Summer travel has a way of exposing the weak links in your packing: the phone cable you forgot, the SPF that leaves a chalky cast, the toothbrush that feels like an afterthought, the passport cover that has seen better terminals. Whether you’re heading for a long weekend by the sea, a city break in the heat or something further afield, the right travel essentials solve those small, recurring problems, making the whole exercise feel smoother, smarter and far better looking. From well-designed luggage and clever tech to beauty staples, we’ve rounded up the pieces worth making room for.

12 of the best summer travel essentials for 2026

Honor has announced the Watch 6, the latest in a series of effectively priced, supremely multifunctional smartwatches designed to go head-to-head with devices from Samsung, Google, Apple and more. What sets the Watch 6 apart is some truly impressive battery life, as well as sleek and distinctive case and strap design.

Available in Shadow Black and Twilight Brown – the latter with a matching tan strap – Honor Watch 6 features increased water and dust resistance and now has the ability to be operated with wet hands. This ties in with the expanded fitness and health modes, ranging from swimming to squash.

All modern smartwatches will go far, far beyond simple step tracking. The Honor 6 is pitched at the hyperactive, with over 120 supported sports, covering every conceivable activity including the intriguing and timely ‘Professional Football’. Delve a little deeper into the list and you’ll find aerobic favourites as well as forms of dance, water sports and even fishing.

The data that comes out depends on the data that goes in, of course. The Watch 6 splices its sensor data with location data, so movement can be synced with information about exertion, heart rate, etc. For activities like trail running, the watch can supply an AI running coach as well as information about the topography of the trail, thanks to the onboard AccuTrack dual-band six-star GPS.

Other activities generate different reports. Professional Football Mode is more likely to be used in a Sunday League, but it’ll still produce a post-match summary that shows heat and trajectory maps that show where you’ve been on the pitch throughout the game. Badminton fans can analyse their strokes and swing speed, as well as where their shots are going, and so on.

The downside to this data-driven mindset is that your stats will be locked up within the Honor Health eco-system. It’s no better or worse than the many alternatives, especially considering the large amounts of information that have to be conveyed, from stress levels to heart health, sleep quality to blood oxygen, body energy to temperature, as well as a 60-second health check mode. It’s a portal to an infinitely deep world of life-hacking and self-actualisation, with breathing guides, sleep music and many more ways to interact with the device.

Better data means more time with the Watch 6 on your wrist. To accommodate near-constant wearing, Honor has given the watch a sizeable 980mAh battery (the Apple Watch Ultra 3 has a 599 mAh battery), which in turn delivers a maximum battery life of over a month. In practice, the longevity was definitely something we noticed, especially when the most efficient watch faces were selected.

As is the way with smartwatches, the face can be switched from magnificent to monstrous with a few swipes and taps and there’s no shortage of illegible, OTT watch faces available through the app. A few more refined and tasteful options would have been welcome, especially ones that paired with the graphic approach of the Honor Health app.

In terms of hardware, Watch 6 has a case formed from recyclable aluminium alloy. It weighs in at a negligible 41g, although the battery size and 1.46-inch AMOLED screen mean the case is a hefty 46.5mm across. The conventional Shadow Black finish is joined by a more traditional Twilight Brown combo, which pairs well with classic dial faces (if you can find a good one.

Honor Watch 6 is a competitive entrant into the do-it-all smartwatch sector (look for introductory price offers that undercut the official RRP as well). It’s an evolution rather than a revolution, but if you’re all-in on a data-driven active life, Watch 6 is an excellent companion.

Honor Watch 6 with brown leather strap,￡249.99, with black fluoroelastomer strap, ￡229.99, Honor.com, @HonorGlobal

If you’re game with gaming your data and opening up great swathes of everyday activity to chronicling, analysis and exploration, then you’ll be all in with the new breed of smart wearables and fitness trackers. 

We’ve rounded up ten wearable tech devices that purport to dig a little deeper into the world of personal statistics and help you shape your best self, from smart glasses to biowearables.

Wearable tech to shape your best self

1. Fitness on your wrist: Honor Band 9

First up, a conventional piece of everyday tech. Honor has been furnishing runners and walkers with fitness bands for years, and its latest offering, the Band 9, demonstrates impressive evolution. The 1.57in AMOLED display is always on, but up to two-weeks of battery life is promised, and there are interchangeable straps in a choice of three colours. The Chinese company claims up to 96 different workout modes and can apparently run a body-age assessment based on users’ ‘maximal oxygen uptake’. Distance, sleep, stress, heart rate and menstrual cycles can all be tracked in detail. 

Honor Band 9, £49.99, HiHonor.com, @UKHonor

2. Looking sharp: Brilliant Labs Frame

Brilliant Labs describes the Frame as ‘Multimodal AI glasses’. Still unreleased, the $349 round-rimmed glasses pack a pair of transparent OLED displays, a battery, microphone and speakers and connect to your mobile device and an app called Noa to provide an AI-powered visual overlay of the world around you.

The start-up behind Frame says the underlying software will be completely open-source, and there’s also the possibility of putting in prescription lenses. It’s not quite Apple Vision Pro, let alone Mission Impossible, nor is it the only pair of augmented reality specs on the market, but interested parties should take a look. 

Frame by Brilliant Labs, $349, Brilliant.xyz, @BrilliantLabsAR

3. Discreet charm: the Oura Ring

If a smartwatch or fitness band is too bulky, then consider diving into the most recent wave of wearable devices, a smart ring. Ourais now up to Generation 3 of its pioneering models, cramming enough sensors to track sleep, heart health, stress, activities and even early illness detection, based on sudden shifts in skin temperature and heart rate.

The downside is you’ll need a monthly subscription to get access to Oura’s datasets, analysis and recommendations, but there’s also the ability to sync with everything from Apple Health, Google Fit, Peloton, Strava and more. Samsung is also nearing completion of its first Galaxy Ring, an ultra-light device that should have silver and gold colour options and be capable of syncing with your phone to deliver health data 24/7. 

Oura Heritage Ring, £299, Horizon Ring, £349, OuraRing.com, @OuraRing

4. Cut through: Vasco E1 Translator

Sometimes, tech companies seem to make products because they can, not because they should, and deal with the consequences later. In the case of Vasco’s E1 translating earbuds, we can’t see any immediate downsides to the imminent end of confusion, crossed wires and general misunderstandings. This is the kind of tech that’ll probably be embedded everywhere within the decade, but you can get a march on the rest of us by signing up to try out the E1.

The pack of twin earpieces come in a charging case and you’ll need to hand one over to your conversation mate to get started (alternatively, they can talk into the app on their phone). Vasco reckons the device can do realtime conversational translation of up to 49 languages. 

Vasco Translator E1, available soon, Vasco-Translator.com

5. Deep dives: Form Smart Swim Goggles

Form’s Smart Swim Goggles are a new way of tracking performance and stats whilst in the pool. The company, founded by Dan Eisenhardt in 2019, pitches its wares at professional swimmers and triathletes, with an integrated augmented reality display on the inside of the goggle lenses. This displays real-time performance information that might otherwise be hard to track in the middle of a training session. The goggles are capable of automatic stroke detection, enabling a detailed post-swim analysis in the app. Subscription services include training and coaching plans, and you can pair the goggles with other workout apps, as well as Apple and Garmin watches. 

Form Smart Swim Goggles, $199, FormSwim.com, @FormSwim

6. Health Forecasts: Ultrahuman

Investors and consumers alike are a little wary of product suites that offer complete monitoring solutions – the ghost of Theranos lingers in the memory. Mindful of this wayward, path, new start-up Ultrahuman is putting its trust in a product suite, rather than a single device, for tracking all sorts of health metrics. The aim is to ‘create a grand unified view of the human body’. Products include the Ring AIR smart ring and the M1 Live glucose monitor, which adheres to the body and provides real-time monitoring to the Ultrahuman app. There’s also an upcoming Home device, an environmental monitoring system that combines a smoke detection system with stats on air quality, sound levels, temperature, light and humidity.  

Ultrahuman Ring AIR, from $349, Ultrahuman.com, @UltrahumanHQ

7. Breathe out: FoodMarble

Your breath is one of the final frontiers of non-intrusive health-data-gathering. FoodMarble offers a pocketable sensor system, the AIRE, that can analyse the methane and hydrogen levels on your breath to track the efficiency of your digestive system (by indicating the levels of fermentation in your gut – see our guide to gut health).

Enter details of the food you’ve eaten into the FoodMarble app, and you’ll get a tailored set of stats that shows how you react to different foods. Think of it as a personalised electronic dietician, capable of detecting various intolerances (including lactose but not gluten), and therefore making everyday life more comfortable. 

FoodMarble AIRE, £149, AIRE 2, £189, FoodMarble, @FoodMarble

8. Framing the conversation: Xeon 5 by Solos

You’re either all-in on this stuff or you treat it with trepidation. Advocates and enthusiasts of all things AI will love the new Xeon 5 smart glasses from Solos. Working in harmony with the AirGo mobile app, the frames not only track and monitor posture and fitness goals, but also incorporate push-button access to ChatGPT for AI-powered translation and summaries. Although there’s no display element, the Xeon 5s can even whisper sweet nothings (ie, your calendar appointments) directly into your ears.  

Xeon 5 Smart Glasses by Solos, £160, Sologlasses.com

9. Travels in hyperreality: XREAL Air 2 Ultra

XREAL’s upcoming Air 2 Ultra smart glasses represent the middle ground between Apple Vision Pro and lightweight, screen-free devices like the Xeon 5s. Weighing in at 80g (versus  around 600g for the Vision Pro), the Air 2 Ultras are billed as the lightest augmented reality solution out there. The downside is that the glasses have to work hand in hand with your phone (or laptop) in order to ‘project’ a massive display into your environment. Sensors track depth, surfaces, images and even your hands to immerse you into the experience, and XREAL is currently encouraging developers to come on board and work for the platform. 

XREAL Air 2 Ultra, £699.00, UK.shop.XREAL.com, @XREAL_global

10. Biowear for beginners: Lingo

Finally, Lingo has launched its first consumer biowearable system, a circular puck-like glucose tracking system that you stick on to sift through a solid fortnight of data about how you process this essential sugar. The upsides will be better sleep and healthier habits, as Lingo’s app identifies spikes in glucose levels and suggests challenges to get your readings down to a steady state. A single sensor lasts for 14 days. 

Lingo Discovery Pack, £89, HelloLingo.com, @HelloLingo

It is said that a good way to justify the cost of a particularly expensive fashion purchase is to calculate its cost per wear. When it comes to these Celine headphones – a collaboration with Master & Dynamic – this makes for a particularly satisfying equation. After all, what accessory is worn more than a pair of over-ear headphones? 

First revealed as part of Hedi Slimane’s S/S 2024 womenswear collection for Celine – titled ‘La Collection de la Bibliothèque Nationale’ and presented via short film – the headphones feature the house’s distinctive branding, alongside the ‘Triomphe’ monogram (its looping form originally inspired by the railings of Paris’ Champs-Élysées). Models wore the wireless style slung around their necks, while an extended version of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Too Much Love’ provided the film’s soundtrack. 

Ear candy: Celine’s collaboration with Master & Dynamic

Master & Dynamic is a New York-based American audio company founded by Jonathan Levine, who first created an audio studio in his home to appease his two sons, an aspiring DJ and tech enthusiast respectively. It has since become one the foremost audio brands in the world, its use of fine materials – leather, stainless steel, even concrete – bringing particular renown, inspired by the design of the Second World War aviator headphones. The idea is to create objects that are designed to stand the test of time.

This particular pair – which is engraved with ’designed and developed in Paris’ in reference to Slimane’s particular riff on the classic Master & Dynamic style – features ‘precise and expansive sound’, says Celine, featuring ‘clear highs and rich lows as well as sound isolation’. On the technical side, they are equipped with Bluetooth 5.2, quick pairing technology, and boast up to 30 hours of battery life.

In terms of design, the three colourways – monochrome black, black and silver, and tan and silver – are defined by a lightweight construction in anodised aluminium, while the headband and removable ear pads are crafted from buttery lambskin leather (the latter featuring the Triomphe logo, or engraved with ‘Celine’). Promising ‘attention to detail’, even the charging cable is laser engraved with ‘Celine Paris’.

Celine headphones, created in collaboration with Master & Dynamic, will be available from celine.com (£650) and Celine stores worldwide soon.

celine.com

From a studio in east London ‘material alchemist’ Lauren Bowker has been working to change the way the world uses colour.

That might sound mysterious now but chances are it won’t in a few years’ time, because Bowker and her company The Unseen have, like most great innovators, been steadily producing objects that are so ingenious they will no doubt be readily absorbed into the culture once they make their debut.

Take, for instance, The Unseen’s environmentally responsive hair dye, which morphs from black to red depending on the surrounding temperature; or the company’s chameleon-like headpiece made in collaboration with Swarovski and a team of neuroscientists, which uses gemstones coated in temperature-sensitive, colour-changing ink that responds to the wearer’s brain activity. Like a scientifically accurate mood ring, the headpiece reflects changes in emotion, from happiness and excitement to fear and anger, through a shifting range of colours. 

The Unseen beauty brand

While these projects have only been produced on a small scale for a limited audience, The Unseen is finally about to branch into the consumer market with the debut of its direct-to-consumer beauty brand. Launched this week, the brand’s first product is Spectra, a reflective cream eye that transforms under a phone camera’s flash so that what looks like a subtle grey in real life appears as a glittery black in photographs. 

Like all creation’s from The Unseen, Spectra’s dazzling appearance belies its examination of larger philosophical questions. Bowker came up with the idea for Spectra when she was at a gig five years ago and noticed that most people in the audience were watching the performance through their phone rather than looking at what was right in front of them. 

‘I realised that there's a whole generation that lives and consumes through a screen,’ says Bowker. ‘That is their reality. And it’s even more enhanced now because of lockdowns.’ 

‘I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if you created a colour that physically existed, but was only ever seen in the digital space? So it became a kind of interesting question of that digital [versus] physical reality. What is real? How can I create something that exists in both worlds?’ 

Innovating the industry

Once Bowker and her team had established that this was the question they wanted to address, they then faced the challenge of transforming that idea into a functional beauty product. 

‘What we do,’ explains Bowker, ‘is we find all these cool interactive things out in the world, bring them into our lab, study them, and work to get them across the cosmetic toxicology space. Then we build a formula around that molecule, or pigment, or compound that works best with that particular colour.

‘In the case of Spectra, it's a tiny little black bead that reflects light in a very specific frequency. Now, that's not a new technology. It's basically existed in road signs for the past 50 or 60 years,’ she continues.

'Right now the majority of beauty companies are using the same ingredients over and over again, the same soup ingredients; we wanted to make our own soup. There’s a community out there not being served true newness in beauty and cosmetics.' 

Up next for The Unseen is a commercial version of the colour-changing hair dye, which will be available to purchase in 2022 along with other innovations that Bowker is keeping quiet about for now. Overall, she hopes that The Unseen beauty brand will be an active force of change in the industry. 

‘We all have an interest in the stuff we put onto our bodies,’ says Bowker. '[That stuff] could be better and I think it's our responsibility to slowly change the dial on that through product.

‘But you've got to have some sort of skin in the game, it's no good just being an art bum. I’ve been an artist/designer for many years and I quickly realised that true change comes from education and business. The government isn't doing a very good job, I don't think, of investing in true innovation. They'll invest a lot in the beginning, but not in the journey to [turn something] into a commercial reality. That's the hard part, taking an idea and putting it into someone's hands that they can use every day.

‘When you do that then, to me, that's true innovation.’

INFORMATION

seetheunseen.com

New start-up Aether is exploring a relatively unmapped niche in the world of personal technology: audio eyewear. Disguised as a pair of high-quality sunglasses or glasses, the range of Aether frames actually contain embedded compact speakers, designed to direct sound quality straight to your ears with minimal disturbance to those around you. 

That’s the idea. In truth – although you shouldn’t sling out your AirPods just yet – Aether offers an uncanny new way of interacting with both sound and your surroundings.

The five Aether styles (S1, S2, D1, R1 and R2) offer up something for everyone, from the angular full-face retro stylings of the S2 to the more classic S1. Carl Zeiss Vision lenses come as standard, and each frame is available in black, dark grey and smoke brown.

The sunglasses come with a tailored, tight-fitting aluminium case/charger. When stowed away and docked, your sunglasses are charging, with a USB connector on the case to keep the internal battery topped up.

The sunglasses themselves are good for around three hours of listening time once fully charged. After set-up, pairing is simple and happens automatically once you’ve taken them out of the box. The frames feel relatively solid, weighing around 40g, although for the first few outings, your senses are seriously discombobulated; you know you’re wearing sunglasses, but the music seems to come from nowhere. 

With Aether audio eyewear there’s no disconnect from your surroundings

Aether’s creative director and co-founder Hannes Unt, the man responsible for the brand’s ethos and aesthetic, refers to a ‘holistic aural experience’, and there’s some truth in that. Obviously, this is not a noise-cancelling system, for random external sounds become an integral part of your internal audio choices. For certain types of music – especially ambient and atmospheric – this works very well. Your life suddenly has a soundtrack, mixed in with all the horns and birdsong, passing traffic and random snippets of conversation.

However, try to listen to something unfamiliar or especially subtle and all nuance tends to be lost. Podcasts and radio shows, though, are a natural fit for the Aether approach. The glasses are also great for taking calls, even if the total absence of any earpieces makes you seem even more detached from reality than the average hands-free caller. As with conventional earbuds and headphones, the device can be controlled with touches and taps. 

Aether’s eyewear feels experimental but works well, up to a point. The sunglasses won’t shut out the grind of the commute or the chatter of a crowd. Instead, they promise sound without the loss of connection – there are times when you probably don’t want to retreat into silicon-tipped aural oblivion.

If you want to listen discreetly, without losing the sound of the sea or the noises of a forest, for example, then Aether is exactly what you need. 

INFORMATION

Aether audio eyewear, from €360

aether-eyewear.com

In partnership with Ten c

The lightness, resistance and transparency of parachute silk, the rangy, strength and beauty of bamboo, and the trippy potency of Absinthe green are all inspirations that combine in the masterful hybridisation of technical fabric and traditional tailoring techniques that is Ten c’s new S/S 2022 collection.

Featuring durable and technical investment pieces, Ten c’s new collection reiterates and reimagines the label’s core values of craftsmanship and longevity. A commitment to reducing the fashion industry’s environmental impact by creating long-lasting garments remains at the centre of its origins and ethos.

Founded and designed by Alessandro Pungetti and part of FGF Industry Group held by Enzo Fusco, the label takes a unique approach to design, with all garments based around the properties of one single cloth: OJJ – Original Japanese Jersey. The versatile nylon/polyester microfibre jersey is cut, sewn and dyed in Italy, the material’s stiffness giving way to a softer feel during use. The new collection, across all its product categories, Pungetti explains, is ‘contaminated’ by its signature OJJ fabric, while maintaining a military DNA. 

The S/S 2022 colour palette is neutral-leaning with the addition of Ten c’s orange and Absinthe-green accents. A series of mid-layers, conceived as interseasonal garments, are lightweight, with a single layer of fabric. Military-inspired garments include the Ten c bomber, which nods to the classic MA1 US Air Force and Navy flight jacket, and a reinterpretation of a British Army parka.

Also new this season is the Nylon Crinkle Rip-Stop, an extremely resistant and transparent fabric that is taped at the seams – the garments are thermo-welded at reinforcement points and details such as patch pockets, zips and hoods to give greater structure and contrast. Ten c’s familiar OJJ fabric, meanwhile, continues to offer a unique appeal. It ‘adapts to the body’, says Pungetti, ‘providing not just a protective layer but also a garment that will mould itself to you and, with time, become part of your story.’ No two jackets from the label will ever look the same.
 
The S/S 2022 collection launches 15 June with a full video presentation.

INFORMATION

tenc-live.cdn-bc.net/spring-summer-2022/

‘To redefine what it means for parents to support their kids without being intrusive was the main experience and design challenge,' says Yves Béhar. But why now? ‘Parents are facing a new tension – kids are wanting more freedom and independence while parents worry about their safety and crave moments that allow them to be part of the child’s journey,' says Tom Guy, Vodafone’s Smart Tech chief product officer. Béhar adds: ‘In a world more connected than ever, we focused on better understanding how parents are looking for new ways to stay in touch with their children — protecting and monitoring them as they approach their preadolescent years.'

Guy describes the Neo watch as ‘a new way to connect that could both reassure parents and empower kids.’ Having worked with Béhar previously (notably on the development of Hive) and also Disney earlier in his career when he was in the gaming industry, Guy says: ‘Yves shares my belief that tech shouldn’t exist just for the sake of tech but actually improve everyday living.’ Béhar concurs. ‘When designing with technology, I am interested in bringing solutions for the aging, the young, and people with health and wellbeing needs, rather than another entertainment gadget for the comfortable middle part of life.’

So, what does Vodafone’s Neo smartwatch actually do? Before the prototyping started, the collaborators consulted children and parents across the EU to better understand the needs of their audience. 4000 interviews later, the answer was clear – parents wanted a smartwatch that addressed their existing frustrations with tech; an experience to keep children entertained (note the outward-facing high-resolution 5MP camera, activity tracker and Disney characters), but with parental controls for safety and reassurance (que the tracking app and ability to make calls and texts).

A child-friendly quick call button can be held down for five seconds to ring a family member; the angled watch face improves viewing; and the customisable strap is secured by a simple loop and buckle design. As well as the hardware, Neo also features a simple, frictionless software experience from Vodafone and Disney’s world class designers.

Notably, the watch intentionally blocks access to the internet or social media – to assuage parental concern around internet safety and over-stimulation. An accompanying Vodafone Smart App allows parents to view the watch’s location, personalise and monitor its circle of trusted contacts, and manage screen time through a ‘quiet mode' setting. There’s a monthly subscription fee and all contacts have to be pre-approved by the parent, or guardian, before they can be reached.

It’s been subjected to Vodafone’s Secure by Design process – rigorous security testing by professional and external ethical hackers as well as physical testing like temperature tests. Plus, if the watch is lost or stolen, it can also be wiped remotely through a factory reset.

‘Neo is built for parents with young children aged between four and nine who want to use technology to help them save time, but also for children between six and nine who want a fun and exciting way to feel more independent,’ says Guy. A father of two teenage girls, he adds, ‘When they were younger, I would have loved to have had something that they could play around with emojis on, and send me messages through, while allowing me to know exactly where they were. I think that has the potential to create some really special moments for a lot of younger families now, and to give a kind of reassurance I could only have dreamt of when they were kids.’

INFORMATION

vodafone.com

Chanel’s new Lipscanner app transforms the world into a cosmetic colour palette. Developed in-house by Chanel, the app allows users to snap a picture of any red, pink, plum, or orange colour they might find throughout their day and instantly provides a range of Chanel products in the same shade. A painting, floral arrangement, ketchup bottle, any item – from the most glamorous to the most mundane – can be transfigured into a Chanel lip product with Lipscanner. 

The accuracy of the app's colour-matching technology is startlingly, as is the vast range of Chanel products to choose from (the brand has over 400 lip products alone). When it comes to identifying the image of another shade, Lipscanner can even provide options in the same texture – matte, glossy, etc. – as well as the same colour. The selected product can then be digitally tried on thanks to a highly precise face-scanner technology that applies the shade to your face in real-time. 

Ultimately, the result is that Lipscanner is like the beauty equivalent of the popular music-identification app Shazam. Carry it around in your pocket and it will instantly provide an answer to what you couldn’t figure out with only the click of a button.

Beauty brands have been experimenting with the possibilities of AI technologies for years, but the Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the creation of innovative new devices and apps. With people unable to try products in-store or receive treatments in salons and spas, brands have created innovative, technology-based solutions that provide people with similar, if not better, shopping or self-care experiences from home. 

Everything from personalised skincare gadgets to algorithm-generated fragrances have been created in the past year with the hopes of becoming the next big beauty-tech trend. Chanel’s contribution to this field is notable, especially since it’s no doubt the first of many personalised, user-driven digital launches from the heritage brand. As one of the most established names in beauty, it will be interesting to see how Chanel continues to respond to the needs of a post-2020 world with new technologies and digital solutions.

INFORMATION

chanel.com

Digital artist Ines Alpha is a pioneering force in AR beauty, a rapidly accelerating field that is set to be ever more prevalent as our universe continues to morph into a metaverse. Through computerised makeup application or otherworldly facial filters, Alpha explores how our self-presentation can be radically transformed within digital realities. 

‘I consider make-up to be something that transforms your face, be it Instagram filters or what I do,’ says digital artist and 3D make-up creator Ines Alpha. ‘It’s how make-up has been used since the Egyptians: enabling humans to transform into a character.’

Whether working with brands like Dior and Selfridges, or collaborating with artists and musicians, Alpha’s digital creations repeatedly push the boundaries of what make-up can be.

The lockdowns and mask-wearing of 2020 might have lead to a decrease in the use of traditional make-up, but it also resulted in a flourishing of new, technology-based alternatives. For those looking to satisfy their cosmetic creativity digitally rather than physically, Alpha has shared a list of Instagram filters that can transform your face with the click of a button. 

Reflection

This 3D makeup face filter was designed in collaboration with artist Anais Borie. She contacted me a year ago to create something together and we came up with a sumptuous cyber augmented mirror. 

In the opulent mirror 'Automated Divine Reflection,' the viewer is not confronted with his or her own image, but with a computer-generated face. The encounter in the mirror is intended to make the contact between human existence and technical progress tangible. 

instagram.com

Holoctopus

This is my brand new filter! It's an adaptation of a video I made during the very first quarantine of 2020. I was inspired to create 3D face masks to protect yourself from viruses in the digital realm. I'm super proud of it because it's technically more advanced than my previous ones. I've learnt new techniques thanks to other developers that helped me on it (@alwayscodingsomething @aaronjablonski @hongwei_tang). 

instagram.com

This is human

This collaboration with Bimba y Lola was my first with a brand. I was so excited to give life to one of my 3D characters. I can't wait to be able to develop Tamagotchi-like AR experiences so we can all play with cute otherworldly digital pets. 

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Time warp scan

Every time you use it you randomly get a different funny face. I have so much fun playing with it. It's super interesting to record yourself every time and see how instinctively your body reacts to what it sees, because you cannot predict what you will look like, and that first second when you see your new digital self is magic. 

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Alpha skin

Sarah Mayer is a great digital designer. What I like about this Instagram filter is that she's not trying to make you more beautiful according to society’s beauty standards. Still, this filter is truly beautifying but in an unconventional way, looking maybe weirder and unique and also very otherworldly. I'm always super happy to see other creatives working on diversity in beauty and showing you can be beautiful in so many other ways than just following Instagram’s typical model of perfection – cat eyes, perfectly contoured face, thin nose, flawless skin. 

instagram.com

Dream machine

I love crazy surrealistic filters and when AR can bring you into worlds reality cannot offer. I think Mitsuko has a great style and sense of humour, it's always cute and very playful. Her filters truly bring joy and I think also self-confidence because while using them it's so funny that you completely forget to look ‘good’. Of course, I'm a huge fan of the colours of this one. 

instagram.com

Otherworldly

The Otherworldly filter is a collaboration between me and @madroni_redclock, facilitated by @planet.huh. Though on different parts of the globe, Madrona and I connected around our shared ethos of unconventional beauty and the shared mood ‘otherworldly’. We conceptualised an oceanic design vision, which guided the cool tones and a geometric make-up design from Madrona, and the water-like 3D iridescent moving shapes from me, to create a 3D make-up face filter that transports users to another world. 

instagram.com

Repeated lockdowns around the world have caused havoc within the retail world, from tourist-attracting luxury flagships to neighbourhood outposts, multi-brand department stores on commuter belts to high street hotspots. Traffic through retail corridors has slowed to a trickle, shop doors have shuttered and boutique windows have been boarded up, some including stalwarts like Neiman Marcus, Century 21 and Brooks Brothers, to never reopen, or Debenhams and Topshop to enter administration.

In order to survive, brands have had to adapt to the new dimensions of the digital world, where innovations in e-commerce are key, across not just websites, but social media channels – from Instagram to WeChat – too. According to McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2020 report, 13 percent of European consumers were, as a result of the pandemic, set to browse e-tailers for the first time this year, while, in April, a quarter of US and European shoppers were set to spend online using social media channels. In November 2020, LVMH announced the creation of a conglomerate-wide position of ‘chief omnichannel officer', to respond to the surge on luxury shopping online. 

From 3D store experiences to AR changing rooms, Savile Row robots to shoppable Instagram filters, there's a host of innovative and immersive solutions which brands are bringing to spending online today. Here we round up the brands and boutiques who are leading the way.

Khaite

For those keen to shop New York label Khaite's cool-inflected sophisticated styles, from its drop-shouldered hand-knitted bouclé Sile Hoodie to its body-skimming sweetheart neckline Allegra Dress, digital help is at hand. In celebration of the launch of its A/W 2021 collection, the brand has launched an exclusive partnership with try-on technology pioneers Bods, culminating in an immersive digital experience which allows shoppers to view pieces on a replica of their own body, and note how they drape, cling and sculpt.

To create their digital alias, customers are required to submit two photographs, one profile and one-side on, alongside input measurements including height. Once their avatar begins rendering, they can then adjust personal physique according to skin tone, bust and bodily curves. It's not only expert computer graphics which ensure you can simulate clothing to a intricate version of your own body, Khaite's tactile, sculptural and sensual creations are also presented in expert likeness. Each digital clothing design has been constructed using original patterns to ensure it is accurately represented in 3D real-time.

Can't decide on Khaite's fluid sleeved cardigans or snuggly fitting leather jacket? Now you can try on both with online ease and customer confidence.

P.E Nation

For the launch of P.E Nation’s sustainable ski collection – an offering of retro-toned and colour-blocked alpine essentials crafted in recycled fabrics – the Sydney-based label launched a fitting room-inspired Instagram filter, allowing shoppers to try on three ski jackets online. ‘We decided to work with the Institute of Digital Fashion (IoDF) who are globally renowned for the production of digital clothing, for having a strong ethos of sustainability, inclusivity and always innovating within the fashion sphere,’ says co-founder Pip Edwards, of the filter, which features impeccably lifelike garments that were delivered in 3D stitch by stitch, right down to the final flicker of faux fur. ‘This file, an extraordinarily large size was then painstakingly manipulated, to fit into the tiny frame of Instagram's space by decreasing poly counts,’ Edwards adds.

In a snow-sprinkled spin, shoppers sport P.E Nation's ski jackets against a series of enchanting alpine backgrounds, allowing them to escape to icy online altitudes. ‘The background scenes are a manipulation of multiple different places, created by IoDF’s digital environmentalists, inspired by our moodboards,’ Edwards says. They resemble pine tree-circled perfection.

Gucci

In June 2019, Gucci became the first fashion label to incorporate augmented reality into its App, allowing fans of the label’s GG logo and star motif-swathed Ace sneakers to virtually try on their favourite styles. For the innovative launch, the Florentine house collaborated with Belarus-based startup Wannaby, which seeks to solve the disconnect between online merchandise and the at-home shopper. It launched the try-on AR sneakers app Wanna Kicks in January 2019, which garnered 500k organic users in the first days of its launch. For Gucci’s Ace Sneaker Try On technology, sneakerheads can select their Ace styles of choice, point their mobile device’s camera at their own feet to virtually try on their chosen pair. They can also snap their favourite styles and share them via social media.

Gucci's dedication to immersive shopping technology runs parallel to its renewned dedication to customer service. In April 2019, it opened the Global Client Service Center, a 2,300 sq m space in Florence, with over 150 multi-lingual client advisors, assisting customers across 26 countries via email, phone and live chat. The brand also plans to expand with six more global centres, from New York to Seoul, which will be designed to resemble the brand's physical boutiques, and provide more localised customer service experiences. 

Huntsman

A sense of touch is integral to the bespoke suiting industry of Savile Row, so when social distancing prevented Huntsman’s cutters and tailors from fitting clients in their Mayfair outpost or from travelling to visit them across the globe, they knew they had to provide a cutting-edge digital alternative. Enter, Mr Hammick, Huntsman’s first telepresence robot, named after its famed Head Cutter of the Seventies, who, with the aid of a local assistant, travels to meet clients, and executes fitting tasks directed from Huntsman’s Cutter in London or New York.

Mr Hammick – who boasts a touch screen and robotic arm – can be manouvered remotely – allowing Huntsman's cutters, who appear via a live video link, to manoeuvre around the body and zoom in, record and photographic specific garment details, and be with their client virtually from baste to final fit. Cutting out physical travel, the service actually speeds up the tailoring process and allows for more appointment flexibility.

There are other elements of Huntsman's home-focused efforts. This includes Hero, a live video chat for shopping, and Toshi, a white glove delivery service, allowing customers to receive pieces to their door, and with the help of an assistant, pin and measure garments to their chosen specifity.

Salvatore Ferragamo

Some lament the difficulty of shoe shopping online – finding it difficult to settle on size, and scope out the quality of a fabrication or the depth of a shade of leather. But fans of Ferragamo’s classic Tramezza shoe need not fret, as the Italian label has developed an immersive shopping experience, in collaboration with Microsoft, that allows them to personalise their preferred style, and see the result in 3D.

Harnessing Microsoft’s Hevolus Augmented Store at Home platform, Ferragamo allows customer to custom order its Tramezza shoe using a selection tool online, which offers up a 3D reproduction in a host of materials, from lizard to suede, colours, including rouge, stone and black and hardware details. Should they require more made-to-order help, shoppers can connect to a shop assistant through an online appointment, who wearing a Microsoft's HoloLens 2 holographic computer, can virtually enter their digital fitting room, and visualise and advise on their selections. At the end of the appointment, customers can also see a digital twin of their Tramezza shoe in augmented reality. 

Christian Dior

There’s something enchanting about entering a boutique’s beauty department and catching the aroma of a scent that suits you perfectly. There’s little that's sensorily stimulating about making an olfactory purchase online, but Dior’s virtual fragrance consultation provides a well-scented antidote. The service, hosted by the French maison’s UK Fragrance Ambassador Carl Groenewald, live from the Dior Salon De Parfum in Harrods, London, allows customers to book a fragrance consultation online, before being sent a fragrance tester set, featuring mini samples of hero scents to their home. Groenewald then talks clients through each perfume, including the spicy, woody notes of Purple Oud and the smoky incense aroma of Bois d'Argent, before they make their final decision.

In April, Dior also launched its first virtual beauty boutique, bringing the walls of its Avenue des Champs-Élysées boutique in Paris, to customers at home. Here, beauty fans can take a tour of the brand's space using clickable arrow tools, and watch short films relating to Dior's products, before making a purchase.

Browns

Sneaker heads and watch obsessives, rejoice! Browns’ latest Virtual Try – powered through its Browns Fashion mobile App, allows customers to try on their favourite trainer or timepiece using AR technology, from their comfort of their own homes. ‘As augmented reality technology has evolved over the past few years, we saw huge potential in bringing physical store experiences into the palm of your hands – specifically, “virtual try on”’ says Mohammed Said, Director of Technology and Product at Browns, of the launch. This was developed in collaboration with Farfetch. By simply pointing their phone's camera at a heel or wrist, Browns fans can virtually sport a selection of styles including for sneakers, a Converse high top, Alexander McQueen oversized sneakers and Axel Arigato's White Clean 90 low tops.

Browns' Virtual Try On technology responds to the growth in footwear and watch categories, experienced by the London retailer, connecting the dots between its e-commerce arm and at-home customers. ‘With the global pandemic restricting many of our customers from travelling to stores, we accelerated our investment in this space,' says Said. Start working your AR angles now.

INFORMATION

brownsfashion.com
dior.com
ferragamo.com
gucci.com
huntsmansavilerow.com
khaite.com/
pe-nation.com

Bulgari perfumer Alberto Morillas is standing on top of an alpine glacier in an elegant suit discussing the brand’s latest fragrance launch Bulgari Man Glacial Essence.

Unlikely as it may sound, this is no dream. It’s a VR experience the brand Italian jewellery and fragrance house has created to celebrate its latest men’s fragrance, a heady scent of cederwoods and musks sharpened by piquant notes of juniper berry and ginger. 

Owners of the Oculus VR headset can download the experience on Bulgari’s website and, within a matter of minutes, virtually transport themselves to a snowy mountain where, after a treacherous climb up an icy peak, they can break open a glacier to discover a bottle of the Bulgari scent. 

Even before in-store shopping ground to a halt, VR and AR technologies like Bulgari’s latest venture were predicted to be an increasingly popular feature of beauty products and marketing campaigns. Gadgets like personalised oral and skincare cleansers, video chat beauty consultations, or magic mirrors that allow you to test products without physically touching anything, have steadily lost their novelty over months of lockdown as people adapt to shopping for products and receiving treatments primarily from home. 

Translating the intangible experience of wearing fragrance into digital mediums has required brands and retailers to become even more creative. Bulgari’s mountain-scaling VR adventure is one example of how brands can create an immersive, visual expression of a scent’s unique atmosphere, while other technologies like Puig’s Al.lice allow consumers to explore a scent’s profile without physically touching the bottle.

Perhaps the most innovative application of digital technology to fragrance is IBM's new AI system Philyra. Recognising the power scent has in informing our everyday experiences- from the food we eat to the people we're attracted to- IBM's Philyra uses AI to create entirely new fragrance combinations and, consequently, new sensory pathways.

In the words of IBM, Philyra 'is a system that uses new and advanced machine learning algorithms to sift through hundreds of thousands of formulas and thousands of raw materials, helping identify patterns and novel combinations.' 

The next few years will no doubt see unparalleled advances in AI and VR fragrance technology. How exactly those advances will play out and how fragrance brands will continue to adapt to our increasingly digital world is yet to be seen but, in the meantime, sit on your couch and experience the bracingly fresh air of Alpine peaks.

INFORMATION
bulgari-vr.com

We’ve scoured chic cycling stores and be-spoke boutiques the world over to find the latest and greatest outerwear collections and a range of slick cycling accessories that mean there’s no excuse not to get on your bike.

Wrap up in the latest ergonomic outerwear, and stay safe with the help of smartphone-compatible, collapsible helmets and other tech-forward protective wear. Stay on course with the latest in smart cycle design, with the likes of handlebar-mounted navigator tools and sound-switchable bike bells, and tidy up with the help of bike butlers and good-looking locks.

Bici Bike Storage by Zeller & Moye

This simple slice of metal is perhaps the most minimal bike storage system we’ve ever seen. Designed by architects Christoph Zeller and Ingrid Moye, the Bici system is available in just two versions, Bici high and Bici low, depending on the space available. One shallow, one steep, the ramps can be mixed and multiplied in order to create intriguingly sculptural effects that also maximise the number of bikes you can fit into any given space. Zeller & Moye are offering the rail in a range of different colours, allowing even more artistic expression. Bici is composed of a power-coated steel frame, complete with shaped cut-out for all possible wheel types to slot into, with two pairs locking points giving you plenty of choice how to secure the bike. The architects, who are based between Berlin and Mexico City, sought to make the system ultra-simple to use and install, leaving creative applications up to the installer.

zellermoye.com

Block Light, by Bookman

Equipped with the latest LEDs, a micro USB cable and an impressive battery life, Scandinavian brand Bookman’s sleek Block Light promotes design-focused cycling safety and urban visibility. Powered by a Lithium ION battery the Block Light has up to 25 hours of usage with a charging time of two hours, weighing next to nothing these pocket-sized lights are perfect for everyone – from the casual commuter to dedicated road cyclist.

‘Pickwick Reflective’ backpack, by Brooks England

Brooks England has found the perfect meeting point between functionality and looks with its newest backpack, the ‘Pickwick Reflective’. Made by hand, the bag is composed of perforated vegetable-tanned Tuscan leather, set atop a highly reflective backing. When struck by light, the bag powerfully reflects it back, providing increased visibility during the darker hours. A roll-top sealing system keeps belongings secure (additional internal pockets provide further storage capabilities), and webbed shoulder and front straps keep weight distributed evenly.

‘Laminar Bike’ collection, by Herno

The new six-piece ‘Laminar Bike’ collection, by Herno, demonstrates the Italian luxury outerwear brand’s rigorous attention to ergonomic design. The collection includes a raincoat, parka and vest, which are all made using Gore fabrics, and are water- and wind-resistant, and breathable. Garments come with thermo-taping, foldable gloves, adjustable hoods, smart pockets, and road-friendly reflective details.

‘Lochness’ lock, by Francesco Toselli, for Palomar

Chunky chains are a thing of the past thanks to this pliable bike lock in metal and silicone, which wraps effortlessly around any bike rack or post.

‘Neos’ bike butler, by Vadolibero

With an elliptical form and high-gloss finish, this freestanding ‘cyclist’s assistant’ combines a bike rack with compartments for a helmet, cycling apparel and accessories.

Helmet, by Closca

This collapsible helmet comes with an interchangeable visor and cleverly concealed air vents. An NFC chip at the top can connect to a smartphone for emergency calls.

‘Nello’ bike bell, by Odo Fioravanti, for Palomar

A rubber bell that offers a choice of three sounds, this has a magnetic base and separate rubber supports, so it can be easily detached when not in use.

‘Beeline’, designed by Map Project Office with Beeline

This handlebar-mounted device, which connects to a smartphone, displays the direction and distance to the user’s destination, without prescribing a specific route.

Fitbit has been making us healthier for 13 years now with a diverse range of products ranging from fitness bands to smartwatches and intelligent scales. Sifting, sorting and presenting the deluge of data we all generate from moving around is as much of a challenge as gathering it in the first place, and the company is moving towards becoming an overall ‘wellness provider’, pushing its Fitbit Premium subscription service as a sort of virtual life coach. 

The gateway device for this world of tailored workouts and mindfulness tools is the new Fitbit Sense smartwatch, a device that heralds a new design language and a new iteration of the company’s software, as well as ever closer integration with a range of apps and enticements. The Sense watch face is contained within a squared-off circle – or ‘Squircle’ – that embodies Fitbit’s new ‘Biologic Industrial Design Language.’ According to Jonah Becker, the company’s SVP of Design, it was ‘inspired by and designed for the human body.’ That doesn’t mean overtly organic forms, but instead a soft-edged form that you pinch and grip to change function and communicate information. 

‘A lot has changed in the market for wearables,’ says Becker, ‘it’s graduated from start-ups to global players.’ One of Becker’s achievements at Fitbit was to build an in-house industrial team from scratch, moving on from the angular, jewellery-like approach the company used in its first set of wrist-worn trackers. Nowadays such devices are designed to be worn practically 24 hours a day, so they need a much closer relationship to the human body. Weight is no longer an indication of quality or sophistication in industrial design, as high-performance training shoes or bicycles demonstrate. Sense is now Fitbit’s flagship Smartwatch offering, but the company’s other trackers are also getting a Biologic redesign, including the bone-like form of the Inspire 2 band. 

‘Our mission is to bring health to people, so how can that inspire our design language,’ says Benjamin Riot, Lead Industrial Designer on the Sense. There are only so many ways a wearable can be configured, so the team has gone for an approach that feels like a natural extension of the body, with interactions that become part of your muscle memory. The Sense is soft edged, with a custom OLED screen to fit the ‘squircle’ shape. ‘There’s a visual comfort with traditional circular watches,’ Becker admits, ‘but smartwatches are more at home with the rectilinear form.’ Special nano-moulding techniques fuse aluminium with resin to allow the device’s antennas to be incorporated within the housing – this is the first Fitbit device to have a microphone and speaker, so calls can be taken independently of your smartphone. There’s also a vast array of carefully packaged sensors, what the company calls a ‘biosensor core’. 

The Sense showcases a new sophistication with colour and material. ‘When I joined Fitbit, wearables were typically brightly coloured rubberised bands,’ says Becker. ‘Our products have to fit a variety of bodies and needs,’ adds Irina Kozlovskaya, Fitbit’s Director of Industrial Design, pointing out that as well as a sports band, the Sense can be swapped into a leather strap or a woven textile band. All this tactility and attention to detail, however, is designed to evaporate when the device is engaged with. ‘When the screen lights up, you almost want the physical part to disappear,’ says Becker. There’s a secondary benefit here, in that bringing more information, functions and notifications into the Sense discourages you from picking up your smartphone and being sent off into a social media spiral. ‘Users want us to help them manage their time,’ says Becker, and it’s no coincidence that the new Fitbit OS, version 5.0, has a hugely expanded focus on mental wellness as well as physical. 

The Sense’s user experience is defined by bold blocks of colour, geometric gradations and a sense of depth, allowing you to drill down into ever more detailed information. How much of this you absorb and engage with is up to you, from tracking calories and water intake, in addition to the deluge of data taken automatically from the watch’s sensors, including footsteps, heart rate, temperature, sleep patterns, runs, swims, floors climbed, etc. If you like, the watch can help regulate your stress levels, acting as a little wrist-bound guru that offers advice on breathing and mindfulness exercises. 

Silicon Valley has always been a curious mix of capitalism and counterculture, individualism and group think. Fitbit has noble aims – greater fitness for all – and the hardware and software skills to make gathering the necessary data as user-friendly as possible. But it also has a business-focused arm, Fitbit Health Solutions, that gives corporate customers an electronic carrot to help employees boost their fitness, helping cut down absence through illness and health insurance costs in the process. This kind of tech is a trade-off between convenience and complexity. Embedding Google Voice Assistant or Alexa in your watch is handy, if you’ll pardon the pun, but the walls that separate the data we give away without thinking and the data that we assume is sacrosanct have never felt thinner. Privacy is one of Fitbit’s prime directives, but with a $2bn offer from Google currently on the table, the tantalising mash-up of (anonymised) data that the two companies could effortlessly collate feels more than slightly alarming. 

However, if like many you believe that that ship has long since sailed and disappeared far over the horizon, then you should seriously consider the Fitbit Sense. It’ll serve you well as a smartwatch, even without the dizzying array of data it generates in an attempt to keep you on the straight and narrow. For the fitness-minded statistics obsessive it offers more to pore over than almost any other device on the market, plus the promise of a helpful nudge in the right direction when you need one most. Whether it’ll deliver on its promise of a more mindful future, freed from the tether of a smartphone screen, is ultimately up to you.

INFORMATION

Fitbit Sense, price tba, www.fitbit.com

Hot on the heels of Bang & Olufsen’s new E8 Sport earphones comes this collaboration with Swiss running tech specialists, On. The result is a discretely branded edition of the E8 with subtle styling cues to match up with On’s newest road running shoe, the Cloudboom.

For the Cloudboom, On collaborated closely with two established marathon runners, the Canadian Rachel Cliff and British athlete Chris Thompson. In addition to the ‘CloudTech’ layered sole that uses superfoam cushioning, the new shoe features On’s signature engineered mesh on the upper. ‘We always work with athletes to develop our products,’ says Edouard Coyon at On. ‘We have only one ambition, which is to help push the athletes forward, so they can accelerate in all conditions.’

The philosophy of high-tech materials and contemporary styling is one that resonated with Bang & Olufsen’s design team. ‘Music plays an important role in stimulating physical activity,’ says Sondre Barkli, Bang & Olufsen’s Global Product Manager, noting that the E8 was already highly prized by runners. The evolved E8 Sport is distinguished by full weatherproofing, enhanced Bluetooth 5.1 tech and seven-hour battery life, as well as the ability to tailor the in-ear fit. ‘We wanted to focus on fitness and running as a category and On shared our core values,’ Barkli continues as he reveals a new limited edition E8 Sport that’s designed to pair perfectly with your Cloudbooms.

‘Music plays an important role in stimulating physical activity,’ says Bang & Olufsen’s global product manager

The details are subtle but on point, starting with the embossed logo on the earphones’ silicone case, with On’s signature cloud print concealed beneath the lid of the case — just as you get in an On shoe box. The transparent green silicone earpieces reveal the collaboration’s motto — ‘the sound of unstoppable’ – and there’s an aesthetic synergy that carries through with the high-tech stylings of the Cloudboom. For runners looking to get every last drop of performance from their tech as well as their own aching muscles, this is a partnership that makes sense.

INFORMATION

Beoplay E8 Sport On Edition, £300, bang-olufsen.com
Cloudboom, £170, on-running.com

With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on the horizon, Nike unveiled its latest product innovations, poised to catapult its athletes to success, in an inspiring showcase staged at The Shed in New York City earlier this week. Centered around creating a better future for sport, the comprehensive presentation unveiled new goods at both the performance and lifestyle levels, ranging from the competition apparel athletes will wear during the 2020 Olympics to new spike, basketball and football shoe designs, boasting new technologies that upend traditional standards.

At the core of everything lies Nike’s mission to unite performance results with a sustainability slant. More so now than ever, athletes are having to train and compete in new conditions due to climate change. Tokyo 2020 is set to be the hottest Olympic Games on record and the new product innovations have been designed with this in mind on variety of levels. For one, the new track and field kits feature Nike Dri-FIT Aeroswift material, which wicks away sweat and disperses it evenly throughout garments for better management of heat and moisture in hotter conditions.

Sustainable materials also feature heavily in Team USA’s medal stand collection, which includes a 100 per-cent recycled polyester jacket cut in a kimono-inspired design that reduces waste, track pants constructed from 100 per-cent recycled nylon and trimmings made from Nike Grind recycled rubber. The uniform is complemented by Nike’s lowest impact trainer, the Vapormax, that is made using 75 per-cent recycled manufacturing waste.

‘We are always looking to make athletes better and make the world a better place,’ says Nike’s Seana Hannah, Vice President for Sustainable Innovation. ‘Nike does a great job of bringing innovation to scale. We’re really looking at our entire carbon footprint and where we can have the most impact. You’ll see that we have used as much recycled material as possible and we have designed out waste in every opportunity. And then we’ve also used waste as a new resource in our new Space Hippie shoes.’

As the brand’s lowest carbon footprint shoe ever, the Space Hippie footwear collection is composed of Nike’s own ‘space junk’ – a myriad of scrap materials found on the factory floor that have been reincorporated in a circular way. In addition to championing a new aesthetic in footwear, Space Hippie’s knitted body also utilizes yarn made from recycled water bottles, T-shirts and yarn scarps. It’s eye-catching foam sole is made from a layer of recycled factory foam offcuts and another layer of ‘crater foam’ made from a blend of standard Nike foams and 15 per-cent Nike Grind recycled rubber.

‘Space Hippie product presents itself as an artifact from the future. It's avant-garde; it's rebelliously optimistic,' says John Hoke, Nike Chief Design Officer. ‘Space Hippie is also an idea. It is about figuring out how to make the most with the least material, the least energy and the least carbon. It's changed the way we look at materials, it's changed the way that we look at the aesthetics of our product. It's changed how we approach putting product together.’

INFORMATION
nike.com

We’re all ears when it comes new jewellery trends, and a host of tech-savvy designers are making their voices heard with creations that touch on our constant need to digitally plugged-in. AirPods and headphones have become our unconscious adornment of choice, and as we come to rely on these sound devices more and more, so our jewellery must adapt and assimilate. Here we present four labels bringing a haute sensibility to our daily hearing aids.

Boucheron

The historic French maison’s ‘Jack’ necklace gives fine jewellery a playful character, and an easy-to-wear sensibility. A spin on the ubiquitous earphone connector, the fabric-like feel of the 18-ct yellow or white gold spiral-wound chain gives it a decadent haute-fashion spin, in turn making the usually hidden claps the focal point. ‘Jack’ is designed as a uniform length but it can easily be adapted, click by click, for use as a bracelet, necklace or belt.

Vibe Harsløf

‘It’s really interesting how earphones have become part of everyday dressing, almost alongside wearing shoes or a coat,’ says Vibe Harsløf. There’s something subtly humorous behind the Danish jeweller’s designs, which include a recent collaboration with Japanese label Facetasm, on bracelets resembling bottle openers, earrings dangling with packets of pills and studs resembling the faces of wide-eyed aliens. For her brand’s WE collection, wireless ear phones have been transformed into jewellery, and are festooned with clusters of pearls or long strands of chain. ‘Pearls are the quintessence of classic conservative jewellery and originally a very rare and valuable item reserved exclusively for the rich, which makes an interesting contrast to the sleek modern design of the ear buds.’ 

FandD

Flora Fixy and Julia Dessirier, founders of product, accessory and set design studio FandD and Kate Fichard, were the winners of the Grand Prix du Jury Accessoires de Mode Swarovski at 2018's Hyères Festival of Photography and Fashion. The trio were awarded for Auditive Jewellery a series of bangle-inspired and functional hearing aids. ‘From that moment a thrilling investigation started into identity, empowerment and the idea of designing a fashion accessory that reflected sociopolitical issues and elevated the body and mind,’ Fixy and Dessirier explain. 

As part of its win, FandD had the chance to work with famed French jewellery house Goossens - one of Chanel’s Métiers d’Art workshops - which has created catwalk jewellery for Yves Saint Laurent, Dior and Peter Marino-designed fixtures for Chanel boutiques worldwide. One of their collaborative creations is the Anti Noise earring, a moon-shape 3D-modelled ear bud which silences sound. Its ombré lacquer hue nods to the ocean landscape, and references hearing impaired Fichard's comparison of deafness with being underwater. ‘The earring appears on the air like a lightweight, shiny creature, with orbits which are ample and gracious,’ Fixy and Dessirier explain.

Planet Beyond

‘Tech products and human bodies are so intertwined today,’ says Lorin Gu, one member of the collective Planet Beyond, a group of MIT & Harvard graduate scientists & designers, whose newly launched wearables have a jewellery-focused flair. These earphones are crafted from recycled metals, and feature petals which trace the curvature of the ear. ‘Everyone wears the same headphones, air pods, and has the same mobile phones,’ Gu says. ‘Big brands also perpetuate a very male-centric design perspective. ’We’re trying to present an alternative.’ In his research process, Gu looked to the costumes in the futuristic drama Westworld, set in a Western amusement park. ‘The show presents a vision of how technology can evolve, in a beautiful way,’ he says. Planet Beyond have a world of wearables planned for the near future, including a tech enabled bracelet with an odorising perfume function and tech enabled glasses.

INFORMATION

uk.boucheron.com
fandd.studio
vibeharsloef.dk
planetbeyond.com

In 1978, Nike revolutionised the sneaker industry with the Air Tailwind using technology developed by former NASA engineer M Frank Rudy for the Apollo missions. Since then, its push for athlete advancement has continued at a stellar pace, with 2018 a bumper year marked by a trio of ‘rapidly scaling’ breakthrough platforms: Nike React, the softest and most resilient foam it has ever created; Nike ZoomX foam, delivering an 85 per cent energy return; and expressive new designs for Nike Air. Today, the brand unveils Nike Joyride, touted as the ‘most personalised cushioning system’ it has ever launched and featuring an ultra-responsive footbed filled with thousands of TPE beads.

‘Everything that went into this shoe was designed to give your legs a day off,’ explains Kylee Barton, global senior footwear product director of Nike Running. The design team tested 150 different materials before settling on a TPE  – a copolymer of plastic and rubber – for the beads. These are dispersed within zonally-tuned pockets, which allows the foam to expand in all directions (‘multi-dimensional displacement’ as Nike has christened it). The heel cavity – the ‘snack-pack’ quips Barton  – is punctuated by a circular series of holes, that let air out as the beads become compressed during activity, harking back to Nike’s decades-long experimentations with air.

Nike Joyride has been several years in the making. The inspiration came from a common observation that runners gravitated to softer ground next to concrete paths in cities globally. ‘We took that insight and married it with this notion of sand,’ says Barton, ‘[in essence] that sensation of taking your shoes and socks off at the beach, where you first step onto it and it conforms to your toes and your feet.’ And while the branding material describes the feeling underfoot as ‘almost like running on bubbles’, a test run of the new shoe on London’s pavements did feed back a sensation more akin to trail running.

Nike’s desire to bring customers in closer contact to its technology resulted in the designers creating a new manufacturing process that allowed them to remove the traditional sock-liner and replace it with a micro-thin, seamless bootie construction stitched directly into the shoe. Barton adds, ‘We wanted you to feel the beads, because stepping on the beads unlocks the technology.’ The Nike Joyride also addresses ‘the critically important upper’ with a decidedly soft material palette – ranging from the brand’s signature Flyknit to neoprene – creating plush touch points all over the shoe, while the big toe area features a ‘plastic-based skin’ (complete with a tonal swoosh) to ensure durability is maintained in spite of toe drag. ‘We really wanted to tell the runner that the whole package is cushioned and inviting,’ notes Barton.

Billed as one of its most accessible releases that will appeal to all levels, the Joyride also marks an important addition to the recovery tools – including contrast showers, sports massages and plenty of rest – that Nike athletes such as middle-distance runners Laura Muir and Charlie Grice already have in their arsenal. Future silhouettes featuring the new cushioning system include the Nike Joyride NSW; the Nike Joyride Setter (which debuted during Matthew Williams’ S/S20 ALYX show at Paris Fashion Week in June); the Nike Joyride Optik, exclusive to women; and the Nike Joyride Nova, engineered especially for young athletes. Watch this space.

INFORMATION

Nike Joyride Run Flyknit, available to Nike Members from 25 July and globally from 15 August. nike.com

Italian Mario Moretti Polegato’s plantar epiphany happened in cowboy country, USA in the late 1980s. The son of Veneto wine dynasty, young Polegato was in Reno, Nevada promoting the family’s famous Villa Sandi prosecco… and he was baking hot. ‘The heat started to affect me immediately, especially my feet,’ he recalls. ‘So I took out my Victorinox swiss army knife and made holes in my tennis shoes for ventilation. I felt instant relief.’ A small scar on the 66 year old’s hand marks the moment where the knife slipped during the on-the-hoof procedure.

Returning to Italy and now on a podiatric, air-conditioning mission Polegato went on the hunt for perforated footwear… but could find nothing. So he invented his own; a revolutionary membrane-based construction composed of a microporous material that absorbs sweat in the form of water vapour before expelling it through the perforated sole. ‘I discovered there was a membrane in existence that was made up of millions of micropores whose diameter is greater than that of a molecule of steam but smaller than a molecule of water. The membrane enables sweat to escape without letting water in.’

Polegato attached membrane to perforated sole. An effective, working prototype was made and (crucially) patents immediately established in 100 countries. He took his new invention to the world’s major sports shoes manufacturers. They all turned him down.

‘My story is a bit like Steve Jobs’, the Geox CEO says. ‘I had invented a technology that improved the experience of wearing a rubber soled shoe but people thought I was crazy, they said. You are trying to sell me shoes with holes in them!’ Astonished that no-one believed in his maverick, game changing technology in 1995 Polegato decided to start his own business – just five people making children’s shoes. Almost 25 years later, the Geox Respira brand – men’s, women’s and children’s footwear (breathable rubber and leather soles), clothing and accessories – is 30,000 employees strong and has around 1,300 stores all over the world. And the likes of Nike and Adidas still haven’t cracked Polegato’s secret formula.

The restless, billionaire founder who drives a Tesla and designs his own distinctive spectacles, likes to call Geox ‘a technology company with applied fashion.’ Geox is not a trend-driven, or athletic-inspired brand, he insists, but it was responsible for inventing the now massive lifestyle sneaker apparel category, the applied fashionability of its lines contributed by the savvy appointment of, firstly, chief marketing officer Andrea Tremolada, formerly of Roberto Cavalli and Salvatore Ferragamo and then women’s footwear designer Ernesto Esposito.

An Italian cobbling legend of international repute (Andy Warhol painted his portrait more than once) Esposito has been designing shoes for the likes of Sergio Rossi, Marc Jacobs, Chloe, Sonia Rykiel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Bruno Magli since the 1970s. Esposito joined Geox to rev up its now extensive women’s lines, adding aeriated lines of Ballerinas and sandals with extra va-va-voom, his hiring rubber-stamping Polegato’s desire to make his company a more design-focused endeavour.

Wallpaper* is with Polegato discussing women’s shoes, breathable membranes, the company’s recent acquisition of the Diadora brand and smartphone-programmed LED-illuminated soles (a new innovation for the Geox kids’ line) in the pit lane of a FIA Formula E race in Paris. Cars pass by the street circuit’s straights in a thrilling, blurry disconcert of clatter and whistle, big batteries humming with energy, carbon brake shoes glowing – two of them bearing the Geox logo.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California – AKA the largest single Prius-driving, metropolitan EV (electric vehicle) market in the world – the Geox Dragon team’s drivers wear racing shoes made bespoke by Geox’s lab and fireproof suits that employ cutting-edge Geox apparel technology to enable improved cooling and breathing. Brand and race series are a good fit because, explains Polegato, ‘the Formula E schedule takes in places like Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Morocco – hot places where keeping cool is essential. The drivers often have a body temperature problem.’ When the races are done, the kit goes back to the Geox lab for examination and improvement, the drivers effectively serving as test pilots for the new product. A new line of Geox sneakers, the Aerantis D is a replica of the custom sneaker created for the Geox Dragon racing team.

The Paris race begins in sunshine and ends in a fierce rain storm. Cars spill off the corners and chicanes all over the track but the Geox Dragon team cars keep their cool – rubber maintaining a firm grip on wet tarmac, monochrome livery looking stylish. Geox’s technology and applied fashion in fast-forward motion.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Geox website

‘I’m here by choice, not by obligation,’ Jony Ive tells me as we trek through the dense, mysterious forests of Yakushima in southern Japan.

Me too! My 12,000-mile round-trip from London to this remote island was arduous, but worth it. It’s not often you get to spend time in such a magical environment in the company of Apple’s chief design officer and Hermès’ artistic director, Pierre-Alexis Dumas.

Extraordinary products created by extraordinary partnerships should lead to extraordinary experiences, and the purpose of this two-day sojourn was to better understand some qualities of the new Apple Watch Hermès Series 4. It may seem odd that a company renowned for accelerating digital connectivity would take you to an area that is almost totally off-grid, but finding time to unplug and connect in a different way – with yourself and with nature – is a key component of its new product. ‘We must strive to preserve a connection with nature and a reconnection with our senses,’ explains Dumas, ‘and Yakushima, with its thousand-year-old trees, its incredibly diverse flora and fauna, including 1,900 species of plants, 150 species of birds and around 20 different species of mammals, is a marvellous example of this.’

The watch’s fitness, health and breathing apps are now paramount: ‘We have included additional features and enhancements to help us to live an overall healthier, more active, more balanced life,’ says Ive.

Balance is also key to the overall Apple/Hermès working relationship – the balance of technology and craftsmanship. It is something Dumas is passionate about (he refers to it as ‘technocraft’) and is convinced it is the holy grail of modern design, manufacturing and making. ‘We are a manufacturing species, we make tools and we make tools to make objects. It is part of our culture and it is part of what makes us human,’ he says. ‘We are both so interested in the process of making,’ continues Ive. ‘After I met Pierre-Alexis some years ago, the idea of working with Hermès struck me as entirely natural and logical – almost inevitable.’

By spending time with Ive and Pierre-Alexis Dumas (I’m tempted to refer to them collectively as IPAD), you sense a total meeting of minds. There’s a shared admiration of materials and craftsmanship, and an uncompromising pursuit of excellence. The obsessive refinement in Series 4 is where the magic happens – such as the significant increase in the display size, by blending it with the curves of the watch. But the new Hermès user interface is the most elegant and succinct representation of the collaboration. As the minute hand sweeps forward, the screen shifts from one block colour to the next, matching the colours of the two-tone leather straps and creating a kind of digital sundial. Over dinner on the last evening in Yakushima, Dumas reminds me that the Hermès/Apple relationship first blossomed thanks to some Wallpaper* matchmaking back in 2010. The inaugural Wallpaper* Handmade project was in preparation and the iPad had just been announced at one of Steve Jobs’ legendary presentations. Who better, we thought, to design the perfect protective case for this yet-to-be-released technological game-changer than Hermès? It would be a marriage of craft and technology for our Milan exhibition that coming April. Technocraft, no less! Some five years later, the Apple Watch Hermès was born, and now it was fitting – by choice, not by obligation – to be present at this most extraordinary presentation of their latest collaboration, mindful that the first seeds of that working relationship were planted on the pages of this magazine. § As originally featured in the March 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*240)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Hermès website and the Apple website

Since their inception in the mid-2000s, underwater earphones have predictably been a hot topic among swimmers. The compromise between functionality and quality sits at the crux of the conversation, both wired and wireless options encumbered with their own restrictive inconveniences. The sonic wizards at Tivoli Audio have now added their take to the debate with Fonico, a new pair of Bluetooth earbuds promising to answer the numerable qualms of the audio-savvy swimmer.

Continuing to uphold the Tivoli Audio mantra of ‘acoustics before aesthetics’, Fonico earbuds promise 3.5 hours worth of playback in a package both resistant to water and sweat, all-the-while providing true wireless stereo with a full dynamic range.

Under the hood, two 6mm drivers offer ample volume of 120 db at 1 kHz, further encompassing the entire human range of hearing, even under water. Tivoli Audio doesn’t eschew usability here, either: multifunction controls on the earbuds offer the ever-favoured array of skip, pause and rewind functions, and an in-built mic allows for vocal communication with your chosen device.

The American audio brand takes further steps to provide an easy experience, including a convenient carry case with three rechargeable charges and multiple adapters for a comfortable fit.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Tivoli Audio website

We are drowning in headphones, strangled by cables. Earin’s new M-2s are designed to bring a little wireless convenience to your listening experience, combining ease of use with design elegance. Most people point to Apple’s innovative AirPods from 2017 as the start of this trend, but they weren’t the first devices deploying Bluetooth to break the chain between phone and ear – the earliest truly ‘wireless’ earbuds arrived in 2015. The Apple Effect, however, has ensured the market is now flooded with imitators of varying degrees of quality.

Earin has a very premium take on design and technology, ensuring that the M-2s are a great listening experience first and foremost. Ultra compact, the M-2s don’t compromise on either sound quality or noise reduction. They pair easily through Bluetooth and additional tweaks can be made from an accompanying app, including the ability to dial up the amount of ‘transparency’ you get from the noise-cancelling function – let as much of the outside in as you like.

The earbuds fit snugly enough so you’re never anxious about losing them; calls and music can both be controlled through tapping the unit. The slim aluminium travel case doubles up as a mobile charge bank, and there’s a reasonable four hour battery life which is more than trebled when you have the fully-charged case to hand. Finally, a long press on the earbud calls up your digital assistant of choice, letting you ask questions and have the wisdom of the net piped straight into your ear. For such a tiny package, the M-2’s have a seriously impressive set of skills.

INFORMATION

Earin M-2, £219. For more information, visit the Earin website

Leading Australian bank Westpac is making sea changes with its latest design collaboration. Following its recent $500 million investment in a new customer service cloud hub, and the 2017 launch of its PayWear technology (a 1.5 x 2.5cm chip replacing the debit card), the bank has approached Sydney-based surfboard designer Hayden Cox to create hand and battery-free, tap-and-go payment accessories.

‘This category is brand new so the challenge was to bridge the gap between function and style,’ stresses Cox. Beyond existing silicone wrist bands and watch attachments, the result is a practical five-piece unisex collection, aptly coined Centsitive Objects.

Cox is the founder of Haydenshapes Surfboards (which sell in over 70 countries), revolutionising the industry with his patented FutureFlex. Utilising parabolic carbon-fibre frames instead of the customary wooden stringer to shape boards, it enhances their speed and control. Similarly, his new water-resistant collection for Westpac seamlessly merges technology, efficiency and design – just don’t call them fashion accessories.

‘The pieces needed to not only blend into a variety of lifestyles and fulfil a genuine convenience, but they had to be aesthetically on point for people to want to wear,’ explains Cox. The resulting objects are lightweight, environmentally conscious (his keychain is crafted partly with Econyl, a recycled fabric made from discarded fishing nets and regenerated into nylon spandex) and subtle, given their minimalist bent and colour scheme: black, stone (light grey) and mineral (blush).

They include: Band + Chain, an attachable keychain and strap that can also be worn as a wristband, making it ideal for exercising (including surfing as it can withstand periods underwater); Centsitive Patch, an internal-facing iron/sew-on for clothing (pictured below); Nostalgia Pin, modeled on the iconic safety pin it hides the technology (a rectangular silicone keeper concealing a PayWear card beneath the fabric it attaches to); Incognito Pin, a tiny, half-domed brooch or lightning bolt topper (picture above) that connects to any fabric and houses the PayWear technology beneath it; and the Slimline Keeper, a small card-slot device that fastens to any watch wristband or fitness monitor (pictured above).

Given his past collaborations with Alexander Wang (creating marble surfboard retail installations plus a limited edition range for sale) and brand ambassador roles with Audi and Samsung, Cox is no stranger to different partnerships or challenges. He fully immersed himself in the creative process, from research and design, prototyping and product testing to managing the manufacturing and packaging for each Centsitive Object. Combined, all enable wallet, card and ATM-free pursuits and ideally extra surf time for some.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Westpac website

Left, jacket, $2,160, by Templa. Wool jacket, £625, by Stone Island. Shirt, ¥9,000 ($81); trousers, ¥33,000 ($299), both by Nonnative. Shorts, £100, by PE Nation. Collar, ¥8,000 ($73); hat, ¥16,000 ($145); gloves, ¥11,000 ($100), all by Nonnative. Shoes, €305, by Roa. Right, jacket, €890; vest, €545; liner, €490, all by Nemen. Shirt, £305, by Descente Allterrain. Trousers, £305, by Stone Island. Hight. Fashion: Jason Hughes

Few of us will ever take on the trek to Everest Base Camp, but that hasn’t stopped men’s fashion from harnessing the mountaineering spirit, now as sought after on the street as on Himalayan hiking trails. Think haute couture meets high performance: a tapedseam, Thermolite-padded and heat-bonded spin on the savoir-faire of Savile Row.

It’s a trend that trekked firmly onto the A/W18 runways: take the reflective and multi-pocketed gilets and fleece sweaters at Lucas Ossendrijver’s Lanvin, Gucci’s gem-swathed hiking boots, Junya Watanabe’s collaborations with North Face, Karrimor and Canada Goose, and Prada’s celebration of functional nylon. Even at June’s Pitti Uomo 94 – considered the epicentre of tailoring and Italian sprezzatura – the menswear platform’s I Go Out installation was aimed at assimilating fashion with an active lifestyle.

The installation showcased nearly 30 global activewear brands, including hiking shoe stalwarts Danner and Diemme, and merino wool specialist Reda Active, against a leafy eco-friendly backdrop. This fresh-air focus is one pioneered by hip menswear retailers like the UK’s End and Present, and Japan’s United Arrows & Sons, as well as niche, expedition-inspired magazines such as Stay Wild, Sidetracked and Another Escape.

British fashion boutique Browns bolstered its sporting connections in April, inviting customers on a 10km run to celebrate the opening of a Satisfy pop-up shop at its east London store. Satisfy, a Paris-based running brand, is one of ten high-performance labels that Browns’ menswear buying manager Dean Cook chose to stock for spring, before increasing the boutique’s buy for A/W18.

Breaking down the distinction between functional and high fashion, Browns presents performance-wear brands – running-shoe label Hoka One One and Canadian outerwear specialist Arc’teryx – alongside luxury labels. ‘We don’t have a dedicated sports section on our site,’ Cook says. ‘The clothing is geared to be worn with brands like Rick Owens.’ Browns are also the exclusive UK stockist of knitwear studio Byborre, and have celebrated the launch of its newest collection with a pop-up space at its Browns East outpost in Shoreditch, on view until mid-November.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual survey, wearable technology is the third biggest worldwide fitness trend of 2018. Increased interest in quantifying our physical activity has extended into a desire for super-functional gear – such as Japanese label And Wander’s odour-reducing Deodorant Stitch pieces, or Italian hiking footwear label Roa’s use of resistant aramid fibres, a material seen in bulletproof vests – whether or not we’ll actually test such items to their limits.

Ultra marathon-running twins Steve and Nick Tidball launched British label Vollebak in 2016. Their ‘100 Year Hoodie’ is made of Kevlar, pitched as being five times stronger than steel and able to withstand extreme temperatures. In May, the brand launched a global treasure hunt, enlisting former military operatives to hide a lifetime discount card, and encouraging active Vollebak enthusiasts to find it. Another brand using an adventure-led retail strategy to emphasise the strength of its product is Woolrich. Its Milan flagship features an Extreme Weather Experience Room, a snow-filled space where customers can test out its signature parkas to temperatures of minus 20°C.

Performance-wear stalwarts are also designing specifically for the luxury market. Salomon’s Black Edition (a sell-out collection for Browns) sees the French brand’s footwear styles reinterpreted in monochrome, while North Face’s Black Series (available in select fashion stores only) blends technical prowess with a more everyday aesthetic.

Material innovation is keeping leading brands at the top of their game. Rainwear expert Herno, which has an annual turnover of nearly €100m, turns 70 this year and marks its 50th year selling in Japan. The label produces nearly 3,000 prototypes a year at its HQ in Lesa, Italy. ‘We have exclusivity on a specific type of machinery for the next three years,’ says Herno president and CEO Claudio Marenzi. ‘It is focused on the production of 3D-thermobinding and ultrasound stitching for the neck and armholes of garments.’

Similarly, two years ago, Stone Island, the Italian sportswear brand founded in 1982, introduced the Prototype Research Series, an annual project showcasing treatments that have not yet been industrialised. For 2018, the brand predicts a turnover of nearly €200m, an 83 per cent increase on 2016. It attributes this success, in part, to selling to high-end retailers (Mr Porter buying director Fiona Firth notes an uplift for 2018), and to pushing a wide range of performance-focused products, not simply entry-level categories.

A host of newer brands, too, is developing high-tech fabrics and treatments. Leonardo Fasolo, who cut his teeth at CP Company and Stone Island, co-founded Nemen in 2012 in a bid to ‘investigate unknown territories in textile research’. Specialising in dyeing techniques, the brand created one-of-a-kind hand-sprayed nylon jackets, and has just developed a nylon with a flame-retardant metal lamination, which when acid-dyed resembles Tyvek (a protective synthetic fibre commonly used in construction).

The month it launched in 2017, Alpine outerwear brand Templa was awarded the prestigious Ispo Brandnew Award for Apparel. ‘Every piece is meticulously made to function in different moments,’ says Templa’s Antwerp-based co-founder Anati Rakocz. Its outerwear boasts details such as internal sleeve extensions, Recco Avalanche Rescue technology, and a removable snow skirt. For S/S18, the brand launched with three global stockists. For autumn, it increased its retail presence by five times. ‘We push the boundaries of functionality and design,’ says Rakocz. ‘Our pieces are meant to be worn on the slopes but can be placed in any urban location.’ Whether you are base jumping or just strolling, looking the part is no sweat. §

As originally featured in the September 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*234)

Tony Chambers started wearing an Apple Watch in 2015. Seduced, as many were, by its marriage of elegant form, function and fun – it was the Mickey Mouse face that gave it extra appeal. ‘It adds an element of irreverence, preventing all the other design perfection becoming too, well, perfect,’ Chambers told The Telegraph at the time. ‘Mickey takes the edge off.’

Chambers, creative consultant and Wallpaper* former editor-in-chief, has monitored the iteration-by-iteration evolution of the world's most popular timepiece with interest ever since. Impossibly, each new series seems to get better, through subtle design tweaks, and system upgrades (not to mention improved Mickey graphics). It was with great curiosity, then, that Chambers learnt that the new Apple Watch – alongside the three new iPhones that launched yesterday via livestream at Apple Park in California – applies a more significant redesign than ever.

The livestream, which fizzed across the fourth wall and onto Apple screens worldwide, revealed that the Apple Watch Series 4 features the greatest leaps forward, in both hardware and software terms, since Apple Time began. After the launch, Chambers called upon chief design officer Sir Jony Ive via phone to Apple HQ – resuming a conversation they began at London's Royal College of Art earlier this year – to discover just how profound these shifts are, and why they've happened to products that, at the time of launch, seem difficult to improve upon. 

‘You’d be reckless to move away from the fundamental icon,' Ive says of the new Apple Watch, which, on first impression, maintains a similar footprint and profile as the Series 3 iteration. ‘Our aim was to develop it and evolve it as dramatically as possible.' The key visual difference is the 30 per cent greater display area, which seamlessly integrates into the thinner case, achieved by eradicating the void frame around the edge of the face (available in 40mm and 44mm). ‘When you see each watch series in isolation you can't comprehend how different they are. But when you look at them side by side, the change is extremely dramatic.’

Further crucial design advances come when you look behind the screen. A re-engineered interface ushers in easier to read, larger fonts; a watch-to-watch Walkie Talkie comms system (with watch0S5), 50 per cent louder speaker, and a more customisable homescreen, which you can even add a photo of your loved one's face to (if that's your thing).

The new health features boast some of the most compelling progressions, and, in Ive's words, are ‘absolutely insane'. Updates include a Fall Detector, which uses the Apple Watch's accelerometer and gyroscope to identify when a hard fall occurs, initiating a call to emergency services, then sending a message with your location to your emergency contacts (unless of course you confirm you're okay). Perhaps even more astounding, an FDA-approved electrocardiogram app can analyse your heart rate, alert you if it exceeds or falls below a specified threshold, and detect abnormalities like AFib, right from the wrist, via a new electrical heart rate sensor in the back crystal, built into the Digital Crown. ‘It's a real privilege to be part of a team developing products like this,' Ive impresses. ‘We’ve come to learn we’re able to get a sense of how the body is functioning in the broadest of contexts – not just in the doctor's office.'

When we looked around Apple Park last year, Ive told us that his team's goal has been, ‘in some ways, to get design out of the way.’ He said, ‘We try to define a solution that seems so inevitable that it does recede.’ The new watch unifies each of its design elements in complete harmony, from the curved corners of the larger, all‑new display to the architecture of the S4 chip, every detail has been thoughtfully moulded. Ive puts some of these successes down to the design team working ‘under one roof'. ‘The same designers have been working on this product for a few years, but until we arrived in Apple Park earlier this year, we didn’t enjoy a singular studio.' Now, haptic designers, font designers, material designers, and interface designers work in close proximity; creating product in a way that Apple Park was built for: collaboratively. The result is, in Ive's eyes, the most beautiful Apple Watch yet.

The Hermès iteration of the Series 4 watch, designed by Ive and Hermès creative director Pierre-Alexis Dumas, continues their collaboration. Disparate design elements (form, function, finish) tick together in unison; a testament to the complementary working attitudes of the two individuals. ‘I’m really proud of what we’ve managed to achieve together,' says Ive, stressing the high regard to which he holds Dumas. ‘We both derive a tremendous satisfaction in our work together.' In the singularly beautiful Hermès edition, a two-tone strap is complemented by a gradient face design, which, like a digital sundial, changes colour with the passing of minutes, measuring the hours with meditative simplicity.

Five years ago, Apple didn’t make watches. Today, the Apple Watch is the bestselling watch in the world. With such groundbreaking, and popular design – where can it go next? ‘I assume this is always a journey,' Ive explains. ‘Partly, it's because I’m working on the next thing – I’m always aware of the opportunities to do better.’

But a better object doesn't necessarily equate to a perfect object. Instead, it seems the Apple aim is to create a person object. An object with life, flexibility, relatability, personality. Something that works for you, and, as the voiceover said at the start of the livestream, an object that has ‘the ability to change your life everyday'. Just as the Mickey Mouse face on Tony Chambers' first Apple watch encouraged him to wear it daily, the watch's ability to reflect your personality is what makes it such a seamless addition to your arm. It might be Hermès' mindful sundial, or the reassurance you feel from knowing Fall Detector is running in the background, or perhaps by wearing your loved one's image on your wrist. Apple's real design success? Giving you the ability to find your Mickey.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Apple website

Capitalising on World Cup fever, Benjamin Hubert of LAYER studio has made his first foray into football technology, with the world’s first piece of consumer elite fitness tracking wearable tech. Designed in collaboration with Catapult (global leader in professional performance analytics), the PLAYR system comprises a smart pod, a high performance vest, and an app, bringing a world-class tracking product to a global audience of aspiring football players, for the first time.

It works much like a FitBit, albeit a highly detailed and connected one. The pod (inserted into the vest, which is worn underneath or over a football jersey) communicates with GPS networks and the PLAYR app to track the athlete during training or a game, monitoring distance covered, sprint distance, pitch heat map, and player load. Innovatively, PLAYR has been designed to integrate into both training and match situations, offering real-time statistics to the players and their coaches, who can advise from the sidelines.

Design-wise, the smart pod is simple and unobtrusive. LEDs communicate the signal strength, battery life, and charging, through the vest, which is woven from advanced high performance textiles. When illuminated, these LEDs reveal a pattern in the reverse of the top surface of the pod to communicate the technological, high-performance nature of the system.

Flashing lights and remote charging gizmos aside, will it actually work? History dictates that it will. The Catapult story began in Australia, when the country’s Olympic team returned from the 1976 Montreal Games without a single gold medal. To avoid repeating this performance, the Australian government created a world-leading academy for the country’s best young athletes. It was here that the founders of Catapult began to measure all facets of performance in an effort to improve sport through evidence based science. They soon developed wearable sensors, and the technology was developed for Australian athletes competing at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Australia won more medals than ever before – a total of 58.

It was LAYER’s job to translate this elite experience and message into a widely accessible product, so they were also commissioned to rethink Catapult’s visual identity, and they took a holistic approach. Hubert and his team focussed on simplifying how Catapult communicates complex information. The logo mark features the same softly angular forms as the PLAYR system to create a unified high performance design language in tune with the mindset of Catapult’s audience.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Layer website

A new generation of bespoke listening products is emerging. We’re increasingly after unique, personalised experiences from our sound systems. As one camp of headphone designers makes its move towards the modular (spearheaded by Danish brand AIAIAI), another is breaching the high-end, ‘made-to-order’ world. Enter Aëdle, French sound design company du jour committed to creating hand-crafted, high-end wireless headphones in limited runs from its Paris studio.

Founded in 2011, the company pitches itself as a purveyor of ‘travel instruments’, as opposed to mere sound accessories. It emphasises the handmade, ‘from scratch’ quality of its product range, which includes a suite of in-ear buds, rustic leather wallets and matching calves leather cables. All of which are formed in the Rue Campagne Première atelier – a spot made famous by its storybook history of renowned former residents: Man Ray, Rainer Maria Rilke, Marcel Duchamp, Arthur Rimbaud.

For its new, noise-cancelling VK-X headphones (being crowdfunded on Indiegogo from 19 June), a $50 made-to-order service pioneered by the company allows clients to choose between several warm lambskin leathers (also sourced locally) and cool aluminium options, by receiving a swatch book ahead of their final purchase. Your pick of forest green, carmine red and legacy black wrap around the finely machined electronic workings, developed with French partners, hot from the city’s crescendoing tech start-up landscape.

Indeed, the sound signature rings true, no matter the shell you choose. Developed from the uncustomisable VK-1s, the VK-Xs feature two high-performance custom transducers made of titanium and neodymium, offering an immersive and precise listening experience; a well-tailored partner for creative minds (and beautiful outfits).

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aëdle website

With a flight almost every other week, I do a lot of packing. Getting that right means good luggage, ruthless editing, knowledge of how to fold, and somewhere to pack.

Over the past few months I have been air-testing Louis Vuitton’s Marc Newson-designed Horizon cases, which can now be connected to an app via the brand’s Echo device. When a connected case passes through sensors in one of 120 international airports, you receive a notification on your smartphone so that you know the case has landed with you (or, depressingly, turned up somewhere else). It also tells you if your case has been opened.

Usually I travel with my Louis Vuitton monogram canvas Pégase 55 trolley case and matching Sirius 70 suitcase (or the Sirius 45 when I need less). I love the old-school look of it, though occasionally I feel pretty blingy. Horizon also comes in monogram canvas, but as the frame is moulded in a mesh matrix composite, it weighs very little and, as Newson relocated the extendable cane to the outside, it has more internal space, so you can get more in. Which, funnily enough, is not always what I need. I have had packing lessons, where I learnt that editing is key. First lay out what you think you need and then edit it down – there is nothing worse than returning with loads of unworn items. What I really want is a dedicated packing space at home, and I have been plotting one with Patrick McInerney, the architect who designed my house in Florence and my Marylebone apartment. McInerney has come up with a design (see below) in which the main focus is a 3-4m-long counter, wide enough to view everything you need for a trip and hold a pair of open suitcases. The counter, crafted in American walnut with a tobacco leather top, will also feature a special light and a shelf below for additional suitcases and bags. There is a good 1.5m between the counter and some wardrobes, so all doors can be open and you can still move freely. The wardrobes, which are lit inside and lined in cedar, feature lightweight trays that can help organise stacks of shorts, shirts, sweaters, sandals and the like prior to packing.

McInerney is also a master of tech, so he proposed a flush-mounted screen to check destination weather, controlled by Neeo, and music to get me in the destination mood channelled through Sonance speakers. I also need a steam vault for pre- and post-packing to ensure clothes are wrinkle-free. At this April’s Salone, I spotted V-Zug’s Refresh-Butler, which applies refreshing steam vapour within the wardrobe, so that should do the trick. Packed-by-Nicky will never be bettered.

How the Louis Vuitton Echo works within the Horizon luggage

Developed in collaboration with Sigfox (which has a dedicated global network of 120 airports, including London Heathrow, Paris Orly and New York JFK), Echo allows passengers to track connected luggage when travelling, thanks to the LV Pass smartphone app.

Echo can be slotted inside the case and runs on a rechargeable battery that lasts up to six months.

The first automated notification comes on arrival at the departure airport.

Echo turns to flight-safe mode on take-off and turns itself back on again on landing.

On arrival at a networked airport, the device sends a notification to the passenger’s smartphone. In the unfortunate even that it turns up at another airport, the notification comes from that airport.

Passengers are also informed when the case has been opened via the combination lock.

As originally featured in the July 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*232)

New York’s MoMA is looking across the pond for its tech inspiration, specifically to Paris. For New York Design Week, MoMA Retail has enlisted the help of La French Tech, an innovative public policy initiative that has fostered the booming French start-up community, to select the country’s most innovative new technology products, which it will stock in the MoMA Design Store.

Over the last five years, Paris’ 13th arrondissement has toppled London’s Old Street as Europe’s would-be Silicon Valley, with a vital and vibrant start-up network wiring its way into the fabric of the city. For the third year in a row, Paris was the most prolific city exhibitor at CES Las Vegas outside of the USA. Among the key players are Station F, the world’s biggest startup campus; the community-based VC firm The Hardware Club, and hardware start-up accelerators such as Usine IO and Cité de l’Objet Connecté. La French Tech, together with Business France – the agency supporting the international development of the French economy – are two key players that have championed the sector.

Stereocap headphones

‘In less than three years, start-ups have become such a strong label of what France is about: innovation, talent, and creativity,’ explains Pascal Cagni, chairman of the board of Business France. ‘The selection of products showcased by MoMA Design Store are beautifully designed and innovative, fitting perfectly into their offering.’

Products span the rapidly expanding worlds of the smart home, connected tech, and portable speakers; from drones to home telescopes to child-sleep companions. A particular favourite of ours is the assemble-it-yourself City Clock, which disguises binary technology inside 19th-century charm. Inside a miniature wooden house modeled on a Parisian Haussmannian building, the time is read based on the number of illuminated windows. ‘Finally, a clock for techies who are also poets,’ reads the MoMA product description. Rimbaud would be proud.

For MoMA Design Store, it’s the perfect time to get on board. In recent years, technology has become one of the Design Store’s largest and fastest growing product categories, with big ticket items launched with tech titans like Sony and Samsung. But, as this new collaboration with French start-ups solidifies, MoMA is equally as committed to discovering new and exciting products on platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. ‘In my travels to scout the best products from around the globe, my team and I started to see an undeniable link back to France,’ explains Emmanuel Plat, MoMA Retail’s director of merchandising. ‘New York Design Week is the perfect opportunity to tell this story and introduce their products to a wider audience.’

And wider audience is right. Not only does New York Design Week attract hundreds of thousands of design aficionados from all over the world, the products will also be available to purchase from the MoMA Design Store website, helping to take France’s already important local tech network global.

INFORMATION

The La French Tech products will be available from 10 May. For more information, visit the MoMA Design Store website

London’s V&A Museum is engaging in a spot of reverse archaeology. For its latest exhibition, ‘The Future Starts Here’, it has scoured labs the world over – from Silicon Valley giants to Scottish start-ups – to collate more than 100 objects that point the way ahead.

Filled with prototypes, ongoing experiments and finished products, the exhibition avoids sci-fi fantasy and shaky speculations and is thoroughly grounded in ‘the real’, explain curators Mariana Pestana and Rory Hyde. With the input of expert advisors, they have assembled a collection of objects, from personal-use satellites to home DNA labs, that promise to change the mechanics of everyday life. And soon.

Tech titans such as Apple and Google are here in numbers, alongside a catalogue of smaller crowdfunded projects that have a chance of becoming Google-sized tomorrow. ‘The exhibition doesn’t aim to position good technology against bad, or big against small – all of it is exciting,’ says Pestana. ‘Contemporary technology spans the human and the interplanetary – and we want to represent all increments of it.’

By presenting new developments in their infancy, the exhibition hopes to demystify the future, not cower from it. It’s what the V&A has been doing since its inception – its original collection was formed of the cutting-edge products of the Industrial Revolution, first displayed at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Now, we’ve come full circle; the age of technology fizzes around us. Here is our pick of eight objects displayed in the exhibition that outline the shape of things to come.

DIY Bitcoin Miner, by Raspberry Pi, Adafruit and GekkoScience

Technology is developing its own new, improvised and sometimes awkward design language, and this is one of the ‘rawest’ objects in the exhibition. ‘It’s more or less an exposed, cobbled-together circuit board,’ explains Hyde. ‘There’s been almost no consideration for its aesthetic. Precisely because of that, it somehow ends up being extremely beautiful.’

The robot-shaped creation was assembled for the V&A out of elements easily available on the internet, including a Raspberry Pi 3 miniature computer and GekkoScience USB miners, and programmed to earn Bitcoins (although, due to its modest size, the amount is likely to be negligible), a digital currency issued via peer-to-peer networks on completion of complex maths problems. Invented in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency is now the subject of scepticism and hype in equal measure, and has become the de facto currency of the Dark Web.

DIY Bitcoin Miner, comprising a Raspberry Pi 3; 32GB SD card; Adafruit Pi B+ case; Adafruit RGB 16x2 LCD + keypad kit; and GekkoScience Compac USB miners

Eternal 5D Data Storage, by University of Southampton

No larger than a coin, this deceptively robust nanostructured disc can store around 360 terabytes of data for up to 13.8 billion years, even when exposed to temperatures of up to 1,000°C.

Developed by the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, the technology can be used to create digital copies of major cultural artefacts and documents – such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, pictured here. Content is added using ultrafast laser writing, and the glass discs can be read by combining an optical microscope with a polariser.

In an exhibition centred on what comes next, the discs remind us of the past’s importance, preserving evidence of our civilisation for future generations. And, just as a diamond is highly organised compressed carbon, the discs compress data into a digital gem – they are the precious stones of the technological age.

southampton.ac.uk

Geological Epoch Marker, by International Commission of Stratigraphy

Orthodox geological thinking suggests we are in the Holocene epoch and have been for the last 11,000 years or so. However, a growing number of scientists suggest we need a new geological marker and talk about the Anthropocene, or the ‘age of humans’.

Since the 1970s, the International Commission on Stratigraphy has been recognising important geological moments past with so-called ‘golden spikes’ (or Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Points), which may be embedded in rock strata at symbolic spots around the world to mark one epoch shifting to the next.

There are now more than 60 spikes dotted across the earth, but where we will mark the Anthropocene era is still up for debate. One suggestion is to place it by a tree on Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean, which records in its wood a radioactive trace from the A-bomb tests of the 1950s. Wherever it is placed, the marker will reflect the ‘Great Acceleration’, when human impact on the planet intensified and went global and irreversible.

As well as being a symbol of passing geological ages, the spikes are also a sign of ‘important international scientific cooperation’, says Stanley Finney, secretary general of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The decision where each spike should sit is a complex, hotly debated matter, often put to a vote by an international panel.

stratigraphy.org

DNA Testing Kit, by Bento Bio

A symbol of democratised biology, Bento Lab allows anyone to experiment with DNA analysis, without expensive software or specialist knowledge. Perfect for field scientists, students, or anyone who wants to test their lactose intolerance at home or identify genetically modified organisms in their food, it is even being used by a brewer seeking to understand the genetic make-up of beer.

The testing kit was developed by Bento Bio in a tiny studio tucked away in Makerversity, a warren of creative spaces in London’s Somerset House.

The start-up got its big break in 2016, hitting its crowdfunding target in just one day. Without Kickstarter, ‘fringe tech projects like this might not be able to happen,’ explains Bento Bio co-founder, Philipp Boeing.

£999, by Bento Bio, bento.bio

Artificial Leaf, by Julian Melchiorri

Just like natural leaves, this delicate artificial version made of silk protein absorbs carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, offering a potential solution to climate change. Its creator, Julian Melchiorri – the V&A’s first engineer in residence – looked into our natural environments to help find a way to preserve them. ‘When nature has already found a solution, in use for billions of years, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel technologically,’ he says.

The leaf’s inclusion in the exhibition aims to promote ethical debate: just because we can recreate nature, should we? Meanwhile, Melchiorri is not stopping at folioles – he’s currently on a mission to make a bionic tree.

julianmelchiorri.com

Personal Satellite, by Clyde Space

Space exploration is no longer defined only by NASA and Hollywood. Private space fleets are launching across the globe – including from Glasgow, a city with strong engineering schools and a haven for ‘new space’ firms such as Clyde Space.

The company produces CubeSats, small open-source satellites that allow individuals, institutions and private companies to conduct research in space for a fraction of the cost of a full satellite. Weighing around 1.4kg each, CubeSats can be customized to host sensors, cameras, solar panels or propulsion units. Similar models have been used to search for new planets, detect earthquakes and demonstrate the use of solar sails.

clyde.space

Powered Clothing, by Yves Béhar and Seismic

If the Bitcoin Miner represents undesigned, raw technology, Seismic’s super suit lies at the other end of the aesthetic spectrum, encasing futuristic tech inside familiar shells. ‘For me, the future of wearable tech, robots and smart environments lies in how technology is in the background, a non-interruptive experience in the flow of our life,’ says Yves Béhar, who designed the suit in collaboration with new specialist company Seismic. ‘The suit represents how technology should be worn rather than displayed, and integrated into our everyday lives in ways that are discreet and personal.’

Made from lightweight and flexible material, and intended to be worn under everyday clothes, the ‘Aura’ powered clothing is ‘an early conceptual design of an electronic exoskeleton’, explains Rich Mahoney, CEO of Seismic. Marketed towards an older audience, it is integrated with sensors that react to the body’s movements, offering extended muscle power to the wearer, assisting with actions such as getting up, staying upright or sitting down.

‘Since this initial concept, Seismic has progressed significantly with both the technical development and design,’ adds Mahoney; expect the new-look suits to be on the market later this year.

myseismic.com

3D-Printed Prosthetic Hand, by Refugee Open Ware

Established in 2015, Refugee Open Ware (ROW) aims to encourage innovation in conflict-torn countries, and provide the tools, training and skills to teach displaced people how to digitally fabricate the things they need. One of its many endeavours is to invest in businesses that 3D-print prosthetic limbs cheaply and effectively.

This model is a replica of a prosthetic hand co-designed with a six-year-old Yemeni refugee, who was badly burned in a house fire. ‘Prosthetic devices are highly personal. Additive manufacturing simply allows a new medium for the creator to expand the intimate relationship between user and device,’ explains Adam Arabian, associate professor of engineering at Seattle Pacific University, who worked on the design. ‘This object represents the ability of a global community to convene and solve challenging – and often very unique – problems.’

After extensive interviews with the child, the ROW team 3D-printed a prosthetic hand in ABS plastic, customising a Flexy-Hand by British mechanical design specialist Gyrobot with branding from the child’s favourite television show.

row3d.org

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

INFORMATION
‘The Future Starts Here’ is on view from 12 May - 4 November. For more information, visit the Victoria & Albert Museum website

ADDRESS

Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, Knightsbridge
London SW7 2RL

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On top of the deluge of technology launches at Salone del Mobile this year, April has been showered in beautifully designed, functional gadgets. Here’s some of our favourites.

Master & Dynamic cables

Master & Dynamic has long touted the timeless nature of its headphones, from their high-end leathers to their durable metals. It must have balked, then, when Apple and Google changed the game by allowing the headphone jack to drift into technology’s overfilled attic, (alongside cassettes, Walkmans and catch-up TV), forcing emphasis onto wireless Bluetooth headphones, and rendering your favourite M&Ds incompatible. With the launch of the brand’s new Digital Accessories branch, M&D is going the extra mile to ensure that its original offerings live far into the future.

The Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable consists of a 1.2 m cord with a 3.5mm plug on one end and a Lightning connector on the other. These cables can replace the standard 3.5mm to 3.5mm cables included with the headphones, allowing them to be used without requiring a separate headphone jack to Lightning adapter. As well as solving a genuinely frustrating problem, the cables look better than most too, encased in heavy-duty woven fabric.

‘As the technology around us changes, we’re working to ensure that the Master & Dynamic products you know and love can be a part of your everyday life for decades to come,’ explains Master & Dynamic’s founder and CEO Jonathan Levine. The argument? Yes, you’re paying a premium for that Master & Dynamic branding and design, but you're also paying for the longevity that comes with it. We’re sold.

IKEA speakers

Ikea made its first foray into the smart home in 2015 with smart chargers, expanding its repertoire with smart lighting last year. Now its edged into audio with its first Bluetooth speakers: large, minimalist boxes that slot neatly into existing Ikea shelving systems.

The Eneby 20 and 30 embody the benefits (and pitfalls) associated with the Swedish furniture giant. They’re not the speakers for sound enthusiasts (and aren’t priced as such) but they are a functional and understated option. Under an industrially-edged handle, a single white dial controls sound, and connecting to Bluetooth is equally as Ikea-simple, though you can always connect to an audio source using a headphone jack, too. As the smart home takes off, the simplicity – and modesty – of these speakers is refreshing. They’ve got all the connectivity and mod-cons you need (for now), with zero fuss.

For those looking for something a little more sophisticated, the Eneby launch follows last year’s announcement that IKEA would be launching a collaborative collection with Sonos in 2019 as part of its Home Smart initiative, which will no doubt see the furniture stalwart upping the complexity and abilities of its smart audio offerings; helping to solidify Ikea’s transformation into a committed smart home force.

Fitbit Versa

This month, Fitbit launched its latest fitness tracker, the Versa; pitching it as ‘the smartwatch for all’. Design-wise, on first impression, little has changed from the already fit-for-purpose Ionic (released last year). Only when you pick it up do you realise where advancements have been made. Certainly the lightest metal smartwatch currently available in the US market, it comes close to being the lightest ever made.

It offers a comfortable design (thanks to a feather-light, anodised aluminum case, that is slightly tapered and angled in its design to fit small or large wrists) and a simplified new dashboard, for easier access to your health and fitness data. Heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts, and automatic sleep monitoring meet smart features like quick replies on Android, wallet-free payments on Fitbit Versa Special Edition, and on-device music – all with 4+ days battery life. It’s a powerful thing for something that weighs, and feels on the wrist, like little more than a bangle.

Nokia Sleep

New (but largely unsurprising) research from Nokia has found that lack of sleep is linked to an increased likelihood of being overweight, being less active and being more likely to have hypertension. Never fear: the hardware veteran has made its first foray into sleep tech (yes, that’s a thing now). Nokia is becoming quite the leader in the connected health revolution, having already launched smart thermometers, weighing scales and other such gadget geekery.

The Wi-Fi enabled sleep sensor, which you place under your mattress, tracks your sleep cycles, heart rate and can even detect snoring, providing you with detailed insights into sleep patterns, all while you’re dreaming away.

Dyson Air Cool

Continuing the trend for easy data access, Dyson has launched its first air purifier with an LCD screen, to let you know what pollutants are flying round – and settling – in your home.

It’s a lot of information on a tiny screen. But, as a species, aren’t we getting used to reading these miniature LCD offerings? And one suspects it isn’t something you would monitor daily, but instead take a cursory glance at every once in a while – perhaps after a particularly heavy traffic jam outside your city-centre studio.

Love it or hate it, beautifully designed gadgetry is booming. Tech titans like Apple, Yves Béhar and Google – which is making its Salone del Mobile debut with a much anticipated experiential installation this year – have become expert at packing terrifyingly complex software into elegant, familiar cases. Recall our commentary on the epic battle of the butler bots, where AI aliens sneak into the living room concealed in stylish shells, blinking their red lights cutely, or our dissection of new school products encased in comfortingly retro frameworks.

Here’s five of our favourite hardware hard-hitters that soften the blow for technophobes with mantelpiece-worthy contemporary design...

Ego

When we first received this mysterious, alienigenate package from the far-reaches of Italy, it got the Wallpaper* office intrigued – and confused. Rising on a pulley system from an aeroplane-like black box, a smooth black egg appears from the dark; entirely markless, buttonless and beautiful. Initially, we weren’t sure what this bizarre gizmo actually is, or does. Only after taking it home and tinkering with it (hours of fun) and translating the Italian handbook (less so), did we discover it’s a data storage device. Oh.

But anti-climax this is not. Ego is an exciting new concept of personalised, wireless, private memory, designed to protect the inviolability of your information. Under the steam of its own Wi-Fi this egg will scramble your data (excuse the pun) using personalised encryption so powerful and newfangled we couldn’t possibly tell you how it works. Cambridge Analytica watch out. 

Bad eggs aside, Ego is finely crafted, expensively weighty, and a talking point, available at the Wallpaper*STORE. Put it on the mantelpiece and watch visitors raise a question – and an eyebrow.

MaximusPro, by Map and KPIT

Something else from the left field: a tiny sat nav you never knew you wanted. Design studio Map has collaborated with KPIT – a leading global technology company from India – to create the world’s first connected motorcycle navigation device, MaximusPro, designed specifically for touring on two-wheels.

This paperweight-sized, handlebar-mounted device, which connects to a smartphone, displays the direction and distance to your destination, without prescribing a specific route. Designed specifically for India, its makers conducted a deep ethnographic study of the country’s bike culture (including surveys and road trips) to discover that motorcycle tourists chose to ride for the journey, not the destination. But India’s roads are tricky to navigate, and conditions are often difficult and varied. So Maximus Pro is built to withstand pretty much whatever the rider throws at it, with a minimal design so as not to distract them from the road.

Powerbank stone, by Wood’d

Designed to resemble a pebble, and available at the Wallpaper*STORE, Wood’d’s portable powerbank supplies enough energy to give even the busiest of smartphone’s a full charge. Deceptively, the 5200 mAh powerbank (pictured) is carved from lightweight wood and charges via a concealed USB cable port on its slim base.

Simple, elegant, practical – this is more than a charger: its a symbol of high quality, well-crafted design’s ability to seamlessly connect with the kind of contemporary technologies we can’t escape. ‘Our aim is to improve the relationship we have with the daily goods we keep carrying, sure of the impact that a well manufactured and design product can have in our lives,’ explains the family-run Italian brand. It'll be a must have for busy folks with bursting bags during Salone and Fashion Week, as it’s super lightweight and compact, as well as being a stylish objet d’art.

Ruark

Another family-run business, British brand Ruark has been making stylish speakers since the Eighties – but its a late pretender to the crowded connected tech showroom. This April, it has launched its first ever connected wireless speaker, the Ruark MRx.

It has everything you’ve come to expect from your connected speaker: multi-room, network music and Internet radio, USB playback and charge port, Spotify Connect, Deezer and TIDAL connectivity. But what’s especially pleasing to see, while adding all the mod con must-haves, Ruark has retained its unmistakable visual and audio identity. Rich walnut and soft grey finishes will complement any existing Ruark speaker you might already own (the MRx connects to the existing R2 or R7 models, great for a multi-room, annoy-the-neighbours effect). And its quirky, on-centre button makes it stand out from the tiresome tapestry of existing fabric speaker models on the market.

Contactless watches from bPay

bPay, Barclays’ wearable payments technology solution, announced at this year’s Baselworld that it was partnering with seven watch brands (including Guess, Timex, Mondaine and Kronaby) to embed wearable payments in traditional timepieces and fitness trackers, as consumer demand for this technology breaks the bank. Spending via bPay’s payment chip jumped 129 per cent year-on-year in 2017.

Like the now ubiquitous contactless payment cards, and smartphone payment services like ApplePay, watch brands have been increasingly keen to get their hands on the tech. ‘This is where fashion meets lifestyle functionality,’ says Paul Martin, managing director of Sequel UK Guess Watches.

Function follows form here – the tiny, flexible microchip will be invisible, tucked inside the watch itself, or its strap (depending on the brand). The aesthetic of the watch stays the same, but the chip allows the wearer to pay in seconds with just a swipe of the wrist. As Adam Herson of Barclays Mobile Payments adds, ‘Our game-changing, flexible bPay chip means we can transform any traditional timepiece into a smart device – without sacrificing style.’

Geneva used to be a place for imagining wondrous and not-so-real motor cars. The annual motor show was a stage for fictional products and fantastical scenarios. Nowadays realism appears to have taken hold. Most show cars are previewed under embargo weeks in advance; some are intentionally leaked leaving little room for suspense. Walking the soulless Palexpo halls, the setup feels a touch archaic – as if echoing the traditional combustion engine that still powers most of these cars. Maybe it is time to rethink the motor show model.

This is not to say all the products displayed here are to be dismissed. This year’s motor show sends a clear message that electric driving in all forms and shapes, from entry to supercar level, is a reality and it is imminent. It is also refreshing to see a confidence in the design of these sustainable products with some carmakers showing an intellectual, measured approach – finding interesting, visually compelling solutions to help direct an industry tentatively navigating its way to a new era of mobility. This alone makes Geneva worthy of the trip.

Tesla agitated traditional carmakers when Elon Musk showed the possibilities of electric technology – his cars refuse to compromise on design or performance, altering the landscape of electric cars. Now Jaguar’s I-Pace sets out to continue this dialogue. This is the marque’s first pure electric product. It is also an attractive, practical, performance car. It will certainly challenge the publics’ image of electrification.

Check out the seven best concept cars from Geneva Motor Show 2018 here – expect flying vehicals and AI masterpieces...

Speaking with Jaguar’s creative director Ian Callum at the show, while the company will continue with combustion engine cars, he feels there is an opportunity to ‘take a ground on this and become an electric car company,’ he says. ‘With I-Pace, we have made a stance and a declaration, and we should continue on this.’

The performance electric car genre was explored elsewhere too. Porsche showed its intentions with Mission E Cross Turismo while sister company Audi’s E-Tron Prototype is a fully-functioning performance electric car, and Volkswagen’s Vizzion concept joins the progressive I.D. electric car range.

Motor show halls are always a clash of the brutal and aesthetic. The selection of extreme sports cars on display this year didn’t disappoint either. McLaren revealed the Senna GTR concept as the most powerful machine from Woking this side of a Formula One, Ferrari displayed the powerful 488 Pista, and Lamborghini a rather fierce looking Huracán Spyder.

At the adjoining Bentley stand, the Bentayga Hybrid SUV was on display alongside Phillippe Starck’s home battery charging dock. While the Rolls-Royce pavilion performed as a testimony to the marque’s unparalleled bespoke skills with yet more highly-crafted customised products on display. We were particularly drawn to a commissioned Phantom with a textile sculpture by London designer Helen Amy Murray for the interior ‘gallery’, and the Spirit of Ecstasy clad in rose gold.

Here’s our choice of the best in-production and near-production cars…

BMW Concept M8

Ahead of the debuts of the production 8-Series coupé and convertible later in the summer, BMW used the occasion of Geneva to present the exotic Concept M8 Gran Coupé, a performance saloon study car with the fashionable coupé styling, long wheelbase and short overhang. The yellow lights are a tribute to Le Mans. Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group creative director says Concept M8 Gran Coupé ‘embodies the next stage of our vehicle design language.’ It also previews a later, four-door version of the 8 Series due in 2019.

Jaguar I-Pace

Jaguar’s first pure electric vehicle explores a more sustainable design theme for the marque. The I-Pace proportions reflect the battery-electric technology powering the car for this cab-forward profile instead of the typical long Jaguar bonnet. Much of the design is dictated by aerodynamics to achieve a drag coefficient of just 0.29. The low bonnet is therefore curved in a way that allows air to flow seamlessly across; there is a sweeping roofline and squared-off blunt rear, while flush door handles help direct air away from the volume of the car. ‘The electric powertrain offered us unprecedented design freedom,’ says design director Ian Callum. ‘We have produced a concept car for the road.’

The face takes on a more conventional turn to continue the contemporary Jaguar theme. The grille design maximises airflow through the integral bonnet scoop and over the windscreen onto the roofline to reduce drag. Airflow for battery cooling and the climate control system passes through the grille and active vanes in apertures in the front bumper, which open when required. Inside the car, the TFT digital display is joined by a couple of tactile rotary controls to feel more like a fighter-jet cockpit.

The I-Pace is powered by a 90kWh lithium-ion battery promising a range of almost 300 miles, while the combination of all-wheel drive, 400ps and 696Nm of instantaneous torque gives this clean performance car impressive acceleration, reaching zero to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds and with 80 per cent charging promised in just 40 minutes.

Callum says on the next e-project he would be more confident, revealing, ‘the next generation of this car will be a bit more rakish, a bit more radical.’ On sale now, from £63,000.

Lexus UX Urban

Lexus is firmly aiming for younger buyers with the latest UX. Designed for urbanites seeking easy manoeuvrability in the city, this compact crossover is the smallest vehicle in the expanding SUV family, sitting below the NX. It continues the current Lexus design theme including evolving the distinctive spindle grille with a block-shape mesh pattern. The cabin is spacious and airy with the upper deck of the instrument panel appearing to be extending out and beyond the windshield, and an optional material trim inspired by washi paper. A UX 250h hybrid model will also be available, pairing the same 2.0-litre engine as the normal model with battery power. On sale from 2019.

Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo

The pure-electric Mission E Cross Turismo concept study car joins the upcoming Mission E saloon in Porsche’s anticipated electric car family. It has four doors and four seats; the low-cut front bonnet visually relates to the 911, while overall package is inspired by the compact Macan crossover. Elements are translated from the Mission E saloon including the distinctive headlamps with four-spot LED daytime running lights, vents and body creases.

Like the E saloon, the car uses two permanent magnet synchronous motors offering some 600 horsepower, zero to 62 mph in less than 3.5 seconds, and a battery range of around 250 miles. Porsche is gauging public opinion with this ecological crossover saying the car ‘presents a picture as to what a Turismo model with features of a crossover utility vehicle could look in series production’.

McLaren Senna GTR

Following the announcement of the Senna supercar in the Ultimate Series, McLaren Automotive has revealed the Senna GTR concept at Geneva. This offers an extreme take on the road car to be the fastest non-Formula One machine created by the marque. For the GTR, the Senna’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 has been reworked so it now produces some 814 horsepower – up from the standard car’s 789. McLaren describes the drive as ‘race-style transmission’.

Ferrari 488 Pista

The track-focused 488 Pista mid-engine supercar is based on the marque’s standard 488 GTB with some modification and re-sculpting to improve aerodynamics and speed. This includes a new bonnet and front splitter, a large air intake sculpted into the bonnet to help air flow and at the rear the car is fitted with a large carbon-fibre diffuser.

This is one of Ferrari’s fastest road cars – power on the 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 of the standard 488 has been boosted from 661 to 710 horsepower which, alongside some weight reduction, means this supercar can go from zero to 62mph in just 2.8 seconds while achieving a top speed of 211mph. On sale now, from £204,000

Range Rover SV Coupé

The Range Rover SV Coupé is the latest product to emerge from Jaguar Land Rover’s bespoke Special Vehicle Operations department in Warwickshire. Based on the Range Rover but with two doors and a swooping coupé roofline car, the SV further explores the marque’s interior craft skills offering novel materials within the automotive world, including bespoke tailored fabrics from Kvadrat.

‘SV allows you to amplify things,’ says Gerry McGovern, creative director at Land Rover. ‘This SV Coupé is very exclusive and very rare. Our Range Rover customers want to put their twist on their cars, although in this case most have opted for our curated design choice.’

Made in limited 999 numbers, the Range Rover SV Coupé celebrates the marque’s 70th anniversary year. It follows another limited-edition special project the Defender Works V8, unveiled earlier this month. Order books are open now, from £230,000.

Hyundai Kona Electric

Hyundai and Kia are offering electric versions of their popular SUVs in the form of this Kona Electric and the Niro Electric – both made in limited numbers to gauge the electric market. Debuting at Geneva the redesigned Santa Fe, the Kona Electric will be available in two versions with ranges of 186 miles or 292 miles per charge. The short-range teams a 39.2 kWh lithium-ion battery pack with an electric motor for 132 horsepower, while the more powerful has a 64.0 kWh battery pack, and makes 201 horsepower with both models promising 291 lbft of torque. On sale July 2018, from £30,000.

BMW X4

By 2020, BMW would like to be the world’s leading premium marque. This was the message delivered at the Geneva Motor Show with the company promising some 20 new and revised models by then starting with the X4, then the X2 and all-new X7 as well as extending the progressive electric i range to include the i4. Categorised as a sports activity vehicle – for it is a hybrid of coupé design with SUV promises – this second-generation X4 production car follows a similar design theme as the smaller X3. ‘We are going to make our design more distinct and focused,’ explains creative brand director Adrian van Hooydonk, ‘to offer clean modern exterior design with slim wide tail-lamps.’ On sale July 2018, from £41,000.

Audi A6

This is the upcoming A6 production car, on show at the Audi pavilion in Geneva alongside the pure-electric E-Tron crossover prototype. This is the executive saloon’s first re-design in six years and it follows the theme set out by the A8 and A7 Sportback to be polished and technical – the grille extending in width and height to take up a good portion of the car's fascia, while the LED tail lights extend the width of the car. All cars come with mild hybrid engines. Audi will reveal full details of the much-anticipated E-Tron in August. On sale June 2018, from £35,000.

Volvo V60

Volvo shared the allocated Geneva pavilion space with Polestar, the marque’s new electric sub-brand – one side designed in classic Scandinavian light natural wood, the other clean, dark and technical exhibiting the brand’s sole model the Polestar 1 hybrid making its European debut here. Volvo’s main exhibit was V60 estate, a roomier, high-tech premium redesign of the previous model. The petrol and diesel options will be joined later in the year by the T6 and T8 plug-in hybrid engines. On sale September 2018, from £31,000.

RM 11-03 McLaren

McLaren Automotive used the occasion of Geneva to reveal the RM 11-03 McLaren automatic flyback chronograph. This advanced technological watch has been created in collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille as part of a ten-year relationship between the two companies. Elements on the watch observe some of the styling cues found on the exterior and interior of McLaren cars, while the highly technical and lightweight materials used to build this wristwatch, including carbon-fibre, are reflective of what constructs the high-performance super cars. Only 500 are planned with first refusal given to the 500 McLaren Senna owners. On sale now, from £137,000.

INFORMATION

The Geneva Motor Show 2018 runs from 8 March – 18 March 2018. For more information, visit the website

The Ethiopian-born model Liya Kebede is not only an enduring force in the fashion industry, but also one to reckon with in the philanthropic world. As founder and creative director of Lemlem, which collaborates with African weavers to create fashion and home goods, Kebede has been championing traditional craftsmanship since 2007, while helping to expand production and employment within these communities.

‘One of the reasons I started Lemlem [was] to debunk the misconceptions that a lot of people have about Africa and its poverty. I wanted to show [them] the beauty of our artisans and the work that they do,’ she explains. ‘I had just returned from Ethiopia, where the weavers were struggling to find new customers for their handwoven pieces. Lemlem was my solution. It was a way to help create new opportunities that preserved and celebrated their craftsmanship.’

Over the last decade, Lemlem (which means ‘to bloom’ in Amharic) has employed over 250 artisans in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Madagascar. Salaries have increased fivefold and, thanks to the label’s philanthropic offshoot, the Lemlem Foundation, five per cent of its direct sales go towards supporting the economic empowerment of women and improving maternal health, which is still a prominent area of concern.

‘From the start, our mission has been to help break down obstacles that women face in Africa. It’s the riskiest place in the world to give birth, largely because of a severe shortage of skilled health workers,’ Kebede says. ‘Since we began, my foundation has been fighting to change this by supporting efforts to train and place midwives in areas where mothers need them most.’

‘Alongside better health, we’ve also seen what it can mean for the entire family when women have good job opportunities and can earn a steady income. We’re working on a new artisan training initiative with our atelier in Ethiopia to help women obtain job skills and connect to apprenticeships in the textile industry,’ she continues.

The Lemlem Foundation has been a committed supporter of Amref Health Africa, which trains midwives in order to dramatically reduce maternal mortality in six countries. Its past accomplishments also include training and equipping the maternity wards at two district hospitals in Ethiopia, and improving family planning and maternal health education among teenage girls.

None of this would really be possible without the legitimate appeal of the label, the effortless, wearable style of which compliments the simple yet exquisite workmanship evident in the garments – mostly based on the gauzy white cotton native to Kebede’s Ethiopia.

And despite being highly involved with both the label and foundation, Kebede is still one of the most in-demand models in the industry. ‘I usually get involved in projects when there is something that inspires me,’ she divulges. ‘This could be a wonderful creative team, or a really cool idea or a great brand I would like to associate myself with, and whom I can work with to include my charitable efforts.’

Kebede revealed a similar clarity when judging this year’s award nominees – particularly in the fashion categories, since she appeared in most of the contending runway shows. ‘All the nominated designers are people I admire a lot, so yes it was definitely challenging! I tried to see the impact they are having at the moment and went with that as a guiding principle.’

A perpetual traveller, Kebede particularly enjoyed judging the Best New Hotel category. ‘Where you stay has such an impact on your trip and each nominee in that category had such incredible spaces,’ she enthuses. ‘It made for a hard choice.’ Of the winner, Lisbon’s Santa Clara 1728, she admired ‘the clean, modern interiors within the ancient walls – it was a really interesting juxtaposition’.

It’s no surprise that the ‘Dot’ braille smartwatch, this year’s Life-Enhancer of the Year, got Kebede’s vote, too. ‘It’s just such a smart innovation that will really help a lot of people,’ she puts, plain and simple.

A version of this article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*227)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Lemlem website

We are slowly starting to understand that the launch of the iPhone was a once in a generation – at least – event and not just one big step in an endless procession of upending innovations. The iPhone X, marking the device’s first decade, is being sold as its most strident evolutionary leap. The X is all-screen – a 5.8 inch Super Retina display – with a glass back for wireless charging and face recognition security. What that means is a lot more high-quality real estate in the same space.

Give the hoopla around the launch of Apple’s iPhone X (available for pre-order from tomorrow, with a 3 November release date), the arrival of iPhone 8 seems like an afterthought, a necessary stopgap. In fact, if you go go for the plus-sized model anyway, the 8 packs in much of the X’s good stuff, including the glass and aluminium case, the Retina HD display, the super speedy A11 bionic chip and up-dated dual camera featuring the rather stunning, at least in natural light, Portrait Lighting mode.

Photography has been a key driver of the iPhone’s success but Apple is clearly betting big on augmented reality as the next big thing in the app universe, potentially revolutionising gaming, mobile retail, mapping as well educational and training apps. And the 8 is primed and ready as launch pad for AR app developers.

Clearly the Plus is as now as plus-sized is as an iPhone is likely to go. The (non-plussed) X offers a screen almost as big. In that sense the 8 Plus is the end of the road but, in every other sense, it heralds the iPhone’s next leap forward.

The third version of Apple Watch meanwhile answers all the major criticisms of the original. While version two added GPS, an essential for any serious sportswatch, V3 adds cellular connectivity, contract allowing. Which means you can now leave your iPhone at home and it will not only know where you are going and how quickly but also alert you to calls, messages and e-mails and even allow you to stream music and listen to it through Bluetooth headphones.

The smart thing is they have managed to pack all that extra functionality into a watch that is only slightly portlier than Series 1. The challenge now is to do things with Apple Watch, initially through software updates and smart work with app developers, that doesn’t just answer the critics but energises and surprises.

INFORMATION

The iPhone X is available for pre-order from 27 October. For more information, visit the Apple website

Streaming live from California to a warehouse location in east London, Googlers wearing t-shirts branded with the hashtag 'MadeByGoogle' vibrate around an excited crowd of tech-types, delivering a limitless supply of goji berry smoothies in jam jars. The scene is set perfectly for a much anticipated, undisclosed product launch.

Google has been threatening to preview its new iPhone-challenging smartphone for some time, so when 'Pixel' is unveiled in all its understated glory, it doesn't come as much of a surprise to the tech disciples in the audience. What is surprising – and mightily impressive – is that the launches keep on coming, with five further interconnected gadgets being unveiled, as Google confidently repositions itself as a hardware hardballer. To what extent this powerful Google gadget onslaught will upset the technology cart remains to be seen.

Here, we round up the highlights from the launch event...

Pixel
Pixel comes in two sizes, 5" or 5.5”, and is available in the three colours – 'Quite Black', 'Very Silver' and 'Really Blue', (tongue firmly placed in cheek). Key selling points include a 12.3 megapixel camera, which has been rated independently by DxoMark Mobile as the best smartphone camera ever created. Pixel also promises up to seven hours of battery life with just 15 minutes charging time, and a one-tap video app called 'Duo' that seamlessly works across Android and iOS. A catalogue of impressive stylistic features is concluded by the built in 'help desk' tool, that allows real time 24/7 access to a Google adviser – though one does wonder if this is anticipating technological difficulties before the product has even hit the shelves.

Google Assistant
Ask it questions. Tell it to do things. This piece of artificial intelligence underpins all of the new product launches, and the Google team describe it as 'your own personal Google – a Google for your world'. Simply say 'Ok Google', and the assistant whirs into life, voicing data from your Calendar, Gmail, Search, Photos, Maps and pretty much anything else you program it to. Again, interconnectivity becomes the crux: the more invested in Google’s existing products and services you are, the more powerful Assistant becomes. It integrates with the Google Photos service, for example, so you can ask things like 'Show me my photos of trees from last autumn', and before you know it, leaves are falling on your Google Chromecast TV screen.

Daydream View
This comfortable, fabric-covered headset with controller proposes high quality, immersive virtual reality – and at £79, comes in at around £600 cheaper than rival brands. Granted, puchase of Pixel is also necessary as the two things (in typical Google form) rely on their interconnectivity; in this case, the phone slips into a section at the front of the goggles. But connection is this headset's key strength. Daydream View promises the ability to dive headfirst into VR-enabled YouTube videos, as well as Google Earth Street View. The addition of an intuitive controller that uses sophisticated sensors and smart software, makes interacting with the virtual world more akin to reality than ever. When you play games and use apps, you’ll be able to swing, point and wave it like a wand. As Sabrina Ellis, Google's vice president of product management, says, 'Let's face it, who doesn't want to be a wizard?'

Google Home
The Google Assistant works across devices, including Google Home – a smartly designed speaker, delivering cool highs and warm bass for hi-fi sound that streams over WiFi. With one intended to be positioned in every room of the house, there's no need for buttons on this streamlined, elegantly simplistic surface. Instead, voice control is supposed to be the primary interaction method. Dimming the lights, playing a YouTube video, pausing Netflix, or entering your 3D virtual reality world; with this device (along with the others in your Google gadget grab-bag), the home is transformed into a connected, whirring technology hub, powered and engineered by a humble search engine.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the MadeByGoogle website

Hi-tech sportswear generally makes a number of simple promises, usually concentrating on the during of what you do rather than the before or after. New London-based adventure clothing brand Vollebak takes a more experimental, tangential approach to performance enhancement. Founded by twins Steve and Nick Tidball, former creative directors at TBWA who run ultramarathons in the Namib Desert in their spare time, Vollebak launched late last year after years of tests with two jackets, ‘Baker Miller Pink’ and ‘Condition Black’.

‘The Special forces, space exploration, neuroscience, conceptual art, philosophy and material technology were all influences on product development,’ says Steve Tidball. The Condition Black jacket is designed to take almost any eventuality and keep you alive. For example, an outer surface of super-thin ceramic panels means it can survive a skid up to 120kph on any surface. The Baker Miller Pink Hoodie, with its mesh visor and asymmetrical sling pockets, is designed to ease pre-event tension and promote post-event recovery, or ‘enhance your parasympathetic nervous system,’ says Tidball.

Both come with downloadable soundtracks: the hoodie with a relaxing half hour of pink noise, while the jacket soundtrack is more clamour and cacophony, designed to increase your capacity to deal with pure terror.

INFORMATION

Baker Miller Pink, £220; Condition Black, £750. For more information, visit Vollebak’s website

Photography: Andy Pò

Take high-performance technology, pair with British-made sophisticated design and heat to your heart’s desire. Rana Nakhal Solset, founder of Emel + Aris, did just that – and the heated ‘Smart Coat’ was born. The first of its kind, the jacket transforms wearable technology into intelligent clothing that adapts to your ever-changing environment.

Emel + Aris’s coats are revolutionary from the inside out. To create heat, a specially formulated lightweight polymer is used that sits within the coat’s lining. This produces far infrared heat energy, quickly absorbed by the skin to warm up the wearer’s muscles and increase blood flow. The polymer is inert and the infrared rays are 100 per cent undamaging so getting warm is as safe as it is satisfying.

A bespoke, compact battery powers the jacket, connected by a short cable and hidden within a waterproof pocket. It features a USB port to refuel your phone so you can stay connected as you stay warm. Because the jacket heats through panels on the chest, waist and lower back, there are no hot spots and with no wires, short-circuiting or overheating; wearers can move normally while embracing every season. Three levels of heating – 1 (low), 2 (medium) and 3 (high) – allow for easy temperature regulation at the touch of a button.

Crafted entirely in Europe, the neutral-coloured garments feature Italian Loro Piana fabrics and ‘Storm System’, a double barrier, breathable repellent that protects wearers from the elements.

Emel + Aris will be debuting four versions of the coat: two tailored, sleek styles for men and two elegant, wrap styles for women. The lighter, cotton version flexes effortlessly in variable weather, while the heavier wool and cashmere version is ideal for autumn and winter.

Easily adjustable to fit your lifestyle, ‘Smart Coat’ rewrites the rules on clothing expectations.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Emel + Aris’ website

Coats offered on Kickstarter from 11–13 March: women’s trench, £450; men’s raincoat, £595; women’s wrap, £595; men’s overcoat, £650. Also a available as a Kickstarter exclusive is a 100 per cent cashmere version of the wrap or overcoat for £2,500.

From autumn: women’s trench, £1,095; men’s raincoat, £1,295; women’s wrap, £1,295; men’s overcoat, £1,395

TAG Heuer thinks it has the answer for those looking to sample the new world of wearable computing without giving up their analogue pleasures. The Connected Watch melds Swiss engineering and style with quality materials, contemporary technology and, most importantly of all for the uncertain, there’s option of exchanging it for a Swiss made Carrera watch at the end of the two-year warranty period.

For the most part, the Swiss watch industry has been lagging behind in the burgeoning smart watch market, evoked unwanted memories of when the country stumbled at the end of the 80s, steamrollered by the Japanese dominance of affordable quartz watches and the sudden explosion in demand for the new cutting edge digital watches. Back then, Swatch stepped in to save the day but so far there has been no digital equivalent.

There’s certainly a distinct void in the middle ground. While small-scale bespoke manufacturers are springing up to provide conventional analogue watches with an emphasis on design and distinction (Uniform Wares, Paulin or Tsovet spring to mind, amongst others), there’s a tech-focused hole in the market that Apple, Samsung and others are rushing to fill, with even high end versions finding willing buyers.

The fight back has begun. Breitling and Frederique Constant have added connectivity to conventional watches and Gucci is readying its Smartband. However, TAG’s new offering is the first true Samsung Gear and Apple Watch rival. The TAG Heuer Connected Watch with Intel Inside (to give it its full title) is an Android Wear device that makes explicit links to TAG’s 150 year heritage. Conventional smart watches struggle in the absence of any true watch-making heritage, and the plethora of tastelessly fancy watch faces available to download would make any true horologist blanche.

TAG has an instantly recognisable aesthetic, so it makes sense to stay with tradition. The Connected Watch has three familiar faces; the chronograph dial, the 3-hand dial and the GMT dial. Crucially, the Connected Watch is ‘always on’ – with hands and selected information staying illuminated at all times. Upgrades and apps – this is an Android device, remember – are supplied via a dedicated TAG website, while the case and strap are lavished with an attention to detail that shows up functional simplicity of its rivals. The company is certainly hoping a new generation of buyers will hedge their bets and switch. 

INFORMATION

TAG Heuer Connected Watch, £1,100, website

When we first road-tested the Apple Watch in Milan earlier this year, it seemed the brand had – almost impossibly – outdone itself. But then again, Apple products seem to take a life of their own, growing in extraordinary and unexpected ways with each iteration. From today, Apple devotees in London will see this ethos realised to full effect, where the tech giant has taken over all 24 of Selfridges’ iconic windows with a blossoming floral installation that brings the Apple Watch to life.

Adopting the smartwatch's UI design, the installation is made from flowers ranging from 200mm to 1.8m in height, all featuring a unique configuration of the Apple Watch – including Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition.

The latest instalment follows on in a similar vein from Apple’s previous displays, ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Chromosphere’, at the historic British department store. Conceived to mark the opening of Apple’s store-within-a-store concept at Selfridges in April, the series draws inspiration from the Apple Watch experience by transforming its faces into creative installations.

Here, a range of blooming flowers (including yellow poppies, especially fitting for Selfridges) were photographed in stop-motion, with some flowers requiring more than 24,000 shots over 285 hours. For the windows, all eight variations of flowers have been scaled and hand-painted by artists, the sculpting process as equally painstaking and meticulous as the original photography.

The ambitious installation comprises a remarkable 24 large, 50 medium and 5,525 small flowers, plus 240 slightly larger 'small-plus’ flowers, each created via different methods. For example, the large and medium flowers were crafted from cast resin, while the smaller components were 3D printed.

‘We are thrilled that the flowers of the Apple Watch face have inspired such a beautiful design and to see it come to life in this amazing installation, reflected in all 24 of Selfridges’ historic windows,’ says Paul Deneve, Apple’s vice president of special projects.

Since Selfridges first launched its window displays in 1909 (a recreation of scenes from paintings by Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard), it's the first and only time all of its windows have been dedicated to one product.

Selfridges creative director Linda Hewson adds: ‘Collaborating with Apple on such a large scale creative project continues our well-established tradition of inviting outstanding designers with a unique point of view to curate displays within our stores.’

In many ways, the blooming installation could not be a more fitting tribute to Apple’s game-changing product; from something small, great beauty grows.

ADDRESS

Selfridges
400 Oxford Street
Marylebone
London W1U 1A

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

'The car is the biggest tech gadget,' declared Audi chairman Rupert Stadler at the opening ceremony for CES Asia. This is the first time the leading consumer electronics show has been held in China. Although still substantially smaller than the main event in Las Vegas, it has big ambitions to grow in size, and a clear vision to be the voice of innovation in Asia.

'Shanghai is the city of the future,' followed Gary Shapiro, explaining why, as the president of the Consumer Electronics Association, he chose the country's creative hub to host this inaugural event.

The technology was certainly prominent. The following day we were introduced to a selfie drone and a robotic chef as well as the usual panoply of electric gadgets, wearable tech, personal transporters, bluetooth headphones and curved TV screens, all displayed at the shiny new expo centre in the Pudong district. Yet it was a self-driving concept vehicle from Audi that took centre stage.

The marque chose the occasion to unveil the ultimate piloted car. The semi-autonomous R8 e-tron is a 456bhp supercar powered by electricity and steered by a computer. This is a highly advanced machine that's intended to single-handedly address all our concerns about future mobility - sustainability, connectivity and digitalisation.

The e-tron is a tech gadget like no other. Piloted driving offers a bridge between the present and a future of fully autonomous motoring. When stuck in traffic jams, for example, or with a need to deal with an urgent text, the computer takes over and the car is manoeuvred autonomously so you have time to save your arms , feet and reflexes for the open, twisty road, where the R8 e-tron's dynamic brilliance comes into its own.

At the heart of piloting is Audi's central driver assistance control unit (zFAS), designed to process information from exterior sensors to generate a detailed picture of the vehicle's environment. The new electronics architecture sees the hardware separated from the mechanical side so the electronics, with a typically shorter life cycle, can be frequently updated without the need to invest in updating the entire car. Audi has a lead on the technology, first shown in last year's piloted A7, which we were briefly chauffeured in around Shanghai.

Precarious local driving habits certainly added flavour. Whilst the A7 stayed politely in the middle lane, local cars overtook and undercut without warning at terrifying speeds as our on-board expert explained that Audi is investigating local driving habits to help configure regional driverless cars. Shanghai, he concluded rather nervously, may require a few extra sensors.

The computer will only take control if traffic conditions allow it and on straightforward routes. It will drive up to 60mph after which it alerts the human driver to take control. If this fails, the car will go into emergency mode igniting the hazard lights and slowing down to a halt then notifying relevant rescue services to respond. Thankfully we didn't get to experience this.

The technology is impressive. Google in particular has made great strides in this direction, with Apple reportedly waiting in the wings, yet Audi will be the first car manufacturer to offer a piloted production car when the next generation piloted A8 is unveiled in just two years time.

The company is convinced of the importance of autonomous motoring. In his speech Stadler reminded us that nine out of ten accidents are caused by human error. 'Piloted driving has the potential to make driving safer,' he offered.

Launching the R8 e-tron in China is a testimony to the significance of the country for Audi. China is now its largest single market. It is also a relatively youthful one with the average Audi driver aged 36, compared to the middle-aged demographics in Europe and the US. The needs and wants are therefore completely different in China.

Saad Metz, head of Audi research and development in Asia, says the key here is to localise projects, to find solutions that answer the needs of locals. A centre in Beijing was established two years ago expressly for trend scouting and defining specs for the region.

He says: ’the conditions we face in China are the most challenging from their roads to harsh weather conditions. The traffic in megacities and the multi-story road arrangements call for a complex navigation technology.’ It also means forming strategic regional partnerships with software provides, the likes of Cubic Telecom, Huawei and Baidu - all announced at CES.

’We are experiencing a digital revolution stronger than the industrial revolution. The question is how we shape the digital future,’ says Stadler, before adding, ’and we are ready to take risks.’

Piloted Motoring: Powered by electricity and piloted by a computer, the R8 e-tron concept, launched at CES Asia, is the ultimate piloted car, and a tech gadget like no other. At the heart of the car is the central driver assistance control unit (zFAS) that processes information from exterior sensors to generate a detailed picture of the vehicle's environment...

...The stats are impressive. Two independent electric motors supply power to the rear wheels generating some 456bhp for maximum torque of 679lb ft. It can race from naught to 62mph in just 3.9 seconds topping up a limited 155mph. The lithium-ion battery on-board is 85% larger compared to previous e-tron technology offering more energy and an electric range that has doubled to 450km

Robotic Kitchen: A robot that does your cooking won over visitors as it whipped up a complicated crab bisque dish live on the exhibition stand. Created by UK firm Moley Robotics, the automated kitchen concept features two large robotic arms which construct dishes from an iTunes-style library of recipes...

...The product launched at CES Asia is a collaborative project with Sebastian Conran who designed the cooking utensils, and DYSEGNO and the Yachtline for the futuristic kitchen furniture. Shadow Robot, who work with NASA, built the arms that consist of 20 motors, 24 joints and 129 sensors to mimic the movements of human hands. Moley aims to produce a mass-market consumer version within two years

Gesture Control: Shown for the first time at CES Asia, Golf R Touch concept utilises Volkswagen's latest gesture control technology that uses hand movements in front of the car's infotainment display to interact with your car...

...This includes gestures to open the sunroof, alter the climate control and raise or lower the volume of the stereo. Gesture control technology has obvious benefits of easing driver distraction and de-cluttering the cabin by reducing the number of controls

Selfie Drones: Selfie enthusiasts will love the Cicada, the latest drone to connect to the mobile phone for the perfect snap...

...Developed by drone specialist Elanview Technology, the flying camera is made of lightweight material and can be controlled at a maximum distance of 328ft using your mobile phone or tablet. All you have to do is install the Elanview app

High-tech spoons: The Gyenno Spoon is a clever, if awkward looking, device designed to help people with hand tremors, particularly those with Parkinson's disease. The work of Shenzhen firm Gyenno algorithms automatically the distinction between intentional hand motion and unconscious shaking offsetting some 85% of the tremor...

...The spoon's intelligent high-speed servo control system provides fast and accurate 360-degree stabilisation, and smart technology sends it to sleep once the user has finished eating

Sustainable Life: MyEnergi Lifestyle is a sustainability initiative by Ford in China. The carmaker is joining forces with local appliance manufacturer Haier, solar power company Trina Solar and electric vehicle charging company Delta Electronics to significantly reduce energy costs...

...The pilot programme will run in Shanghai and Beijing to show the impact of energy-saving products by combining renewable energy sources, efficient home appliances and a plug-in vehicle. Ford is aiming to cut household power bills by as much as 60% with this scheme

Apple is previewing Apple Watch at this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan with a one-day view and try-on event.  It's a debut appearance at the world's major design fair for Apple and comes as excitement about the launch of its range of smart watches grows ever more fevered.

The launch takes place on 17 April at Carlo e Camilla in Segheria, which picked up the Best New Restaurant prize in February's Wallpaper* Design Awards issue. For locals, it may prove a tormenting teaser. Apple Watch will be launched in France, the UK and Germany as well as the US, Japan and China on 24 April but no launch date in Italy has been set yet.

Says Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design: 'Salone del Mobile has such a deep-rooted history of embracing excellence in design so I'm particularly excited to celebrate our newest and most personal product, alongside our friends and fellow designers, at this special event.'

Observers are waiting to see if Apple Watch kick-starts stuttering demand for smart watches, just as Apple's iPod, iPhone and iPad did for MP3 players, smart phones and then tablets. It also represents the tech giant's most significant launch since it debuted the iPad five years ago and signals some seismic shifts in strategy, as mentioned in our latest May issue (W*194).

With three collections and almost infinite permutations of strap, size and case material, Apple Watch leaves behind the usual one-style-fits-all approach of past launches. And with an 18-Carat gold version of the Edition model retailing at £13,500, it also marks Apple's first explicit move into the luxury sector (prices start at £299). Price differences in Apple products have traditionally been based on under-the-bonnet boosts in speed and performance rather than the use of luxury materials. There has also been a shift in retail strategy with Apple Watch being launched through high-end concept stores such as Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, Colette in Paris, Maxfield in LA and Corner in Berlin, as well as Apple Stores.

Ive and the Apple design team, with outside help from Marc Newson, have been working on Apple Watch for four years. And the company sees the Salone event as a way of properly introducing it to the international design community (largely loyal and long-term Apple consumers after all).

'Creating beautiful objects, respecting craftsmanship and focusing on a design process that's driven by the deepest care, utility and end use, has been our goal since the beginning,' says Ive. 'With the launch of Apple Watch, that's been more important than ever, to create a product where technology and craft, beauty and utility go hand in hand.'

ADDRESS

Carlo e Camilla in Segheria
Via Guiseppe Meda 24
Milano

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Molami offers a very different take on the standard headphone, mindful that many people would rather enjoy their music without implanting ear buds deep into their ear canal or sporting ludicrously vast cans. Instead, Molami take its cue from fashion and jewellery, infusing the Twine headphones with unusual forms and materials, including silk-satin and chiffon blends.

The speakers themselves are embedded within this elegant - but clearly rather feminine - headband, with adjustable positions to make it perfectly comfortable. The company also makes the Bight in-ear model, which take a similarly geometric - and slightly more unisex - approach to personal audio design.