From Science Fiction to the . . . . Science Fashion Lab®

The Science Fashion Lab® brings together the disciplines of Analytical Chemistry, nanotechnology, perfumery and fashion design to be the pioneers of ‘Scentsory Technology’.™ The project aims to have the first products in the area of electronic nose technology. An example would be clothes and accessories that detect and monitor pollutant chemicals in the air. (Clothes could replace sniffer dogs) This approach would also set the basis for work in the medical diagnostic area.

Other projects to stem from the Science Fashion Lab® include Scentsory wallpaper, which change with your mood. If you were depressed the sensor within the intricate design would release the appropriate aroma and change colour accordingly. It could also help you if you have the first signs of a cold by it releasing lavender or eucalyptus. Your bedclothes could sense you need arousing and release sexy pheromones. A ring on your finger could ‘sniff’ if the oysters are rotten. Bed linen in the nursery could release the scent of a nursing mothers milk to relax a newborn baby or the smell of parents to calm nervous children at school (This process is already available in French Vetinaries where you can find collars which emit the mother dogs pheromones to calm stressful puppies) Clothing could stimulate memories for the elderly by offering an aromatherapeutic massage. Clothes could also 'sniff' at a crime scene by capturing the criminals body odour lingering in the air and later store it in a smell bank. This could eventually replace 'fingerprints'. Everyone has their own individual body odour (apparently more accurate than a fingerprint)

Love is in the air
Much of the research in Smart Second Skin clothing includes work with pheromones. These are ‘Aromatic’ molecules, which smell musky when we are sexually aroused and are found on our skin. Pheromones are chemical messages produced by a member of a species, influencing the physiology and behaviour of another member of the same species. Whether or not this message is consciously detected (smelled) pheromones have the same effect. What triggers a person to behave the way they do? Why are we attracted to certain people?

In this sense the technology used for this project will inevitably enrich our experience of life and human interaction between one another. Sensors in your garments could be programmed to detect someone whose pheromone profile is of interest to you and send them a sample of your own pheromones. Love is literally in the air. This would work by 'matching' your ideal mate by attracting them with your personal pheromones for that seductive moment.

Cinema Scent Symphony
For a fragrant sound effect clothes could play abstract musical aromas and enhance the cinema experience. This allows the wearer to create their own colourful, musical smell melody, by mixing colours and aroma and musical ‘notes’ harmoniously together.

Nanomedicine
Smart Second Skin clothing could deliver a potential platform for drug delivery as an alternative to ventalin inhalers. Such technology would have implications for asthma. The clothes would detect if you were having an attack and release the medication from the micro tubes around your collar towards your mouth. Underwear could ‘smell’ ovulation in women or detect early stages of cancer and diabetes. A jacket collar could monitor (smell) your breath and e-mail the doctor when you are under the weather.