Sustainable style: the young designers revolutionising clothing

In the classic sci-fi novel Dune, the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis wore suits that stored their bodies’ energy and recycled their water waste. When Frank Herbert wrote that book in 1965, hi-tech clothes that could double up as energy cells and water purifying systems were simply things of fantasy. Merely five decades on, however, smart fabrics are not only a reality, but are rapidly becoming a major investment avenue within the fashion industry.

In recent years, designated branches of the fashion industry have been heavily investing in developing the intersection between fashion and science. Though the term ‘wearable tech’ usually only springs to mind when discussing smartwatches or Google Glass, technology has in fact already stretched far beyond these devices and woven itself into the very fibres of the fabrics we are wearing.

These smart fabrics, which can absorb solar energy, or the kinetic energy produced by the wearer’s own body, can transfer the energy they harness into a green energy grid, or even use it to charge mobile devices. Design houses are now developing these fabrics, taking them far beyond the realms of utilitarian garments and into serious fashion territory.

Though a number of research centres have been investing in the development of flexible photovoltaic cells – or solar batteries – for some time, not all of them have been keeping the fashion industry in mind. It seems unlikely customers who are interested in wearing energy generating garments would be willing to wear something that is visually unappealing, or not easily adapted from season to season. As a result, a small but distinguished collection of researchers have managed to stand out from the sustainable fashion set by achieving the supposedly impossible: pioneering fabrics and accessories that, while still gathering and producing sustainable energy, are also designed so people will want to wear them.

Harnessing the sun
Solar Fiber, a Dutch start-up company, pioneered the idea of a flexible photovoltaic fibre that can convert sunlight into electrical energy. The product was conceived as a yarn that can be woven directly into traditional fabrics. Though the company’s founders admit the concept of a photovoltaic fabric is in itself not new, Solar Fiber is certainly leading the pack when it comes to research and development in the field. The company recently launched a stylish energy-producing dress, as well as a prototype shawl that displays the amount of energy being generated in real time. “If you look around you, textiles cover so many surfaces – so why not give them a ‘super power’ that can take advantage of this, like solar energy harvesting?” Meg Grant, one of the company’s founders, asked The Guardian.

Another European company leading in the field of solar textiles is Wearable Solar. Founded by artist and fashion designer Pauline van Dongen, the company is pushing the potential of wearable tech by creating solar textiles that can recharge mobile devices. Wearable Solar has already launched two designs in their collection: photovoltaic panels are integrated into the designs of both, easily passing off as mere embellishments, which can be covered up when the sun is not out. When worn outside in the sun for two hours, both garments (a dress and a coat) will generate enough energy to restore an average smartphone to full power.

Move your feet
The kinetic energy the human body generates can also be harvested. Piezoelectric sensors can detect and collect the vibrations created through muscle movement, and can be useful if integrated into clothes or, in particular, shoes. Nike has already developed ‘smart trainers’, which feed information through a wireless link directly to a fitness app or other wearable device.

Researchers at IMEC in Belgium have since outstripped this technology by developing a wafer-like capacitor that can collect and store kinetic energy for other uses. Though this product is currently still in development, there is phenomenal potential for these wafers to be integrated into both shoes and clothes.

The use of thermal sensors in fashion is also already a reality. Making use of the thermoelectric effect, scientists at the Holst Centre in the Netherlands are developing garments that will generate electricity from the difference between the body temperature of the wearer and the exterior of the clothes. This technology is particularly effective in colder regions, where the difference is likely to be great. Holst Centre scientists have integrated a thermoelectric generator into a shirt, which is able to produce an average power of 1MW in a room heated at 22 degrees centigrade, and double that when the wearer is walking outside. This means the shirt alone is capable of powering a standard health-monitoring device, which on average require around 0.4MW of energy.

Harvest time
Although still only a concept, Harvest has the potential to change the way we think of wearable tech entirely. Noting just how much energy is wasted every time we move, product design student Damon Ahola came up with the concept of a wearable pod that, once embedded into shoes or worn on clothing, would harvest the kinetic energy the body releases. He told The Guardian: “I thought we were all exerting a huge amount of energy, while at the same time consuming a vast amount of electrical energy.” The lithium-ion battery in the pod can be plugged into a smartphone so the energy harvested can be measured and recorded. The most revolutionary part of Ahola’s idea, however, is the network of ‘harvest hotspots’, which allow the pods to transfer the stored energy back into a green energy bank. Through this system, the pod-owner could even sell their self-produced energy back to the grid.