A survey of Advanced Textiles for Health + Well-Being and their applications in Fashion, Design and the Built Environment.
Space, Military, Medicine and Sport are the four key drivers in the development of advanced textiles. Since the latter portion of the twentieth century the Space and Military programmes have come under increasing pressure to find commercial uses for their material technologies with health and wellbeing applications one of the key areas to benefit. Demographic changes have also influenced this, as people in developed countries are living longer and demanding that this be matched by a good quality of life. The Sports industry having been slow to recognise the importance of the female market in the 1970’s, have wasted little time in the twenty first century in embracing the health and wellbeing market across all age groups. Today, health and wellbeing is one of the most important areas of fibre, fabric, coating and finishing treatments for advanced textiles. In this paper we look at the key developments, first in materials, then at their applications in fashion, design and the built environment. Key issues are also discussed and the paper concludes with a consideration of the future development of the industry.
The first portion of the paper focuses on discussion of high-performance fabrics that are: flame retardant, soundproof, anti-bacterial, climate regulating, fitness enhancing, health-monitoring and capable of offering protection against extreme weather conditions and man-made disasters. Technologies discussed include: three dimensional structures, smart materials and systems, functionally gradient materials, Nanotechnology and TechnoNaturals. The second section of the paper moves on to examine applications in fashion, design and the built environment. The discussion here is focused on the impact of new materials looking at where advanced textiles have brought added-value, led to innovation in design or even resulted in the development of whole new products. This is followed by discussion of some of the key issues facing the industry – from privacy to sustainability. The paper will conclude with a survey of emerging technologies and assess their likely impact over the next two decades.
Biography
Marie is an academic and consultant. She is Professor of Advanced Fashion + Textiles at Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) University, Toronto and Visiting Professor at University of the Arts, London. She is also a textile and technology consultant, author and curator. She has lectured worldwide and published numerous books on the subject, with the most recent, Advanced Textiles for Health + Well-Being published by Thames + Hudson (2011). Clients include Seymour Powell, Ove Arup and Partners, ResMed, NIKE, Zaha M. Hadid and Material ConneXion. She was a member of the Australian Government’s Textile, Clothing and Footwear Innovation Council (TCFIIC) from 2009-2011.