Virtual Adornments: Haute Couture Practices for IoT Connecting Apparel

The Internet of Things (IoT) [3, 16, 35] is a physical-digital ecosystem of compliant technologies and heterogeneous parts, enabling vast transmissions of data and candid, pervasive presence of things [40]. Fashion, on the other hand, is an embodied practice, an information medium of material, social, cultural, economic and political forces. Many wearables are outfitted to actuate data input sources as a visualised display. However, the impact and rich possibilities of fashion adornment practices for embodied data engagement in IoT wearables design have been overlooked. Introducing computational materials of the IoT to physical properties pushes this virtual system into the physical realm. In this research, an aesthetic criterion of haute couture practices considers the material turn [34, 39]. Design cases of fashion-led adornment style are a promising path to follow in the context of designing wearables for an Internet of Worn Things.