Design, technology and pop culture met last week as Steve Jobs announced the iPad as a gadget for cultural creatives to blend art and technology. In the same vein, Polaroid announced they have signed on Lady Gaga as a creative designer. The fashion-forward and digitally-savvy Gaga was a natural choice for Polaroid, due to her demonstrated talent in “developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation” for digital lifestyle products. Lastly in this trend, British singer songwriter Imogen Heap grabbed headlines when she wore a Twitter dress* to the Grammy awards. At a moment when the synergies of art & technology are on our collective mind, this publicity stunt worked wonders, and the public response indicates a growing cultural curiosity about the possibilities of connected clothing and digital fashion design.

So what other high-tech threads are on the horizon for the always-on hipsters and cyberdivas among us? For casual fridays, web 2.0 hoodies are just the thing. The wi-fi sweats can recognize other hoodies worn by friends in your network. Their vibrating fabric indicates proximity of your peeps.

Many designers are showing high-tech clothing for the next generation of always-on social networkers. Using fabrics made from fiber optics, designing clothes that change color—for now these prototypes show up more often on runways and in art galleries than on the street or our backs. But that may be changing.

More consumers are interested in buying laptop bags that charge our electronic gadgets, especially if the totes are solar powered. Also on the market, express your inner luminosity with wearable electronics like LED illuminated jackets, and digital animated t-shirts.

Back in the design studio, one upcoming high-tech fashion dress design sure to be a hit with the men: a frock with voice activated hemline (otherwise known as “sound reactive nightgown”) that rises and falls on command.

* a much earlier example of a Twitter dress was the Kickbee project, a dress that tweeted kicks from an expectant mother!

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