Computer softwear

Having trouble saying what you mean? Microsoft’s design team has fashioned a dress for the introverts and oversharers in the crowd. The Printing Dress, as it’s called, is the most recent invention in the dilatory movement of wearable technology.

The dress, a classic A-line silhouette with a sweetheart neckline, lets the tongue-tied wearer type out messages on a corset keyboard to be projected onto a glowing white skirt for all to read. “Now we are what we tweet,” designer Asta Roseway told ElectricFoxy. As a shout-out to old-school media (what’s a newspaper?!) the dress is made almost exclusively of paper, save for the obvious electronics. The dress won Best in Show and Best Concept at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in San Francisco last month.

Past attempts to merge fashion with technology haven’t been quite as functional. Katy Perry’s LED gown by CuteCircuit’s Francesca Rosella was purely aesthetic, but it did manage to upstage Lady Gaga’s outfit at the Met’s Costume Institute Ball. Philips’ design team is giving Microsoft some strong competition with their SKIN technology, which includes a bubble dress that glows and changes color according to body temperature much like a mood ring. So the question becomes: Would you rather type out your every move or have your outfit turn pallid when the conversation gets awkward?