2005年NPR美国国家公共电台八月-Cyberfashion: Technology You Can Wear

This is Day to Day, I’m Milany Braney, in a few minutes we’ll hear what critics are saying about this week’s movie releases, but first in the future our coat buttons will take pictures and our underwear will telephone home when we are in trouble.

That’s a sample of the runway offer inside the 4th annual Siggraph Cyberfashion Show held earlier this week in Los Angeles. If you go to our web site in npr.org, you can see pictures from the show, as you listen to this story from our tech contributor Sheni Jardin.

I’m bringing you into my swirling 1 ball of chaos 2.
A cyber fashion show has one thing in common with traditional runway shows: Most of these outlandish designs won't end up in your closet anytime soon. Back stage, the event’s emcee and founder 3 Isa Gorden perfected her look: a layered web of latex and leather with a crown of multi-colored braids.
Cyborg transformation 4 takes quite some time; we started about 3 hours ago. So I’m halfway 5 cyborged, not completely cyborged yet.

Isa’s swirling ball of chaos includes designs from familiar fashion brands like Oakley and Fossil, thrown together with those of Sony, and the MIT Media Laboratory. Stylists are putting the finishing touches on models Sara Tonin, Venus Prototype, and Stardust Angel . Everyone is working on little slip.

You can see we have all kinds of crazy clothes and crazy looking models in here. We're really trying to balance both the couture aspect and the tech aspect. And then of course we have so many pieces that do both.

Running things back stage is Janet Hanson who is dressed in, well, normal clothes. She also designs lingerie that lights up.

It’s gradually becoming more mainstream 6 to have lights in your clothing or to have functionality in your clothing such as the MP3 players and phones and as electronics are with us all the time, it’s becoming more common to integrate it with the clothes, and as issues like washability and durability 7 are overcome. Eventually, I, maybe we'll all be wearing light-up bras.

A lot of the designs here blinked, beeped or networked. A jacket and dress displayed luminous 8 codes to identify each wearer's body temperature, just in case you want the world to know how much you are sweating. And then, there was the “hug shirt”. When your significant others are on the other side of the world, text a message to their clothing and they will feel gentle pressure like a human embrace. Isa Gorden admits that much of what's on display might seem a little weird 9.

Absolutely we are weird. I think you are walking into this room and you’ll see some of the wildest, craziest looking people you have ever seen gathered in one place. But that’s the nature of culture advancement 10. The status quo says, “No no, let’s keep everything this way.” The avant-garde comes along, and says, “No, let's do something wild, let’s do it different.” And somewhere in the dialogue between the two, something new emerges that becomes the new status quo.

Some clothes were designed for business. Wearable Environmental Information Networks of Japan showed a journalist’s coat called “Report the World”. The pink trench 11 coat’s retro silhouette 12 housed 10 hidden cameras for capturing 360 degree panoramic 13 images. A finger ring speaker transmits location-based audio instructions, and a head-mounted display for reading secret documents stylishly 15 encrusted with Sparavski crystals like an electric tiara. Quinn Newann modeled the coat and liked it.

See you can sort of hide, you know, so you aren't looking exactly like a reporter when you try to see what’s around you. You can hide yourself by being stylish 14 but also like look around and be observant.

See you're a stealthy reporter, in hot pink. Ha,ha… Maybe stealth will be liking 16 you in 2010 or 2020.

There were safety-oriented kids' wear too. Nancy Morry designed a Victorian pinafore dress with radio frequency ID tags. Her 12-year-old daughter and model Sumon thought it was cool but had design ideas of her own.

I would probably want things that would help me do my homework, track me down if I get lost or captured, and watch TV on my wrist.

But some of the designs may not be ready for the real world, maybe not even the runway. Isa or cyborg emcee had to outfit 17 crash a few times during the show.

I’m sorry. I have to pause for a moment. Somehow my text in my head-mounted display has gone small, and I’m having trouble reading it, and all I have to do is select all, and change the size of the font. Oh, much better. Ok, now I can really read the words that I intended to speak here tonight. Thank you all for your patience.

So will consumers be as patient when their clothes start malfunctioning 18? Time will tell. Either way, one thing is certain: they are gonna look fabulous 19.

For NPR news, I’m Sheny Jardin.
Let's just say if someone’s underwear is calling me. I’m running and go straight to voice mail.

More coming up on Day to Day, NPR news.
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runway: 模特表演的T台
latex: 乳胶
cyborg: cybernetic organism受控机体
status quo: （拉丁）社会现状，social situation as it is now
avant-garde:（法）先锋派，前卫
couture:（法）时装设计，时装设计师
lingerie:（法）麻织品，女用内衣
tiara: 头饰，皇冠
pinafore：围兜