Global Fashion Meets Technology at the Emerging Trends Runway Show

By Priscilla Liguori 10-12-14

Global fashion meets technology.  Hundreds gathered October 12 at the Boston Center for the Arts to watch the Emerging Trends Runway Show bring innovation to Boston Fashion Week.

MIT Open Style Lab founder Grace Teo gave a presentation showcasing how the university used fashion to help clients with disabilities.  Open Style Lab is a ten-week educational program that ran this past summer.

“The whole goal was to create clothes for people with disabilities,” Teo explains. “We matched each client with a design student, an engineering student, and an occupational therapist student to create a clothing solution to them.”

One of the lab’s projects included pants with a magnet-infused seam made for a client to be able to change clothing by himself.

The show’s runway portion combined groundbreaking ideas with style.

Featured designer Taylor Lane constructs her pieces with flexible laces and hidden zippers that are able to shape how a woman’s body appears. Some of her pieces include little pockets on the inside of the fabrics to store money.

The event even included the resources for attendees to buy their favorite clothes in the show.  Computers were stationed at a desk near the runway for eager customers.

“At shopemergingtrends.com, you’re actually able to pre-order exclusive items that you see at the very end of the runway. You’re immediately able to buy it online and get it here,” show volunteer Brittany Torres says.

Technology wasn’t all that set the show apart.

“We pick international designers to cater to the diverse crowd that Boston has,” says show founder, Reaz Hoque.

Designers from the Philippines, South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and across the United States all featured their collections.

The Emerging Trends Runway Show certainly brought high-tech and international styles to Boston.

Credit: Priscilla Liguori