Trotman wore the gown last week at the Langham where winners of the AUT University’s Excellence in Business Support Awards were unveiled.

The gown merges the best of conductivity technology with fashion design to produce sustainable wearable technology.

It is equipped with a galvanic response sensor (sits behind the ear) which then communicates the wearers emotions to a collection of LED light on the front of the dress. Its hue changes from purple to aqua blue depending the emotions of the wearer. The dress itself is made of New Zealand merino.

The plan is to fully recycle and refashion the current dress into a new one for the next awards from fiber to LED’s. 

The AUT told Idealog the initial idea is part of current research at Colab, which seeks to engagea advanced materials, digital information-processing technology and new design methodologies to create emotionally intelligent textiles which can express, signal and strengthen notions of identity.

And the smarties behind the creation? Amit Gupta and Donna Cleaveland.

Gupta is a creative designer and technologist with extensive experience in design and product development. Gupta collaborates with electronics engineers, computer scientists and cognitive scientists in his design.

Cleveland is a designer and researcher working in sustainable fashion design, she is currently a PhD candidate with Colab at AUT. She focuses on creating innovative solutions to textile waste in relation to the fashion industry.