New smart materials and wearable technology to shape fashion wear

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) for the past seven years has been connecting top entrepreneurship talent with investors and startup ecosystems across the globe to innovate the world’s most exciting solutions. The eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit was held in India from November 28-30, 2017 in partnership with the Government of the United States of America, NITI Aayog.

Amanda J Parkes a fashion technologist who combines her deep understanding of wearable technology to shape new creations for the glamorous and flourishing global fashion industry. As Chief Innovation Officer at US-based Fashion Technology Laboratories (FTL), drives designs through a fusion of new smart materials and wearable technology.

At FTL’s ‘Sustainable Chic in a Lab’, Amanda leads a team which works with luxury brands to create new designs and products.

Amanda speaking on the sidelines of the GES 2017 said that they are blending textiles and biotechnology to create products that are fashionable, friendly to skin and have electronics embedded. Backed by a $50-million fund, the start-up is keen to bring a new wave in the future of fashion industry.

The rapid developments in material sciences and nano technology are helping them to fabricate textiles with integrated circuits and smart materials that give them the functions which they desire for the hi-tech fabrics that they intend to bring to the market, said Amanda, who has a doctorate from MIT Media Lab.

She was one of the key speakers at the ‘enGENDERED Dialogues 2.0’ session at the GES, where entrepreneurs who transcended personal and social barriers and created out-of-the-box innovations made presentations.

She said that wearable technology, at present, is associated with devices or gadgets worn around the wrist and head. But, the evolution towards smart textiles will allow researchers to explore the entire human body and newer clothing.

Some promising breakthroughs like orange fibre textiles are on the horizon. Similarly, textiles from different plants and chitosans from shrimp, find applications in cosmetics and skin applications.

Many companies, both big and start-ups, are currently working on wearable technologies. The focus will be not on consumer products in wearables, but on smart textiles and how the fashion industry can exploit it.

At GES 2017, over 1500 attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, educators, government officials, and business representatives from diverse backgrounds across the nation and the world represented the full measure of entrepreneurial talent.