Lauren Bowker combines chemistry with couture. "I'm interested in everything you can't see," the 28-year-old Lancashire designer says. "That might be the pheromones you release or the environment you're in -- its temperature or the local humidity."
Her latest project is a series of "armoured, sculptured pieces" that together form a jacket. The leather has been treated with liquid crystal to make it friction responsive. "The whole point is you won't know the technology is in there," she says. "When you're walking down the street and get a gust of wind, parts of the jacket will change colour." She will debut the jacket in February under label name The Unseen.
Bowker calls herself an alchemist, but she originally studied textile design, and focused on ink technology. She uses chemicals whose molecules change their shape depending on a stimulus, so that they refract light differently and make us see another colour. "Say I'm at Oxford Street and I want to go to Baker Street," she says. "And say I want my Oxford Street dress to be red and my Baker Street dress to be brown. I map the territory and environment of both locations, and create an ink to suit that." Along with The Unseen -- part of her Air collection -- Bowker will also be selling "technical potions" as kits. "So you can hack your Converse."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
