Dry the Rain

I, personally, love walking in the rain. As my future move back to the coast is yet at an undetermined date, I must settle for the ocean coming to me. And while one of my favorite summertime pieces of clothing in my younger days was a $5 plastic yellow rain coat, I've never seemed to purchase any adult raingear. Perhaps that's one reason why I gravitate to black clothing, for black still looks fabulous - and has an even greater slimming effect - when wet. Royal College of Art graduate Jane Bowler's 'Fusion' collection (found via Ecouterre), however, could be a great way to introduce some colour and some dryness to my rain walks. Jane created these stitch-free pieces out of recycled plastics, taking inspiration from traditional Japanese straw raincoats (yeah, I've never heard of such a thing either) and the British Mackintosh (...sorry, I don't know about that too...). Me likey. Though I think my coffee might still get soaked whilst walking in one of these 'coats'...

Climate Dress

Now here would be a useful dress if you're ever caught in a tight situation at a party. Talking to someone who just spouts too much hot air? Excuse yourself by saying your dress lights indicate that the quality of air around you is just too poor to remain in that conversation. This would likely be most needed whilst conversing with party guests of the bovine persuasion.

Confused by my post-Christmas gibberish? Here's the description from Ecouterre's article:

Dressing for your climate gets literal with Diffus’s Climate Dress, which the Danish design company has laced with hundreds of tiny LEDs that respond to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Powered by an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector, the haute-tech frock uses conductive embroidery to transmit information to the hand-stitched lights, resulting in patterns that range from slow pulses to rapid flashes depending on the concentration of the greenhouse gas.

Now that's a smart dress.

(Photos via Ecouterre)