Designers are more and more often turning to creation of clothing and footwear reacting to changes in environmental conditions.
You can remember the Rainbow Winters collection from the British stylist Amy Konstanze Mercedes. It consists of dresses and swimsuits that change color depending on the intensity of sunlight and air humidity: it is enough to get caught in the rain in such a dress, and from soft pink it turns saturated purple…
Another fashion designer, the British of Korean origin Dahea Sun, created clothes for rainy weather. Those we wear in summer or under the raincoat in fall.
The Rain Palette collection by Dahea Sun consists mainly of dresses, the fabric of which changes color not just because of air humidity but also because of its acidity – PH level. Thus, it allows to determine whether the rain is harmful for contact with human skin and the environment.
Made of silk fabric, the outfits by Dahea Sun are decorated with knitting, crocheting, and embroidery. They are capable of real-time signalling about the state of the environment, the purity of air and precipitation.
And the owner of this dress doesn’t have to get caught in the rain – just be under an umbrella or under a canopy, where the humid rainy air can reach. Special fabric dyes, the analogues of natural Anthocyanin pigments, are responsible for the effect of an “acid analyzer” – changing the color.
The designer identified the effect of the pigments in determining acidity and made up a table, illustrating how the fabric of an original color (first column, the picture above) will vary depending on the acidity of water in the droplets of rain or fog the air (the second to the sixth column from the PH-3 to the PH-7).
Moreover, the owner of the dress can make this information useful not only for herself – hiding from acid rain, for example – but also for other people including environmentalists. A special application on a smartphone can help do it sending the information to a special resource on the Internet.
The map presented on this web site allows assessing the environmental situation in different regions of the world – where ladies will be wearing suits and dresses by Dahea Sun.
The designer hopes that her collection as the beginning of a global project will increase people’s awareness about the environmental issues such as acid rain and pollution. And at the same time, it will influence the behavior of society and every individual as a consumer and a resident of a particular region.
And would you buy such a dress for yourself?
