Smart Arse: Posture Classification with Textile Sensors in Trousers

“We talk ‘through’ our clothes, if we want [sic] or not.” – say a research team from Queen Mary University of London, who have recently created ‘Smart Arse’ – a pair of ‘sensing trousers’ (that’s ‘sensing pants’ US) – which can reveal details of the ‘conversational engagement’ of the wearers. “People continually adjust their posture […]

The Ziptune® musical zipper (new patent)

Inventor Stan Divranos, of Chino, California, has just been granted a US patent (Aug 29th 2017) for his Ziptune® musical zipper. “Various types of zippers are known in the prior art. However, what has been needed is a musical zipper including a zipper having a slider, a continuous C-shaped flap having a pair of outer ends […]

Future fashion cycles of Korean pants – a study

Is it possible to establish a fashion theory frame to forecast future fashion cycles of pants (in the Republic of Korea) – through analyzing past fashion cycles of pants through a diachronic method? Yes! says researcher Seonsook Kim of the Dept. of Clothing & Textiles, Daejeon University, Republic of Korea. A paper on the subject […]

Sagging pants and the logic of abductive inference

Not all that many academic studies have examined the possibilities of abductive inference with regard to sagging pants [sagging trousers (UK)]. There are exceptions though. Professor Marcia Morgado of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa has a paper in the journal Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion (Volume 2 Issue 2-3, September 2015) which: “[…] explores […]

Trouser (pants) creases – a metrological examination

If you’re one those people who wonders about accurate trouser-crease measurement in woolen trousers (pants), you should perhaps turn to the Textile Research Journal, March 1966 36: pp. 264-272, where R.C. Landwehr (of the Western Regional Research Lab, Albany, California) presented an apparatus and procedures to reliably measure wool creases. The ratio of maximum crease […]

Flammable trousers: then, and later, and now

Behold three eras in the international saga of trouser flammability. THEN: The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize for agricultural history was awarded to James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his study, concerning the period between World War I and World War II, called “The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers.” LATER: This month, in 2013, the […]