There’s quite a few projects that deal with women being victims of aggression in public spaces: Wearable Warnings, Electric Cinderella Shoes with built-in stun gun, the Electroshock jacket, Platform shoes for sex workers.

You might also remember the No-Contact Jacket by Adam Whiton and Yolita Nugent. The duo is back with the Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Clothing System, a similar system designed to intervene in domestic violence situations this time.

“The clothing utilizes pressure sensitive fabric to measure impacts to the wearer’s body. The physical abuse data is transmitted to a remote server where it can be archived or distributed to a trusted community or proper authorities. The wearer can chat with their IPV clothing via an artificial intelligence agent that offers them feedback and suggestions based on the received data. This project explores the wearable as a self reflective safe space to assist the abused wearer in reconnecting with social networks.”

The project has been selected by Amanda Parkes to be part of the Siggraph Fashion Show that will present innovative and experimental works in computational and conceptual couture, fashion with a social agenda, science-inspired form, and new technologies of material fabrication. I had a look at the list of garments and as Amanda says “Gone are the stereotypical bulky cyborg devices.” Thank God for that! It put the whole field of computational fashion in an embarrassing light.