You want to get started in fashion tech? The consultant Dominique Paret, electronics technical expert and co-author of the book "Wearables, Smart Textiles & Smart Apparel", explains to Le Boudoir Numérique the constraints to know in order to ensure the industrial viability of your project.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

Le Boudoir Numérique : The topic of your book is wearables, smart textiles and smart apparel. What do these terms cover ?

Dominique Paret, electronics technical expert : Rings, bracelets, watches, glasses, shoes or socks, accessories and clothes ... everything that is worn on oneself is a "wearable". In these wearables, there are accessories, namely "non-textile wearables", such as fitness trackers, connected watches, event wristbands, etc. and "textiles wearables", such as fabrics, materials, fibers and clothing, with their applications in sports, medical or personal protective equipment fields . Like accessories, textile wearables can be smart. They are then referred to as "smart textiles" or "smart apparel". A smart textile can pick up a signal (temperature, biometric values, attitudes, movements, etc.), analyze it and respond to it in an appropriate way (by modifying its shape, establishing a communication, carrying out calculations, etc.). This is the case, for example, of a garment that changes color, because it has detected a dangerous gas, close to the person who wears it.

As a consultant, you help your clients to develop their concepts of wearables and smart apparel, from the pre-feasibility study, to the industrial production of the product. What advice would you give to a young designer, wanting to create his first fashion tech wearable?

First of all, I would say to him : take care of the industrial viability of your project. First, one must be aware of the difference between a salable product and a buyable product. You made a product to sell, that’s great. But people still have to buy it at a price acceptable to them. This is why it is always necessary to define precisely for which markets one decide to design a product. Then, pay attention to the POC (or Proof of Concept to demonstrate, experimentally, the feasibility of a project, AN). For many people, the POC represents the grail but that is not the case, far from it. By making a POC, one create a model that looks a lot like what one would like to do but is not the final product. Too often, POCs are assembled, from odds and ends, by startups or students who want to show that, basically, the concept works. This is indeed the merit of the POC, proving that it works. But generally, we are still very far from a viable industrial product, maybe two years, two years and a half away. Who will pay the project staff during these two years ? People say, after the POC : we succeeded. Well no, that's not true. It is just beginning. After the POC, it is necessary to restart from scratch and to redevelop everything, to be certain of being able to carry out the realization of a wearable, for commercial purposes.

What are the constraints to consider, in the case of a textile wearable?

When it comes to smart apparel, questions about their use and care are essential. Will a textile containing electronics resist washing? If so, how many times? Are electronic components removable? Can the smart textile be tumble-dried or ironed? We often see, in fashion shows, beautiful fashion tech garments that have no chance of being ever marketed, because they can not be worn more than once. If you have imagined a smart bra that can only be washed three times, do not expect to sell your project to a lingerie company. This type of problems, determining the life of a product, its use and price, must be taken into account, from the outset, to prevent them from becoming an obstacle to its commercialization.

It must be done, from the birth of the project ?

Yes. For example, in terms of security, linked to the personal data collected by smart textiles, it is essential to implement it from end to end of the project. In case of problems, it is very difficult and expensive to go back and integrate it later. It’s the same thing for recycling. The majority of smart clothing sold includes electronics, batteries, sensors and microprocessors that can be removed for recycling. Ultimately, it is the fiber itself that will become intelligent, in the form of electronic components, integrated to the fabrics. It is difficult to unravel these fibers to separate the components to be recycled and future technologies will not make the task easier, when the materials will become more complex, with components printed directly on textiles, for example. The equation is not simple but it is known to all, it is not a scoop. This is why we must ask ourselves the right questions, from the beginning because the environmental issue of the smart textiles lifecycle end comes up, sooner or later.

Taking into account all the constraints of a project is therefore, for you, a must ?

Absolutely. Know and solve all the marketing, technical, industrial, regulatory, normative, applicative, security and cost constraints is vital to guard against unpleasant surprises. Certainly, thinking about all these problems may seem to make your task more complex, more boring and longer but it is necessary to tackle it, in order to avoid subsequent disillusionment. Otherwise, no need to continue your project, your product will be neither salable nor buyable.

* The book “Wearables, Smart Textiles & Smart Apparel” by Dominique Paret and Pierre Crégo was published in November 2018, at ISTE Editions (365 pages).