Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Fashion Episode

Futuristic Fashions

Futuristic clothing models

Sharks, Space, and Audiotape

Izz
One thing I love about fashion is how creative it is. Designers make clothes for so many purposes, inspired by totally crazy things, like sharks and geckos!
CJ
I don't know much about fashion, but I do know something about sharks. Sharks are excellent swimmers. Speedo, the swimwear company, is designing outfits for human swimmers. They're copying how sharkskin works.

It's another example of "biomimicry." Which is a fancy way of saying we're copying nature. In this case, Speedo says they can reduce "drag" by 4% by copying how water flows over sharkskin. That may not matter much to you or me but if you're an Olympic swimmer, I guess swimming 4% faster is huge.
Alyce Santoro example
Izz
My turn. A lot of jackets have holes for headphone or earbud wires but Alyce Santoro — she's a designer — uses old audio tape to MAKE her clothes. And there are special devices that can even PLAY the music her clothes are made of. She calls it Sonic Fabric.
Dex
Ooh, I've got a future fashion for you. Virgin Galactic are selling tickets for everyday people to fly into space. So a lot of people are working on new kinds of spacesuits — ones that are easier to move around in and that protect astronauts against harsh conditions.
CJ
Yes. I think they're even copying the tiny hairs on gecko feet that let geckos walk on the ceiling to create spacesuit gloves with better grip for working in zero gravity.
Izz
Hold the geckos. Dex, did you say you can BUY tickets to OUTER SPACE? How much are they?
Virgin Galactic example

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