Fashion Vs Technology: Stealth Wear by Adam Harvey

In the age of technology, public surveillance has become a norm in many countries. While surveillance is helpful when it comes to catching criminals, sometimes it can be a breach of privacy. Sensors and hidden cameras may have watched and tracked your every move for the last decade, but have to fear, as Adam Harvey is set to change all that.

A new line of clothing, being dubbed stealth wear, has been introduced by New York based designer Adam Harvey. The garments are specially designed to counter thermal imaging. Another designer Johanna Bloomfield was also a vital part of the project. Harvey claims that through fashion, he would “challenge authoritarian surveillance”. We may not be living in a world controlled by Orwell’s big brother, but it would sure be nice to get our hands on some of the cool merchandise.

For those already planning a shopping trip, the stealth wear line includes:

1. Anti-drone hoodies and anti-drone scarves: These render the wearer invisible to thermal imaging (or at least the parts they cover cannot be detected).
2. XX-shirts: These shirts will protect you from harmful X-rays.
3. Off Pockets: Put your cell phone in this pocket and lose all signals. This is a good way to go off the grid. The cell phone signals cannot even be tracked or intercepted by FBI devices once in the off pocket.

The New York based artists have put the stealth wear on exhibition at Primitive in London. The same artist had worked on a project called CVDazzle, where hair styling and face painting were used as a counter against facial recognition devices. This is not the first time that the paths of Fashion and Technology have collided, in the past artists and designers all over the world have come up with clothing lines that interrupted with surveillance.

So far, there have been no comments about this from any intelligence or security agencies. We are keeping our fingers crossed to see whether stealth wear becomes a success or not, and if it does, what would be the implications on security surveillance? Have the designers read 1984 too many times or is there a war brewing between fashion and technology?

[Image via laptopmag & theatlantic]