Dezeen Magazine

Rie Sakamoto knits rubber bands together like yarn for elastic garments

Five proposals for fashion of the future

An indestructible jacket, elastic-band dresses and inflatable trousers are among the forward-thinking fashion we've featured this year. Here we roundup five creations that could be set to change the way we dress.


Peony by Florescence by Superflower

Rubber Band by Rie Sakamoto

Elastic rubber bands are used like yarn in this collection that Japanese designer Rie Sakamoto created to showcase the item's overlooked qualities.

The Rubber Band collection, which includes a dress and a jacket, makes the most of its stretchy quality as it can morph to different body-shapes and sizes.

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Harikrishnan's inflatable latex fashion creates "impossible" proportions

Inflatable trousers by Harikrishnan

Menswear designer Harikrishnan's ballooning latex trousers are inflated by seven-millimetre-wide valves hidden in the ankles.

Each pair is made of 30 latex strips forming either colourful stripes or block hues. Hirkrishan's showcase of design in his graduate show at London College of Fashion paired the super-wide trousers with slim-fitting tops to contrast.

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Vollebak creates Indestructible Jacket

Indestructible Jacket by Vollebak

This jacket is made from Dyneema, a plastic that is known as the strongest fibre ever made, making the clothing nearly indestructible.

Experimental clothing brand Vollebak complemented the strong material with hardy buttons made from the "world's toughest nut".

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Flowing Water, Standing Time dresses by Ying Gao

Flowing Water and Standing Time by Ying Gao

Autonomous dresses Flowing Water and Standing Time by fashion designer Ying Gao respond to their environment.

Gao fitted the ethereal fabrics colour and light sensors, and tiny cameras linked to a raspberry PI computer, which gather information about their environment. This then activates a series of actuators and magnets interlaced with silicone to cause the fabrics to move like they were alive.

Find out more about Flowing Water and Standing Time ›


Charlotte McCurdy creates carbon negative raincoat from algae plastic

Carbon-negative jacket by Charlotte McCurdy

New York designer Charlotte McCurdy created this, water-resistant plastic jacket from biopolymers derived from algae.

McCurdy describes the raincoat as "carbon-negative" because algae absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during its lifetime.

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