Not my kind of Bubble...

You would think that a dress named 'Bubelle' (pronounced 'Bubble' should be right up my street.  However, I think Philips might have got it wrong when they named this prototype dress that can pick up the emotions of the wearer.  Afterall, you construct a bubble around you to shield people from seeing your emotions, not vice versa!    

The Bubelle Dress is made up of two layers, the inner layer contains biometric sensors that pick up a person’s emotions and projects them in colors onto the second layer, the outer textile.  It changes in colour according to our emotional state.  Philips apparently thinks that future garments should be more 'sensitive' as opposed to 'intelligent'.  They figured that we wear variations on colour, fabrics, finishes etc in our outfits because we want to show our personality and emotions and so they have taken emotive dressing to a new level with the Bubelle dress.  Lucy McRae, the project manager says “A garment can be a highly complex interactive electronic or biochemical device that is more responsive to subtle triggers like sensuality, affection and sensation.”

I haven't really contemplated the lightyears ahead-future of fashion (as opposed to two seasons ahead...) but I'm not sure I really want my dresses to have so many bells and whistles.  Wires?  Computer chips?  Biometric-sensors?  I remember an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a girl had some sort of compulsive blushing disorder whereby she would go absolutely red in the face whenever she felt the slightest bit of embarrassment.  Surely this dress is the technology-ridden, artificial version of that disease?  Do I want everybody in the world watching me feel either elation, embarrassment, anger or attraction as I swan around in this Bubelle dress on the streets....

Philips is right - of course the way we dress can be attributed to our emotional state and our moods.  But it's under our control and manipulation how MUCH of our emotional state we wish to reveal to the world.  I may be wearing a wallflower outfit of dusky colours because I feel a bit wee and bit rubbish.  The point is though I can hide my wee and rubbish feeling away and in fact I can utilise my outfit to pick up the way I feel too (wee and rubbish days definitely call for my clicky clacky Jenne O silver brogue heels...).   

Thankfully though the dress itself is not a monstrosity.... but the function behind it will never take the place of my daily routine of selecting an outfit that is at the whim of my emotions...       

Comments

[DJM]

I saw this in the Metro today, but it was someone else's copy and I was trying to read it over their shoulder!

[Helen]

I don't like the concept but I do like the dress - it would look so ace at a techno night!

[Thom Wong]

This looks like a grad student project, one that reads a lot better than it wears.

[clover]

wow, so pretty

[T]

I like the concept. I don't think they've quite reached the balance of technology/concept and wearability. But, I do think in the future we will or should expect more from out garments.

[y]

i doubt id ever find myself wearing something like it but i think its a very interesting "creation"--something fun to look at as art

[j]

It certainly would take some guesswork out of dating.

[lady coveted]

i imagine this will end up in the annals of weird fashion history... somewhere along the lines of the helmet wig, and the paper dress (i wish they would bring that back)

[my fall collection]

In the sci-fi movie version, everyone will wear sensitive clothes and be able to read each other's emotions. Then one day someone is able to hack into the system and manipulate the emotions that their clothes show. Thus they can pretend to feel scared at the scene of a crime that they committed, etc etc. teehee