Speculation about future technologies is a staple of internet discussion, but the clothes of the future are seldom included. When I interviewed science fiction author Neal Stephenson recently, he opined that clothing was "pretty highly evolved" already and was unlikely to get any better. I am more optimistic.
A lot of current clothing innovations focus on gimmicks. There is a "Social Escape Dress," which can "emit a cloud of fog when the wearer is feeling stressed." Maybe that is fun, but what economic problem does it solve? And won't it stress the wearer more? I suspect that the more durable clothing innovations will be more practical.
The first major practical problem is that clothes have to be cleaned, a time-consuming and sometimes expensive process. To remedy this problem, imagine a futuristic closet with cleaning and dry-cleaning functions (the materials of the clothes themselves could evolve to make this easier and less dangerous). A wardrobe system that cleans itself would be a big plus for many people. While I don't see this technological advance as imminent, neither do I see it as unreachable.
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