Fashion meets tech on NYC runway

NEW YORK - I wore a Fitbit, a bracelet that monitors steps taken and calories burned, for about a month recently. Still, I never became a fan of the wearable. It was one more thing for me to charge and, after the buzz wore off, keeping up with the endless data was useless.

At least that's what I thought until Saturday afternoon's fashion-meets-technology showcase curated by Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks at Milk Studios in Chelsea. During a 20-minute panel discussion, fashion and technology research expert Sabine Seymour boiled the potential usefulness of wearables down to this:

"It's not calories burned," said Seymour, the CEO of New York-based Moondial. "I want to know how long it's going to take me to look like Angelina Jolie. That is where this technology is going."

Now she had my attention.

The event was a convergence of NBA All-Star Weekend and New York Fashion Week. Anthony and Seymour were joined by Brian Krzanich, Intel's CEO; Mike Bell, Intel's vice president and general manager of new devices; and Stéphane Ashpool, designer of the Paris-based label Pigalle, to explain advances in wearable tech to an audience of fashion insiders. Brent Blum, director of wearable tech at Accenture, moderated the panel.

Anthony, through his venture-capitalist firm, Melo7 Tech Partners, has invested in about a dozen digital media and technology start-ups since its inception last July. Most fashion-tech start-ups fall in the need-seed-money realm.

"It's moving so fast. . . . Wearable technology and sports go hand-in-hand," said Anthony, opening up the discussion,

Technology and fashion have grown together by leaps and bounds during the last five years. The union is so much more than fabric-wicking technology or even bracelets that monitor our heart rates. By wearing clothes that study our individual habits, scientists, the wellness industry, and the world of fashion hope wearable tech can help people live healthier.

In January, for example, Intel announced that it developed a button-sized device called Curie that has in it a Bluetooth low-energy radio, a motion-detector sensor, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope.

Talk about a smart faux fur jacket.

But the challenge right now is twofold. The technology isn't easy to use, it often requires a learning curve, and there isn't immediate satisfaction. I'd be motivated to take deep, full breaths if I knew exactly what these breaths were doing to reduce my potential for high blood pressure.

It's also hard to make it, well, pretty. Scientists aren't really interested in aesthetics and no one wants to wear something that's ugly - especially a room full of fashionistas.

"We need to be able to make things that are functional that reflect the wearer's personality," Krzanich said.

The good news is that technology is clearly driving runway trends as of late. Clean silhouettes, metallics, and an abundance of slate grays were just a handful of the tech-feel inspired looks on the fall 2015 runways. Even Kanye West's Friday afternoon ode to the nude body stocking was decidedly futuristic, despite its weirdness.

Saturday's panel was a keen introduction to the wearables on display in the room. There were seven, in all, including Wristify, a chunky metal bracelet developed by MIT students that monitors and controls body temperature. Athos were skintight Under Amour-esque shirts that track muscle activity during a workout - as in, you might need to do a deeper squat to really work those glutes.

One of the most interesting gadgets on display was Pavlok, a neon and black bracelet designed to help wearers break bad habits such as smoking or spending too much time on Facebook. If you do your bad habit while the bracelet is on you will get an electric shock. And it does hurt.

Yet, I found Skulpt, a smartphone-shaped device that measures muscle, fat, and quality of muscle, the most useful. Say you've been working out for a month and the scale shows you've gained weight. You can affix the device to your arm, leg, or stomach and see how squishy or taut you are. My forearms came in at 89 percent muscle quality and 17.7 percent fat. Not too bad.

Now if only folks at Skulpt can work with a designer to make this body fat-measuring device into a cute little eyelet shirt for spring or a turquoise bracelet I can wear year round. We're probably closer to this reality than we think.