new developments in retail industry

new developments in the retail industry include smart clothing and AIMEX. aimex is a green friendly fabric being introduced over in europe. smart clothing includes more research towards clothing the military and the medical fields. for example i found this website http://ldt.stanford.edu/~jeepark/jeepark+portfolio/cs147hw8jeepark.html that was really cool and said "Georgia Tech developed a "Wearable Motherboard" (GTWM), which was initially intended for use in combat conditions. Georgia Tech's research was funded by the US Department of Navy. The Sensate Liner for Combat Casualty Care uses optical fibers to detect bullet wounds and special sensors that interconnects in order to monitor vital signs during combat conditions. Medical sensing devices that are attached to the body plug into the computerized shirt, creating a flexible motherboard. The GTWM is woven so that plastic optical fibers and other special threads are integrated into structure of the fabric. There are no discontinuities in the GTWM. The GTWM is one piece of fabric, without seams. Because the sensors are detachable from the GTWM, they can be placed at any location, and is therefore adjustable for different bodies. Furthermore, the types of sensors used can be varied depending on the wearer's needs. Therefore, it can be customized for each user. For example, a firefighter could have a sensor that monitors oxygen or hazardous gas levels. Other sensors monitor respiration rate and body temperature or can collect voice data through a microphone. " i dont think there is anyother way to put it than on that website. i think this could be the start of getting our economy back into shape and having something good to compete with asian countries sending over dirt cheap materials and competing with out other fabrics.

fashion week

Fashion week is where designers debue their new designs and collections for the upcoming season. It is very important to have foreshadowing of what will be in. This upcoming season of spring 2009 ive noticed a lot of metallics and earth toned colors. some of the things i didnt expect but they were beautiful. some day i hope to attend a new york fashion week.

Ethnic influences on apparel design have become more popular recently. A lot of the patterns some retailers and designers are choosing to use are patterns from african, chinese, hispanic, and indian cultures. I think these different patterns are becoming so popular now is because eveyone is tired of seeing and wearing the same old things over and over. I think that these patterns and designs are not completly from other cultures but they have definetly inspired designs for apparel a great deal. I personally like the new patterns and have a few things that have ethnic patterns and I just think its really good to have variety in what you wear and what you see in stores; it keeps things a lot more exciting that way!

environmental friendly clothing

I think that most environmental friendly clothing starts out as being made from a natural fiber. The problems with natural fibers is how they are grown and the finishes that they put on them or other fabrics they may mix them with. To grow natural fibers many growers use many fertilizers that harm our ground soil and ground water. When rain falls and erosion occurs these fertilizers travel down into other soils and contaminating them as well. With organic cotton, the plants are harvested naturally without fertilizers and are done so for over three years in the same location before its classified as "organic". Organic cotton is much cleaner and not factorized, dyed unnaturally, or give off polution when being processed.