Smart Fashion by Marina Toeters - and Holst Centre

Closed Loop Smart Athleisure Fashion Marina Toeters Holst Centre

By Olga Koltsova

Holst Centre and Marina Toeters from by-wire.net have presented their new smart wearables project based on Holst Centre’s advanced printed sensor technologies – Closed Loop Smart Athleisure Fashion. Athleisure is not the first wearable product created in collaboration with Holst Centre and Toeters – previously there came Showcase of advanced smart garments and Super Smart Shirt.

Closed Loop Smart Athleisure Fashion collection is designed by women and for women. “Smart shirts designed for men do not always provide the same accuracy of sensors on women. However, at present there are not many smart garments for women available in the market”, says Marina Toeters. The new smart Athleisure garments are comfortable in everyday use and are equipped with robust but intangible Holst sensors integrated into a textile. The innovative element of Athleisure wearables is that despite being loaded with technology, they are created along with the principles of conventional, appearance-focused fashion. The fashionability of the on-body sensor clothes is an important step toward fulfilling Marina Toeters’ ambition of making innovative smart garments available at the mass market.

Closed Loop Smart Athleisure Fashion is a tool targeted at women who want to take care of themselves in their daily life. Athleisure garments can be used for fitness tracking or simply for people willing to be more aware of their body functions in order to maintain a more balanced lifestyle and prevent stress-related issues. Athleisure fashion items have a sportswear-oriented design but can be used both for sport or at work.

The athleisure fashion is a closed loop production. It means that when the life of a shirt or of a sensor is over, the item should be returned to the manufacturer for recycling. The sensor will be delaminated from the garment, refurbished and then used again. It looks like the Holst Centre sensor can be re-used like this at least 5 times in different items. The textile part of the garment will be recycled as well. “Most of today’s fast-fashion ends up in a landfill after one and a half year of usage, the loop is too quick,” says Marina Toeters. “With smart garments, we can use the technology longer than the fashionability of the item lasts, by changing the design of the textile part.”

The innovative design of CLSAF and its sustainability has already brought its creators two awards: the collection was selected as Top 3 Next Tex Innovators by Sourcebook and received the High Tex Award of the Munich Fabric Start. Marina Toeters hopes to bring parts of the CLSAF to mass market within a year.