Fashion – Page 2 – Impact Lab

Fashion, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Scientists create lightweight 18-carat gold using ordinary plastic

January 15, 2020

Researchers with ETHzurich have successfully used plastic to create lightweight gold that retains its purity, according to a recent announcement from the institution. The lightweight gold is ideally suited for products like jewelry and watches — things that would benefit from a reduction in weight without a loss in gold purity or beauty.

The gold found in jewelry is made with metallic alloys that help reduce the weight, though some pieces of jewelry may still be too heavy to suit some buyers. The newly created 18-carat gold replaces the metallic alloy elements with a ‘matrix of plastic,’ reducing the density from a typical 15 g/cm3 to 1.7 g/cm3.

Continue reading… “Scientists create lightweight 18-carat gold using ordinary plastic”

Automation, Fashion, Science & Technology News

Uniqlo’s robots have already replaced 90% of its human workers at its flagship warehouse, now they’ve cracked the difficult task of folding T-shirts

December 27, 2019

Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo.

Uniqlo is coming close to full automation at its flagship warehouse in Tokyo, according to a new report from The Financial Times.

According to The FT, Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, has partnered with a Japanese startup that develops industrial robots to create a two-armed robot that is able to pick up t-shirts and box these up, a task that could previously only be done by a human.

This is an important innovation as it could enable this factory, which has already replaced 90% of its workers with robots, to roll out a fully automated process.

Continue reading… “Uniqlo’s robots have already replaced 90% of its human workers at its flagship warehouse, now they’ve cracked the difficult task of folding T-shirts”

Crazy Stuff, Fashion, Science & Technology News, Shopping

The worst designed products of 2019

December 7, 2019

Don’t add any of these to your holiday wish list.

It’s never a good sign when the masses wonder whether your latest product is really an April Fool’s Joke. (Looking at you, Creme Egg Mayo.)

Heinz and Cadbury weren’t the only ones to launch a highly mockable product. For your reading pleasure, we’ve rounded up a shortlist of this year’s worst design fails. In no particular order, here are the products that most invite the question, why?

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Fashion, Science & Technology News, Shopping, women

De Beers Lightbox lab-grown diamonds will be sold at Bloomingdale’s and Reeds Jewelers

October 17, 2019

For just over a year, the only way to purchase Lightbox fashion jewelry made with lab-grown diamonds was through its website or through an occasional pop-up promotion. Now the brand owned by De Beers will begin testing the brick-and-mortar retail marketplace.

Beginning this month Lightbox jewels will be available at Bloomingdale’s department stores and Reeds Jewelers in a trial run to determine whether there is demand for lab-grown diamonds at $800 per carat in traditional retail environments. The initial rollout will include Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship in New York City and its San Francisco location. Independently owned and family run Reeds Jewelers will sell Lightbox diamond jewelry in 30 of its stores, primarily located in shopping malls throughout the Southeast.

Continue reading… “De Beers Lightbox lab-grown diamonds will be sold at Bloomingdale’s and Reeds Jewelers”

Clothing, Fashion, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Generation Z & the fast fashion paradox

October 9, 2019

If the last year or so has taught us anything about Generation Z – the age group born post-1996 – it’s that they’re environmentally woke. While millennials’ memories of adolescence might consist of MySpace and MSN, for today’s teens and early twentysomethings, school strikes and climate marches to protest the state of the Earth they’re set to inherit are just another Friday. Then there’s 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, an emblem of Gen Z climate-consciousness, who in the past month has dominated headlines for her carbon-neutral yacht expedition across the Atlantic to speak at the UN’s climate conference. Millennials may have been the first group to grow up with an awareness of the climate crisis but it’s their successors who are collectively taking action.

And yet when it comes to fashion – one of the most polluting industries on the planet – Gen Z presents something of a paradox. As the first cohort of digital natives, their coming-of-age has coincided with the height of social media and, subsequently, the advent of ultra-fast fashion brands that target young people online with enticing discounts and influencer partnerships. If sales are anything to go by, the strategy works: Boohoo PLC (which owns Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and Nasty Gal among others) is expected to hit £1.9 billion in revenue by the end of this year. Environmentally engaged yet seduced by what’s new and ‘now’, it’s tricky to tell whether fashion in the hands of the youngest generation is moving towards a more sustainable model – or bound to be faster than ever.

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Fashion, government, privacy, Science & Technology News

The fashion line designed to trick surveillance cameras

August 26, 2019

Adversarial Fashion garments are covered in license plates, aimed at bamboozling a device’s databases

An Adversarial Fashion dress, modeled by the designer, Kate Rose.

Automatic license plate readers, which use networked surveillance cameras and simple image recognition to track the movements of cars around a city, may have met their match, in the form of a T-shirt. Or a dress. Or a hoodie.

The anti-surveillance garments were revealed at the DefCon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Saturday by the hacker and fashion designer Kate Rose, who presented the inaugural collection of her Adversarial Fashion line.

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Fashion, Great New Product, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

Softer-than-cotton antibacterial shirt is made out of milk

August 21, 2019

The Limitless Milk Shirt is claimed to be three times softer than regular cotton

Every day, dairies dispose of milk that for one reason or another is deemed unfit for human consumption. A Los Angeles-based startup by the name of Mi Terro is taking some of that milk and using it to create T-shirts, that reportedly have some big advantages over regular cotton Tees.

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Fashion, Great New Product, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

This fully biodegradable “leather” is welded together from waste

July 11, 2019

This fully biodegradable “leather” is welded together from waste

Mirum is the latest entry in the attempt to make a cheap, sustainable cow-free leather.

Vegan leather shoes are typically made from plastics like polyurethane–so even though they might avoid the carbon footprint and animal welfare issues of raising cattle, they aren’t exactly environmentally friendly. Even plant-based leather typically uses plastic resin or glue to hold the material together. And while some companies work on lab-grown collagen or leather made from mushroom roots, those aren’t widely available and can be difficult to scale up. A new leather brand thinks it has technology that could make plant-based leather–without any plastic–mainstream.

“The foundation of the company is plants, not plastic,” says Luke Haverhals, the founder and CEO of Natural Fiber Welding, the company making a new brand of leather called Mirum. The product has a similar cost to plastic alternatives, but can be made from agricultural waste and is fully biodegradable.

Continue reading… “This fully biodegradable “leather” is welded together from waste”

3D Printer, Breakthrough Thinking, Fashion, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Baldness breakthrough uses 3D-printed “hair farms” to grow new hair follicles

July 11, 2019

The 3D-printed structure can for the first time grow human hair follicles entirely in a laboratory dish

An exciting breakthrough from Columbia University researchers demonstrates a new way to grow human hair follicles using 3D printed molds. This is the first time human hair follicle cells have been grown completely in lab conditions, opening up a potentially unlimited source of hair follicles for future hair restoration surgical procedures.

Over the last few decades hair transplantation surgery has rapidly evolved, becoming more sophisticated and successful, however the process has still fundamentally relied on hair follicles being redistributed from one part of the body to another. Growing human hair follicles in laboratory conditions has proved challenging for researchers, ultimately limiting the efficacy of hair restoration surgery, especially in patients without hair already present that can be grafted.

This new breakthrough brings together a couple of recent innovations. First, the researchers created a unique plastic mold using 3D printers. The moulds are designed to resemble a natural micro-environment stimulating hair follicle growth through tiny extensions just half a millimeter wide.

Continue reading… “Baldness breakthrough uses 3D-printed “hair farms” to grow new hair follicles”

Engineering, Fashion, Science & Technology News, Wearables

RP Technologies help Cross Sword to launch luxury men’s high heel shoes

March 18, 2019

Cross Sword contacted RP Technologies after being recommended to use their prototype tooling & plastic injection moulding services. After initially contacting 2 different companies, both of which created more problems than solutions, Daniel Bush, founder of Cross Sword was relieved that RP listened to his needs and developed a solution to help launch his latest product.

Cross Sword develop and sell luxury high heel shoes for men that have a classic look. The company identified a lack of products for those that wish to wear masculine styled shoes with a high heel so launched the start-up company to offer a comfortable solution for the male high heel wearer.

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Children, Crazy Stuff, Fashion, Parenting, Science & Technology News

Lipstick in kindergarten? South Korea’s K-beauty industry now targets those barely able to read.

February 23, 2019

PriPara Kids Cafe is one of the many beauty parlors in South Korea that cater to young girls. (Jean Chung/For The Washington Post)

Last year in kindergarten, Yang Hye-ji developed her morning routine. Uniform? Check. Homework? Check.

Makeup? Definitely.

“Makeup makes me look pretty,” the 7-year-old said on her second visit to the ShuShu & Sassy beauty spa in Seoul.

She was wrapped in a child-size pink robe and wearing a bunny hairband. Her face was gently touched up with a puff. Her lips got a swipe of pink gloss.

South Korea’s cosmetics industry, known as K-beauty, has become an Asian powerhouse and global phenomenon for its rigorous step-by-step regimens.

But exacting beauty norms also put enormous pressure on South Korean women, making the country one of the world’s centers for plastic surgery. And increasingly, the beauty industry is looking at younger and younger girls.

Continue reading… “Lipstick in kindergarten? South Korea’s K-beauty industry now targets those barely able to read.”

Advertising, Fashion, Latest Trend

Inclusive fashion is the future of runways and retail

February 6, 2019

Thin, white, young, stereotypically “feminine” or “masculine”—those are some of the characteristics that traditionally defined who the fashion industry prioritized.

That’s starting to change. Fashion is under mounting pressure to cater to all customers, as tech-empowered shoppers wield more influence over brands and new upstart labels, willing to serve the shoppers established brands have ignored, are rewarded. This isn’t a passing phase: By 2025, management-consulting firm Bain & Company predicts luxury shoppers will consider a brand’s values, such as inclusivity and diversity, just as much as the quality of the products it sells when deciding how to spend their money.

Continue reading… “Inclusive fashion is the future of runways and retail”