TECHNOLOGY WILL INFLUENCE FASHION.

• Position: Brief Article

While we won't be wearing T-shirts made of titanium in the 21st century, technology will play its part in clothing of the future, predicts Marcy Koontz, an assistant professor in the Department of Clothing, Textiles, and Interior Design, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. The most radical innovations will occur in the area of "clever clothes."

New fabrics will take the lead, and fashion designers will embrace the decorative and functional potential of revolutionary materials. Fashion fabrics with integral anti-perspiring or scent-releasing features will become ordinary. "Technologists will invent more multi-purpose fabrics, accessories, and makeup and extend the range of sensory and audio products to wear. Computer-aided design will provide made-to-measure garments for the mass market."

The fashion world of the recent past will still be recognizable, however. "Youth will be in charge. Pop music, videos, movies, television, and the fashion press will still promote fashion's idols and help to spark the latest fads." There will be more sophisticated "virtual fashion" websites to speed the dissemination of style...