clothing

Every morning, each one of us wakes up a ragged mess and eventually, presumably after cleaning up a bit, exits the house dressed in attire that expresses his or her inner feelings.

Don't believe me? It's true; ask a shrink. The way you dress is a window into the subconscious. Of course, it helps if you know how to interpret the data. Sometimes the conscious mind overrules the inner self, so what you get is the opposite of what the person is feeling. It's complicated.

Okay, enough psychobabble. The premise here is that the way you dress matters and it matters in the workplace. Over the course of my career, I've noticed a lot going on with clothes, but nobody talks about it. Case in point, people have been commenting on the way I dress for decades, and I have no idea why.

Way back in 1981 - when I was an engineer designing chips for Texas Instruments - my manager told me I might consider dressing differently if I wanted to get ahead. I was wearing torn overalls at the time. Hey, I was just an engineer ... and it was Texas!

Anyway, he did have a point. Years later I read Dress for Success and began taking this stuff a bit more seriously. When I became a sales executive calling on customers, I began wearing a jacket and tie or a suit.

However, when it comes to really working, i.e. in the office, I'm strictly a blue jeans, untucked shirt, and sneakers or other comfy shoes kind of guy. I guess that's what comforts my neurotic subconscious.

When I worked at microprocessor upstart Cyrix in the mid-90s, Jack Kemp - quarterback turned politician extraordinaire - sat on our board of directors. That didn't entirely make sense to me, but he was a great guy and really fun at dinner parties.… Read more

In an odd way, the fashion industry may be uniquely qualifed to keep pace with consumer technology. Both fields, after all, can change with the wind--and often do.

Ermenegildo Zegna is becoming something of a poster child for that marriage, as shown last year with its iPod jacket and continuing with such innovations like its solar collar. Now, using "smart fabric" made by Eleksen--maker of such crazy stuff as a double-sided fabric keyboard--Zegna has created a coat that employs Bluetooth technology that can be used for mobile phone conversations.

The "iJacket" is a piece … Read more

While people without clothes on dominate a great deal of traffic online, the same can be said about those with clothes--otherwise known as the world of fashion. StyleMob, a new social network for street fashion, is opening up its doors on Thursday. Aimed mostly at female users, the service is a social network about clothes and people who like to show off their outfits. Users can pick who has the most style, and submit their own outfits or fashion inventions for others to rate and comment on. There's also the virtual equivalent of a fashion police with groups of … Read more

Thank goodness for Ermenegildo Zegna. We shudder to think what the convergence of clothing and technology would wreak without some Italian fashion sense.

Zegna, one of the earlier designers to embrace the concept with its iPod jacket, is now incorporating alternative energy into its apparel with its "ZegnaSport Solar JKT," a coat that has a solar panel sewn into its collar. Gizmodo says it can charge a battery in eight hours, but it's the discreet design that we appreciate most.

Why do we care? Because without such aesthetic sensibilities, we might all end up wearing solar fan hats.… Read more

There's now a fairly decent selection of iPod-friendly apparel, but most of it falls under the category of including shirts, jackets and suits--in other words, men's clothing. It was refreshing, therefore, to see some MP3-enabled garments that are decidedly un-male, on the order of mini-skirts, capris and bootleg pants.

In fact, being of the bearded gender ourselves, we're not even sure what bootleg pants are. Chip Chick does, however, and it's found an entire line of colorful "iPod/MP3 apparel" designed specifically for women by Colorado-based clothier Vickerey at a fairly reasonable price … Read more

We thought this LED dress would be the subject of immediate mockery, considering our view on the infamous "Illuminated Handbag" some months back. But those who have far more fashion sense than us apparently think otherwise.

The lighted garment, which will reportedly be available only on the Japanese market later in the year, would apparently be de rigueur for club-wear, as far as Shiny Shiny is concerned. We'll stick to the kind of apparel we know--like solar-powered fan hats.

As far as potential health threats from mobile phones are concerned, the Europeans appear to be way ahead of the rest of the world in taking preventive measures. Perhaps they're just more susceptible to gadget allergies and other digitally related maladies.

A couple of months ago, a French cosmetics company came up with a mist that it claims will shield your delicate epidemermis from any harmful rays emitted by your handset. That's fine, but the Brits are more concerned about particularly sensitive parts of the anatomy, as research by the University of Newscastle has indicated.

So now, Swiss … Read more

Countless apparel items on the market claim to play music, or at least play wearable iPods and such. But this dress tops them all.

The "Yuga," a conceptual frock from designer Teresa Almeida, has a speaker apparently woven right into what's called a detachable "belt," though it looks more like a saddlebag to us. But fear not, fashion mavens: Balance is everything, and this accessory can be offset nicely by a matching handbag for full stereo output. (Remember to carry it on the opposite side for proper acoustics.)

Perhaps a pair of speaker shoes will … Read more

We were sent a T-Equalizer from FlashWear, and it was obvious that this would be a neat shirt to wear out for a wild night at the clubs--if you're into that kind of thing. Since I spend more time at the office than on the dance floor, I figured it made sense to test out the shirt at work! Maybe I should stick to "biz cas."

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