Anouk is working in the emerging field of "fashion-tech"; a rare combination of fashion design combined with engineering, science and interaction/user experience design. She has created an impressive body of tech-enhanced designs bringing together fashion and technology in an unusual way. She creates technological couture; with systems around the body that tend towards artificial intelligence; projected as 'host' systems on the human body, her designs move, breath, and react to the environment around them.

Bridging sensual experiences

The work of Anouk is similar to Ying Gao but offers something different. Gao’s work is very refined, whereas Wipprecht’s tries to bridge the sensual experience of Haute Couture by enhancing it through the wearable. Playing with a sense of vulnerability, she also uses materials which can ‘disappear’ to create a dress that when you get nervous it loses its opacity. The ‘Smoke Dress’ is designed for the times when the wearer wants to disappear allowing them to turn into a cloud of sorts. Her spider dress speaks to taking these ugly mechanical components and making them beautiful. Instead of really trying to hide the technology like Yin is doing, Anouk is about exposing it and turning it on its head. 

Socially aware clothing

In the way her clothes respond to the wearer and the environment, they begin to have their own agenda.  This area of socially-aware wearable computing is very interesting because, when in the right context, clothing that is responsive could be extremely beneficial. Perhaps they could aid in misunderstandings between people, where sometimes words break down. Or perhaps they could convey an emotion that is hard to express. Maybe clothing can do this? For people with autism or PTSD or other special audiences, perhaps they can especially benefit from these enhanced garments.

We feel a lot safer in our mental space, so how does this clothing help us mature in our emotional awareness? In what context does this kind of clothing work best for us? Learning to resolve or communicate emotions through wearables is something I am very interested in seeing more of in the future.