Fast Forward: Anouk Wipprecht – Techno Sensual

One of my raver BFFs clued me in to Anouk Wipprecht a year or so ago.  I kinda freaked out.  Not only does her stuff look like old school raver clothes, but it also DOES STUFF.  Like paint itself, create smoke clouds, and makes drinks.  In my opinion, in most of  Wipprechts pieces she is successful at creating something unique, conceptual, and technologically challenging while maintaining a distinct look and aesthetic quality.  No small feat.  How awesome would it be if Bjork wore one of these?  Better yet, if I wore one at Burning Man?  Yeah prolly not gonna happen but this DEFINITELY gives me a shit-ton of new ideas for Burning Man costumes (that will get a post unto itself 🙂 ).

In putting together this post it seems she works more on a per-project basis as opposed to producing seasonal collections.  Other than Hussein Chalayan, technology pretty much is never featured in major fashion collections.  Although  to produce 1 or 2 collections a year fully integrated with technology would require an insane amount of work, I can’t help but feeling that this should be the new direction of haute couture.  I wholeheartedly agree that the old traditions and techniques of couture should be preserved  and maintained by the licensed houses.  However, with continuing declines in the number of official couture houses, closing of specialty craft houses, reduced market and profitability of couture lines, why not start a couture house focusing on intricately welded electronics hand sewn into garments?  Not a bad idea to reinvigorate a declining industry.  I would loose my shit if Wipprecht got the backing to create a couture-level show.

I’ve highlighted some projects below, but for a full bio check out Wipprechts’ website.

PROJECTS and collaborations

2008 INFITTABLES final course project (inflatable designs) at K3 / Malmo university on the subject of ‘body, fashion & technology’, Malmo, Sweden

2008 FRAGILIS fashiontech project in collaboration with Eelke Feenstra | studio zesbaans, Utrecht, the Netherlands

2010 DAREDROID, cocktail making cocktail dress in collaboration with Jane Tingley and Marius Kintel in Vienna, Austria

2010 PSEUDOMORPHS fashiontech, transformable pieces in collaboration with V2labs [institute for the unstable media] Rotterdam, the Netherlands

2010 INTIMACY Black, dress with smart foil, in collaboration with studio Roosegaarde, Waddinxveen, the Netherlands

2011 INTIMACY 2.0 a series of two dresses that become transparent when approached, collaboration with Studio Roosegaarde

2011 BLACK EYED PEAS [STAGEWEAR]interactive stage outfit (incl. shoes) for Fergie lead singer of the Black Eyes peas during the SuperBowl 2011 halftime show which attracted over 111 million viewers.

2011 BRITNEY SPEARS pseudomorphs-based dress featured in the clip ‘Hold it against me’ by the singer. [Ed. note: I think its the long white dress that gets covered in dye.]

2012 SPIDER DRESS in collaboration with Daniel Schatzmayr (AT) a mechanic dress utilizing spider legs with embedded protection system.

2012 EUROVISION SONGFESTIVAL [STAGEWEAR] performance of Austrian team Baku, Azerbaijan 5 interactive costumes controlled wireless by DMX controller next to the stage.

2012 TECHNOSENSUAL EXHIBIT

2012 PROPINQUITY game-based interaction surrounding the topic of ‘play’ and interaction for Concordia university (CA) on invite for MoNo,  artist Jane Tingley, Marius Kintel and team. Presented in Paris (France) and Montreal (Canada).

2012 SMOKEDRESS in collaboration with Aduen Darriba; dress has a wearable [550g] accu driven smoke system with implemented wireless technology, creates the illusion of smoke around the body. (release-April 2012)

2012 MORPHOGENIC in collaboration with Graham Smith – dress that changes color according to ‘tuning’ (release-June 2012) [Ed. note: the pic below is the link on Wipprechts homepage but the picture is I think from her Simple Girl vs. Robot Girl collection?]

More info

There is an excellent interview with Wipprecht on Fashioning Technology.

http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2008/10/i-am-but-a-simp.html

http://trendland.com/self-painting-dress-by-anouk-wipprecht/#

http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/high-tech-apparel-fit-for-fergie-qa-with-designer-anouk-wipprecht

http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/archives/4690

http://www.vistelacalle.com/64547/la-moda-tecnologica-de-anouk-wipprecht/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669421/exhibit-explores-the-sexier-side-of-high-tech-fashion#1

http://akademievogue.blogspot.com/2012/02/anouk-wipprecht.html