What to Watch: Five Trends for Fabrics of the Future

More science than art, technical textiles can be anything from innovative components for sneakers to the carbon-fiber reinforced plastics that make up about a fifth of an average airliner. Given the futuristic and highly technical nature of their business, European companies are often at the forefront of technologies and trends that will eventually impact the more mainstream apparel industry: That includes robots that sew, fabrics that feel and T-shirts that call the doctor. Fabrics that Feel You Over the past decade or so wearable tech has become increasingly commercially viable. A lot of the applications for touchy-feely fabrics tend to start as industrial or medical: A safety coat, developed by Portugal’s Beira University, that lights up when telecommunications workers are subjected to excess levels of radio frequencies, for example. Garments used by medical specialists can check body temperature, humidity (and therefore liquid spillage), heart rate and respiratory activity. Should there be abnormalities, one smartphone app connected to these clothes, developed by the Tunisian company Ghetlab, will even have your shirt send an emergency message to family members or medical professionals. And increasingly manufacturers are transferring all that into commercial sportswear. The formerly medical-only outfits now also inform aspiring athletes about all of the

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