Premiering June 3, a series of runway shows and dialogues about tech wearables and adaptive fashion will run on the True Colors Festival YouTube Channel.
The series highlights some of the most avant-garde tech wearables on the market, adapted specifically for people with varying disabilities. While promoting inclusion and diversity, these creations speak to the basic human desire for independence, empowering people with disabilities to experience the same quality of life as those without disabilities.
Directed by acclaimed media artist, Yoichi Ochiai, True Colors Fashion: The Future is Now! partners the world’s leading tech companies and fashion brands with a diverse cast of models to showcase 11 original designs.
The intent of the show is to drive the limits of fashion by manufacturing pieces for all bodies, empowered by technology. It features adaptive fashion, becoming the launchpad for innovations that expand on existing wearables such as prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs.
“Since the invention of computers, we have been able to solve problems with software, and it has become easier for people to connect with one another. In keeping with this idea, The Future is Now! sets the stage for diverse people to express themselves with fashion that’s empowered with technology,” said Ochiai.
The show introduces the audience to an ALS creator who teams up with artists and technologists to create artworks and develop content using eye movement, features hearing aids worn as fashion rather than as just tools, children with prosthetic legs running, an ingeniously designed trench coat for people who are missing limbs, proving how customization can provide greater comfort and confidence, without the need to follow convention, and so much more.
Among the models are Masatane Muto, a DJ diagnosed with ALS who plays music with his eyes; Pippi, who developed a hearing disability at age 16 and has starred in campaigns for Shu Uemura and walked the runways of Japan Fashion Week; Hirotada Ototake, famous sports journalist and bestselling author of the memoir “No One’s Perfect” which details his life having been born without limbs; and Fumiya Hamanoue, a climber with a visual disability who represents the Japan Paralympic Team.
“I believe that not only can technology supplement bodily functions that are lost, it can in fact expand the limits of the body. Beyond complementation, technology can help us do more,” DJ Muto said.
Participating technology and fashion brand Xiborg Inc. and SONY Computer Science Laboratory specialize in creating robotic prosthetics for children – not just aspiring para-athletes.
“I want to build a world in which not having the use of legs will not be an obstacle to running. I want to make running with a prosthetic leg a normal thing, not just for athletes or aspiring athletes, but for everyone,” said Ken Endo, founder of Xiborg Inc. and researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratories.
Other collaborators in the series include: ONTENNA, a device that converts sound information into light and vibration and Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, the first major label to develop a full-fledged adaptive fashion line incorporating magnetic buttons and Velcro closures for easy wear.
Show director Ochiai emphasized, “This fashion show aims to present the beauty of various physicalities in relation to nature’s biodiversity. Together with the participants and the audience, I hope this show will create an opportunity to think about the diversity of the human body, cradled by technology that will become naturalized.”
For more information, please visit the True Colors Festival website: https://truecolorsfestival.com
To view the trailer, go to https://youtu.be/b6Sf-Tyck8k
