FASHION AND science meet in a very strange space from tomorrow when the latest exhibition opens at the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin. The event features oddities such as grow-your-own "guilt free" leather jackets and T-shirts that can impart a hug to cheer you up.
TechnoThreads: What Fashion Did Next is the name of the innovative exhibition set to begin a three-month run at the Pearse Street gallery.
"It is all about fashion and science and where those two worlds might meet," explains its director, Dr Michael John Gorman. "It is an exhibition that explores how wearable technology and new materials can be worn as fashion."
There are no limits imposed on where the crossover between the two can go. For example, one display features a living, growing jacket made of merged mouse and human skin cells.
It shows that science might help take the ethical dilemma out of owning a leather jacket - of sorts - because no animal was killed in its production. It offers "victimless leather", Dr Gorman suggests.
Then there is "Front", a display involving voice-activated wearable conflict suits. Many animals including lizards evolved the ability to puff up their necks or flash fins as a way to intimidate aggressive opponents.
Now two humans can do the same thing with outfits that puff up automatically when you shout, providing a way both to defend yourself but also attack an aggressor.
The feelgood T-shirt that allows you to give someone a friendly hug without actually touching them is another breakthrough. Devices built into the clothing impart the hug that you activate using a wireless bluetooth radio link; and of course the hug can be returned the same way.
TechnoThreads shows how genuine science and the latest in fashion can truly merge, Dr Gorman suggests. This in fact is the remit of the new Science Gallery - to provide a place where the public can see scientific discoveries placed in a human context.
The displays were inspired by a book, TechnoTextiles, written by London-based Irish exhibition curator Marie O'Mahoney.
TechnoThreads is free and open to the public until Friday July 25th. A free public panel discussion, "The Future of Fashion: Clothes with a Conscience?", takes place tomorrow at the gallery from 2-3.30pm and all are welcome.
There is also a workshop on wearable technology tomorrow from 4-5pm and tickets for this are €5.