What Will Clothes Look like in 100 Years?

By Tim Aton 

(article published on barterscloset.com)

Do you ever wonder what the future of fashion and style will be? There have been so many ideas about what clothes will look like in 100 years, as seen on tv and written about in science fiction, how do we know which ones will come true? The short answer is we don’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun thinking about it. One thing is for sure, technology is leading us in a new and exciting direction.  With every new innovation, we get closer to turning science fiction into reality. Here are just a few of the things we might be wearing in 2114:

1. Futuristic Fabrics

Cotton, Wool, Nylon and Polyester may soon be things of the past. Fabrics of the future will likely react to your body and environment like never before, imagine a thin fabric you can wear year round because it keeps you cool in the summer and cozy in the winter.

Clothing of the future will most likely be made of materials stronger than anything currently in existence, thin like fabric but strong like armor. Nanobots may be a key part of this. Using nanobots, you could theoretically have one “outfit” that can be programmed into whatever you want to wear. Nanobots are very small robots, so small that they could be the size of a fiber, these “robotic fibers” may link together and could be programed into any article of clothing. For example nanobots could be programmed to take the form of a dress during the day but after work could be transformed into a sweatsuit. These bots may act fluid when worn but become a protective armor when hit with significant impact as well as provide climate control.

Futuristic clothing designs may be downloaded onto your current wardrobe instead of having to buy a new outfit. Imagine if you had just one suit that could be pinstriped, argyle, monochromatic or floral depending on what you programed into it. Companies today are already experimenting will LED clothing deigns.

We can only speculate as to what the future of the apparel industry will be, and hope at the very least future clothes will be able to wash themselves.

2. Smart Accessories

We are at the early stages of smart eyewear development but from what we can tell, pretty soon we won't need to carry around phones or watches, everything we need, will be on our faces.  

Augmented reality based devices are changing the way that we utilize technology. Devices like Google Glass are brining us closer and closer to the next big thing in technology, devices that “are one” with the user with the capacity do to a wide rage of incredible things.

Contact lenses are currently in development that are capable of everything Google glass has to offer and more. These contact lenses will be able to test your blood sugar, heart rate, glucose levels and more. The application of devices like these will benefit humanity as a whole, helping to prevent diseases and keep people healthy. Soon we will be wearing devices on our faces that have more functionality than a modern day computer. Augmented reality will allow us to control it using our eyes, hand motions in a virtual space and perhaps even our thoughts. In a hundred years you will definitely see the use of technology like this in every professional field from medicine to sports.

Watches as we know them are becoming obsolete. With so many other ways to check the time, having a device that does only that is arbitrary. Most people now-a-days just use their cellphone for timekeeping. A device worn on the wrist may still be a style, but it will undoubtedly have functions that exceed that of just a clock. Timex, predicting this trend, has begun to come up with new ways to keep timekeeping trendy, one such device is a nail watch, a clock that is worn on your nail like an extension.

3. New Style

What will the fashion of the future be like?  Will it be similar to Back to the Future, with self tightening Nikes?  Or will it be more like Star Trek, very simple and minimalistic?