Ying Gao, a Canadian fashion designer, presents five tech-inspired fashion projects at her current show at plug.in in Basel. Ying Gao uses technology embedded directly in her garments or as part of her tools and process for creating her designs. My personal favorites are her kinetic dresses “Living Pod” and “Walking City.”
Living Pod is a set of light sensitive interactive garments that move and “breathe.” The movement of one garment is mimicked by the other. The velocity of the garment’s movement depends on the intensity of the light source falling on the dress.
Walking City uses pneumatic and interactive technologies to fold and unfold the origami-like fabric when touched by a gust of air. Both dresses remarkably look and feel like they are alive and breathing.
