris runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, are powered by the Intel Curie module, a tiny hardware product that provides designers and makers the ability to add functions and capabilities to a wide range of wearables | Photo Credit: Intel Corporation

Also housed within the belts was a small Pico projector that displayed the visualizations onto a wall in real time, as the models move down the runway. The projected imagery served as a powerful visual cue to the wearer who, by initiating stress-reduction techniques, sees the imagery change in correspondence to her body’s response.

The glasses at Hussein Chalayan’s runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, are connected to a wearer’s belt. The belt includes an Intel Compute Stick, a tiny computing device the size of a pack of gum that captures the biometric data and translates it by projecting visualizations interpreting the wearer’s “stress level” onto a wall via a small Pico projector. Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2017 event runs Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2016. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
The glasses at Hussein Chalayan’s runway show on Sept. 30, 2016, are connected to a wearer’s belt. Photo Credit: Intel Corporation

As fashion week comes to a close, we find ourselves appreciating Intel and Chalayan exploration of emotion and self-expression through connected accessories. For us, this was a collaboration that purposefully illustrated the potential of future integrations between fashion and technology and also the importance of bringing innovative concepts and aspirations to life.

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