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In 100 years, think of that shirt you just bought having the ability to change colours based on the temperature of your body, the amount of light that’s hitting the fabric, or simply just for the sake of changing colours for style. This is possible because the future of clothing is nanotechnology.
How Will The Fashion Industry Change In The Future?
Fashion as we know it has always been changing; from 17th-century men wearing narrow-brimmed hats and 18th-century women wearing corsets, girls in the 1900s started to wear trousers to the trend of 2000s low-rise jeans, men also have traded out their top hats for 21st-century’s baseball caps and beanies.
The question as to why clothing over the years has been endlessly evolving is that it operates in response to the events happening at the current time. For example, a short term timeline of fads from the 1950s to the 1980s were mostly all in response to peoples’ views of the times.
In the 60s, events like Woodstock paved the way for the fashion industry with people beginning to wear tie-dye as a universal symbol of opposition and freedom until the 80s arrived and technology started to transform society. The first space shuttle was created, IBM’s personal computer launched for the public, and music videos started to take off; bold pops of colour and metallics were defining the new fashion.
As time continues, technology then and now is influencing the fashion industry and trends of the future without many even realising it. Technology has become ever more important to society with the future likely to see this intelligence embedded into actual clothing design.
What Will Clothes Look Like In The Future?
Fashion in 100 years from now might be entirely different to anything we can predict, as factors such as COVID-19 may yet further influence society in ways we previously couldn’t have imagined. Masks being the new norm is something that no one would have been able to guess becoming a staple of peoples’ wardrobes worldwide.
As we move forward, society is starting to realise that the number of clothes may not be as important as the overall quality. People are sick of being able to wear a shirt and feel like it is no longer valuable or interesting after the first wear, which the pandemic and technology will have a big say in also how trends will unfurl. COVID-19 could define a new definition of luxury as early as the next 50 years. Technology and artificial intelligence may impact the diversity and wearability of a simple shirt meaning that answering a question such as what will clothes look like in the future can be a difficult proposition. The list below however gives a generous insight into the fashion industry’s plans for design and trends to come:
Futuristic Clothes: Formulated after the sleek form of smartphones and other tech devices, the fashion industry may be heading towards the use of futuristic-looking clothing. Common colour schemes potentially to be used will be metallics, shades of black and streamlined shapes, representing the colours and shapes devices usually resemble as fashion begins to literally embody the future.
Clothing Designed for VR Glasses: For people not wanting to be an “outfit repeater”, clothes specifically designed around virtual reality glasses may be the wave of the future. Fashion optimised by the use of this technology will allow onlookers to see their clothing in a different form than what the person may actually be wearing. For example, a person may be wearing a white shirt but when onlookers have glasses on, the clothing may appear to change colour or have an extension only visible through the lens.
No Sizing: In a way for the fashion industry to save on materials and eliminate the chances of leftover cloth being tossed out, clothes may start being specifically tailored to each person’s exact size. Possibly in the future, companies’ use of clothing sizes as technology advances, that may entail scanning your body for measurements and then proceeding to make the clothing. This new way of creating clothing ultimately reduces the need for mass production and helps out the environment immensely. The industry currently uses over 79 billion cubic meters of water each year, but hopefully, with the use of technology, clothes will only be produced when a scan is completed for a company to then use only needed water and materials. The other added bonus of this method is consumers having custom-sized clothing.
Data-Gathering Clothing: Recently, companies have started using smart materials to build their clothing and products which will be able to collect data on the person wearing the pieces. For example, Nike is working on basketball shoes Nike Adapt BB that will be able to track a person’s foot movement and produce data on whether or not the person could potentially injure themselves during a game. From this perspective, the fashion of the future could be more communicative and intertwined than ever before.
A Decrease in Fast-Fashion: The pandemic is changing consumers’ shopping behaviour, it may be everlasting as customers are choosing necessities over materialistic items. Fast-fashion marketing itself as being the most updated trend style at the time hence the reasoning to buy, people in the future may not be looking for that, in exchange for sustainable luxury clothing instead. Well-made, durable, inexpensive clothing that can get multiple uses out of without going out of style may top the charts as the most desirable items for shoppers to buy.
Handmade: Quarantine has turned many people towards crafts, including hand-making their own clothing. As 2020 goes on, reports have shown an increase in secondhand markets, specifically thrift store ThredUp has seen a 24% faster climb than retail industries as a whole. A prediction for fashion in 100 years from now could be the increased hobby and production of handmade pieces inspired by the pandemics current effect on society.
Rental Economy: Recently, the clothing rental industry has seen a huge increase as people are wanting to feel newness when wearing clothes without the hardship of paying full price for products. As time goes on, this trend may continue to benefit both consumers with new clothing as well as limit the environmental impact by being able to recycle and reuse products instead of just tossing things out.
Chameleon Clothing: The use of artificial intelligence in the fashion industry may end up having the ability for clothing to change colours, temperature, and size. Embroidered into the textiles of material, this technology will be able to react to not only a person’s body temperature but also the amount of light a person is exposed to. For example, the fashion of the future may be able to turn a black shirt, white if it detects a person’s body temperature increases because of sun exposure. Or during a workout, clothing could possibly gain elasticity and then reform itself once activities are completed. It’s hard to say exactly when these products will be available to the public but smart material companies have been working diligently on different chameleon models.
Extravagant Fashion: Regarding the clothes of the future, 2050 could reach a whole new level of extravagant clothing. Trends are already showing the use of bold colours that will likely continue within the next 100 years but to many people’s surprise, clothes have the possibility to become more 3-Dimensional. Society is looking for unique ways of showing their personal styles which the fashion industry is taking into hand with the actual construction of materials. Whether it’s oversized puffy coats or protruding long sleeves, being bold will be a leading factor in clothing design of the future.
Customized Pieces: 3D printers can eventually become a necessity in people’s homes as customized clothing and products are on the rise. Although highly expensive in 2020, within the next 100 years, engineers may be successfully producing these printers at an affordable price for the general public. With this as a possibility, people will be able to custom-make their own clothing and integrate their unique personal style and designs into 3D printed clothing.
Conclusion
In 100 years, we can only imagine what fashion trends will be going on and what our clothing will look like. We know for a fact that technology will play a role in clothing but we won’t fully be able to depict how society will be until we get there with time. Trends will constantly be changing, technology will be growing, effects of the current pandemic may be here to stay but overall, we can guarantee the fashion industry will be making an unique, bold, tech-based impact with clothing.
